Student son living away from home with type 1 diagnosed only 16 months ago

[SiobhanAC]

Hello everyone,
I'm a mother of a 23 yr old son in the final year of his degree. He lives in another area of the country from me and his Dad, in a shared student house and has managed his recently diagnosis very well (whilst at the end of his 1st year). As he is an adult and does obviously not want any fuss, me and my husband are very worried about what we should do for him because of his condition and the possible effects of contracting the Coronavirus. I am concerned because he lives in a shared house but his housemates may not be able or willing to help him if he needs medical attention if he contracts it. Should he come back home for a while so we can be on standby to help him? Any advice will be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hello @SiobhanAC

I was diagnosed in the final year of my degree too (several years ago now!). And just like you... I know my Mum worried about me a LOT.

When it comes to Coronavirus... while it is true that diabetes does add some extra risk, personally I don’t think there is any urgent need for major intervention for someone who is young, otherwise fit and healthy and who doesn’t have additional lung-related challenges like smoking or asthma.

Diabetes UK published this advice, specifically for people with diabetes recently: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/coronavirus

And I would suggest that the most important thing for your son (aside from the advice about hand washing and generally reducing risk) is to know what to do if he gets ill, sometimes known as ‘sick day rules’.

There’s a helpful flowchart here: https://www.t1resources.uk/resources/item/sickday-rules-pdf/

Try not to worry too much, but do make sure you both keep up to date with the latest official guidance and advice on public places, social distancing etc. As this seems to be changing quite rapidly.

 

[ianf0ster]

Hello everyone,
I'm a mother of a 23 yr old son in the final year of his degree. He lives in another area of the country from me and his Dad, in a shared student house and has managed his recently diagnosis very well (whilst at the end of his 1st year). As he is an adult and does obviously not want any fuss, me and my husband are very worried about what we should do for him because of his condition and the possible effects of contracting the Coronavirus. I am concerned because he lives in a shared house but his housemates may not be able or willing to help him if he needs medical attention if he contracts it. Should he come back home for a while so we can be on standby to help him? Any advice will be much appreciated. Thank you.

Hi SiobhanAC, Your son sounds like a sensible type. If so, he will be controlling his Blood Glucose well and so should be at much les risk (if he even gets infected) than the average Type 1 diabetic.
Control of our condition is the key to good health for both Type 1's and for Type 2's.
Note that I'm not antipcipating my risk to be higher than average for my age ( less if anything) even though I've ad/have T2D and had a 3x Coronary Artery Bypass just a few years ago.

 

[SiobhanAC]

Hello @SiobhanAC

I was diagnosed in the final year of my degree too (several years ago now!). And just like you... I know my Mum worried about me a LOT.

When it comes to Coronavirus... while it is true that diabetes does add some extra risk, personally I don’t think there is any urgent need for major intervention for someone who is young, otherwise fit and healthy and who doesn’t have additional lung-related challenges like smoking or asthma.

Diabetes UK published this advice, specifically for people with diabetes recently: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/coronavirus

And I would suggest that the most important thing for your son (aside from the advice about hand washing and generally reducing risk) is to know what to do if he gets ill, sometimes known as ‘sick day rules’.

There’s a helpful flowchart here: https://www.t1resources.uk/resources/item/sickday-rules-pdf/

Try not to worry too much, but do make sure you both keep up to date with the latest official guidance and advice on public places, social distancing etc. As this seems to be changing quite rapidly.

Thank you, this is very reassuring advice, especially as you contracted the disease at about the same age. Thanks too for the links. I'll read and maybe pass onto my son.

 

[trophywench]

Well I'd hope they tell anyone newly diagnosed T1 these days the sick day rules but judging by past experience on here, all sorts of important bits escape individuals of any age, even if the person did tell them and explain it properly. There is such a LOT of info we all need to understand at the time, inevitably something gets missed or majorly, overlooked cos, 'I won't need that, I never have anything wrong with me!'

(Some of us spend well over the first 60 years of our life before we sustain our first broken bone too - but why the hell I chose to smash a kneecap into fragments is anybody's guess and Shee-ite!! (and many other far coarser expletives at the time) I certainly instantly needed sick day rules with knobs on then. And I absolutely wasn't otherwise ill.)

So - it's a very nasty surprise when you suddenly need help cos you can't sort it out yourself. There's a report by a T1 who went skiing in Italy with his mates recently and several of them came down with it after returning. He's obviously otherwise fit (have to be to enjoy skiing IMHO) he hasn't been too mega ill, he's clearly separated from his family so was able to self isolate in his own home, he said the cough has nearly driven him mad and he has missed his 7yo son. All in all it's not been all that awful for him he says.
We didn't however get any info specific to diabetes that could be of interest or useful though.