Diabetes Santa Blog

Since this week begins with Mother’s Day, it’s fitting that the incident my youngest sister, Susan, describes here is just one of the many occasions that those of you who are mothers of type 1 diabetic children face, sometimes when your child is careless, and sometimes when he/she is just a victim of circumstances (an unexpected change in school schedule, for example, or a school bus caught in traffic). No doubt this is a huge stress for you, as it was for our mother. So Mother, if you are looking down on us, know that we realize the tremendous burden this disease was for you and that we appreciate the wonderful impact you had on both our lives.                                                             To all Mothers, “Happy Mothers Day!”                                                Now here is Susan’s description of “the incident”:                                                                                     ________________________

One quiet summer afternoon in 1969, when I was 16 and my big sister was 25 and back home for a visit, Mother was out and the two of us were in the backyard, sitting on a blanket in the sun, playing cards.  Perhaps it was Gin Rummy.  Four times in a row I won, which honestly should have raised a red flag.

Anne was covered in baby oil, trying to tan. She suddenly dropped her hand of cards and rose, saying, “I’m gonna take a nap.”  She walked ahead of me, into the house, into the living room, and still covered in baby oil, lay down on the pale blue sofa.  A thought went through my head.  “That oil’s gonna get her in trouble when Mom gets home!” That was another red flag I missed.

Since it was the middle of a lazy afternoon, and my card partner was lying down for a nap, I went up to my bedroom to nap as well. The next thing I was aware of was my mother’s voice shouting, “Anne, are you kidding?  Anne, are you pretending?  Sue!  Sue!”

As I ran down the stairs, my mother yelled out for me to get the Karo syrup from the cupboard and to call an ambulance.  This was before 9-1-1 existed, but an ambulance was fairly easy to get in our small town. The town’s two funeral parlors each had ambulances, and we lived right across the street from one of them.  In one or two minutes the ambulance arrived outside our front door.  Meanwhile, my mother poured Karo syrup into my sister’s mouth.

When I got to the hospital waiting room, I prayed.  Our family doctor, Dr. Robertson, was considered an excellent physician, so I was hopeful.  Did I feel guilty for not recognizing the warning signs of low blood sugar?  Very!

Anne, who had been sliding into insulin shock when I had been with her, eventually came out of it.  Thank you, God. Thank you.

On the sidewalk, as I walked back home from the hospital in the late afternoon, a thought hit me.  Anne, who was often cranky when her blood-sugar was low, was still my big sister and when she was cranky, it meant she needed me.  Even during those years when I took her for granted, even during those years when she seemed like a bull in a china shop, we were sisters. It was all suddenly huge and crystal clear.

Little did I know that, years later, I would need her and she would be there for me.                                                                                                                                        ________________________________

That ending sentence will no doubt leave my readers begging for more, but for now let me use this incident to educate you about insulins. That incident was the second — and last — time I experienced insulin shock in my sixty years of living with diabetes, and both were due to using long acting insulin, which pools at the injection site in order to go gradually into one’s bloodstream.  But in extremely hot weather, this insulin rushes in faster than expected and becomes dangerous, causing an overdose. Your diabetic sibling probably does not uses this insulin — in fact, most doctors no longer prescribe it, since the insulin pump can achieve the same thing much more safely.

For those of you who have experienced, or might in the future, the fear and guilt that Susan did, chances are your diabetic sibling feels just as bad that he/she put you through such trauma but is afraid to open up your memory of it, and so has not talked to you about it.   Bring it up, for both of your sakes.

Of course all diabetics, myself included, have many experiences with milder versions of low blood sugar, but these more serious incidents still occur, for a variety of reasons, and are an example of why type 1 diabetics desperately need a cure.  The fact that one is presently being tested, Dr. Faustman’s BCG cure, but doesn’t have the pharmaceutical company money to finance it, means that this cure — so close — might never become a reality.

So let’s focus on what we can do to prevent your sibling from having to spend the rest of his/her life as a type 1 diabetic.  We have to get active, doing all we can to raise the funding.  Here are some of the ways:

Raising Funds to Cure Juvenile (i.e., Type 1) Diabetes 

(1) Donations:                                                                                                      Checks should be made payable to:                                                                        ”Massachusetts General Hospital – Faustman Research.”                                   Please include  “Cure Diabetes Now Fund” in the memo line.

Checks should be mailed to:                                                                                   MGH Immunobiology Laboratory                                                                                    Attn:: Dr. Denise Faustman                                                                              Massachusetts General Hospital-East                                                                       Building 149, 13th Street, CNY-3601                                                                     Charlestown, MA 02129

Credit Card or Wire Transfer: See www.faustmanlab.org/support

(1) Raising funds by organizing an event;

Please see suggestions sent in for the list at the end of the April 21st blog entry,  the first of the “To Siblings” entries.                                                                  Also see the Faustman Lab web site’s support page: www.faustmanlab.org/support

Upcoming Fundraising Events Already Scheduled: 

Tuesday, July 17 –   Drive to Cure Diabetes – Centennial Golf Club –                                         Carmel, NY      (www.drivetocurediabetes.org)                                                                                ____________________________

Now treat your mother to a whole week of Mother’s Days!