November is Diabetes Awareness month. Hear from Georgia, one of our Account Executives at Equiscirpt who has spent the last 24 years caring for someone living with type 1 diabetes, and would like to share her experience in hopes to educate others.
As a mom of a child who was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the young age of 14 months, the distinction between type 1 and type 2
diabetes always mattered to me. My beautiful daughter, Alexa, like many other beautiful children, live with this chronic condition because their pancreas cannot produce any insulin. Juvenile diabetes, also known as type 1 diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that attacks the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin. There is no cure and requires injectable insulin for the rest of their lives. type 2 diabetes, the pancreas produces some insulin but not enough and the body is unable to use it effectively. Type 1 affects about 5-10% of Americans and largely children and adolescents. However, there can be young adults that are diagnosed. Type 2 affects about 90-95% of Americans and is usually developed over time in adult life.
The thinking is that there is one way to treat type1 and a different way to treat type 2 but it is not that simple. That is not true, the spectrum of diabetes management includes insulin, metabolic drugs technology, and exercise. The complications do not discriminate and are present for all people living with diabetes. People would ask about food choices and always sugar and suggest maybe with less sugar we could cure her diabetes. That it was as simple as a food choice and that maybe we as her parents were doing something wrong.
As a mother that always bothered me; and I made it my mission to educate people, help provide access to available resources, and advocate for legislation to increase funding for juvenile diabetes research. I love being a part of the team at Equiscript because we are able to deliver medications and help keep patients adherent and compliant to their diabetes management.
The following resources helped me when I was feeling overwhelmed. They offered me support on my path to healing.
