CC,

you posted as i was typing as well!! Thankyou for your reply, my nan also found problems with her type one diabetes during her pregnancies with my mum and uncles. She is now at the ripe old age of 83 (I think thats good for a diabetic who smoked for 60 years- stopped when she was 76) She is in control of her diabetes through diet and insulin injections, which i believe she does 3 times a day. She is "naughty" tho sometimes and has a thorntons continental chocolate- they are her fave and she says the diabetic ones arent a patch on those!

Once when i was a child my nan was slipping into a diabetic coma and me and my brother had to keep her awake whilst my mum drove me to the hosptial, we kept talking to her and trying to keep her from slipping into coma state and she kept saying alsorts of strange things, iv never seen my mum drive like it since!
When i was little i was scared of getting diabetes, but now i know there is a high percentage that i will get it (4 members of my family have it) so i am sort of expecting it! Diabetes isnt the end of the world!

Hi France,

I have wrote a bit of info down, I hope you are happy with it.

DIABETES
(DIABETES MELLITUS)

Diabetes is a disease of the body. The production of Insulin is either non existent or is severly impaired.

There is two basic type of Diabetes –

Type 1 - The body does not produce Insulin at all.
Type 2 - The body produces some insulin but not
enough or the body does not recognise it

Type 1 usually affects children, the parent’s usually notice weight loss and an increase in thirst, sometimes in baby’s they notice the nappy is a lot wetter than normal. (This is due to the excessive sugar being siphoned out of the blood and into the urine by the kidneys.)

Type 2 Often affects people other the age of 40, however it can start earlier in life, as in type 1 the first thing noticed is either weight loss and thirst, may be tiredness etc.

When a person has diabetes there is too much sugar in the blood, when this happens the body cannot use it to provide energy (the body’s preferred fuel) when this happens the body starts to breakdown the body’s fat and protein (protein being taken from muscles etc), if this is allowed to continue the blood becomes excessively acidic, this is known as Ketoacidosis. This condition can be diagnosed by smelling the breath of someone who has it, there breath will smell of rotten apples or pear drops. If the person ignores all the warning signs (You can insert them here) the person could go into a diabetic coma. Which if not treated quickly could lead to death.

People with type 2 Diabetes can be controlled by either -

Diet alone
Diet and tablets
Insulin injections

Just depending on how severe there diabetes is.

If you need any more help just yell.

Ian

Well I'm the ONLY one in my family, doctors think it was because as a child I had jaundice and mumps at the same time and sadly killed off my insulin supplies.

When my sugars are getting low I say some strange things too, my children laugh about it afterwards, but it's quite frightening for them at the time.

Our children are 16, 14, 12 and 10 and are finger pricked often just to check everything is ok, so far so good!

No, diabetes is definitely not the end of the world, I lead as normal a life as the next person, yes you can have a little cheat, but have to make sure you take extra insulin to compensate, to be honest a little cheat doesn't hurt, even my diabetic doctor told me that! I just have to be careful when I go on long walks or exercise, I usually have a Mars bar in my hand bag (which I hate) or a small squeezie tube of Hypostop, a very thick glucose gel......which is disgusting, but it works very quick!

I've been diabetic 33 years now, never had any problems with my circulation, or eyes, my doctors are amazed at how well I am doing, (touch wood)

Thankyou for your info ian- it was very helpful. I didnt realise how little i knew about diabetes until today. I knew what to lookout for in my nan if she was ill but that was about it! The background to it all is really interesting. Hopefully my boss will be happy with the info i have found.

Jodee,
I have corrected the types to this

There are three types of Diabetes,
Type 1- where an individual is dependent on daily insulin injections.

This also means the body does not produce any insulin at all and the diabetes usually becomes diagnosed in childhood

Type 2- is treated by diet and exercise alone or by diet, exercise and tablets or by diet, exercise and insulin injection

This type of diabetic still produce little ammounts of insulin and need to increase this ammount by taking tablets, in other cases of type 2 diabetics the insulin that is produced does not work correctly so tablets have to be taken to avoid this.

Type 3- This affects brain insulin levels, and appears to be linked with Alzheimer's disease. - this is still being medically proven and is not recognised as widely as the other types.

Oh! I've learnt something tonight - type 3.

Will go and read up on it.

Thanks

Ian

My nan is ALWAYS great for sweets! She keeps them in her hand bag if she gets low and theres always one to nab! (Plus if they arent in her handbag they are by her bed ) She usually has murry mints because she likes to suck them, or foxes mints or humbugs or something like that, she also has a bottle of lucozade by the bed

I've never heard of type 3 either, never been mentioned at any of my diabetic clinics, so I'm off to have a look too!

Me and you both ian i thought me and my boss had made up type 3 just to make explaining things to the others easier! Obviously not..... just got the definition completely wrong

I found some info, but it is a bit to medically minded if you know what I mean.

But it looks interesting what they have found.

Ian

LOL I only know about it because of the possible link to Alzheimers, something I used to come across quite a lot through my previous employment