Hi My 9 year old son is currently in hospital. He was rushed in and we were really shocked and upset to find out that he has Type 1 Diabetes. This is day 4 of him being in. His blood sugar levels keep changing at the moment, but he has started to inject himself already. You may think this is a really dramatic question, I have started to worry about him catching viruses, and now started to worry about the Coronavirus and how he would cope with that. Has anyone got any opnions on that.
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9 year old son diagnosed
- Thread starter KAZW
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SB2015
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Hi Kazw, sorry to hear about your son’s diagnosis. It is indeed a big shock, but T1 is manageable, it just takes a bit of planning and preparation. Glad to hear that he is already managing his own injections. Once things settle the injections and testing just become part of a new ‘normal’ life, a bit like driving a car. It seems incredibly complicated to start with, but then becomes almost automatic, and you are just on the watch for the unexpected.
The cornavirus would be just such an unexpected. Your son’s diabetes team will teach you both how to deal with illness. This involves adjusting insulin doses and more testing and monitoring. If things become too difficult then we call on help from the hospital teams. I have only needed to do this once in 12 years, and I have got through spinal surgery, flu and sepsis. So it is understandable that you are worried, and do talk to your son’s team. They are there to help you help your son manage, and IT WILL BECOME EASIER.
Keep in touch and ask any questions that come up. Nothing is considered silly on here.
The cornavirus would be just such an unexpected. Your son’s diabetes team will teach you both how to deal with illness. This involves adjusting insulin doses and more testing and monitoring. If things become too difficult then we call on help from the hospital teams. I have only needed to do this once in 12 years, and I have got through spinal surgery, flu and sepsis. So it is understandable that you are worried, and do talk to your son’s team. They are there to help you help your son manage, and IT WILL BECOME EASIER.
Keep in touch and ask any questions that come up. Nothing is considered silly on here.
SB2015
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A book that you mind find useful is T1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents and Young Adults by Ragnar Hanas.
It is clearly set out and is an excellent reference that is regularly updated. I still find it useful 12 years on.
Another resource to consider is other parents. There are T1 family events held at intervals during the year across the UK. The next one is in Bristol in April. It is a chance for the whole family to meet with others. There is a programme for parents/ careers, the children with T1 and also for siblings. I have volunteered in these and found them to be brilliant.
It is clearly set out and is an excellent reference that is regularly updated. I still find it useful 12 years on.
Another resource to consider is other parents. There are T1 family events held at intervals during the year across the UK. The next one is in Bristol in April. It is a chance for the whole family to meet with others. There is a programme for parents/ careers, the children with T1 and also for siblings. I have volunteered in these and found them to be brilliant.
Thank you so much for your quick response. I will certainly buy the book you have recommended. I will look at the family events. You have reassured me.
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sorry to hear about your son’s diagnosis @KAZW
i am sure you are emotionally (and physically!) all over the place at the moment, but try not to worry. While it is serious, and will have come as a big shock, as @SB2015 says, T1 is a manageable condition and doesn’t have to stop your lad doing anything he wants to.
With modern technologies, treatments and techniques evolving at such a pace, researchers are beginning to talk about some options on the horizon being a ‘practical cure’, not a cure per-se, but removing the faff and fiddling of diabetes management and semi-automating diabetes management to provide almost non-diabetic BG levels. And even without such wizardry, it has never been more potentially possible to live a full, healthy and happy life, feeling well and happy with T1
While I understand your concerns over Coronavirus (given the media panic), perhaps it might help to switch it around. There are only 13 cases in the UK (as of a few hours ago)... If 13 people in the entire UK were given special fluorescent leopardskin promotional hats and if you saw one, approached them and said “You are Lenny the Leopard and I claim my 10,000 pounds”, how likely do you think it would be that you or your son would be collecting that cash anytime soon? It’s a silly example, but currently I think there is a very low chance indeed of any one of us coming anywhere near that virus.
Plus, it’s mostly the virus would be ‘a bit of a cold’ unless you have some existing respiratory frailty. Even though T1 can complicate matters for some things, I’m sure a strong young dude like your son would just shrug it off.
i am sure you are emotionally (and physically!) all over the place at the moment, but try not to worry. While it is serious, and will have come as a big shock, as @SB2015 says, T1 is a manageable condition and doesn’t have to stop your lad doing anything he wants to.
With modern technologies, treatments and techniques evolving at such a pace, researchers are beginning to talk about some options on the horizon being a ‘practical cure’, not a cure per-se, but removing the faff and fiddling of diabetes management and semi-automating diabetes management to provide almost non-diabetic BG levels. And even without such wizardry, it has never been more potentially possible to live a full, healthy and happy life, feeling well and happy with T1
While I understand your concerns over Coronavirus (given the media panic), perhaps it might help to switch it around. There are only 13 cases in the UK (as of a few hours ago)... If 13 people in the entire UK were given special fluorescent leopardskin promotional hats and if you saw one, approached them and said “You are Lenny the Leopard and I claim my 10,000 pounds”, how likely do you think it would be that you or your son would be collecting that cash anytime soon? It’s a silly example, but currently I think there is a very low chance indeed of any one of us coming anywhere near that virus.
Plus, it’s mostly the virus would be ‘a bit of a cold’ unless you have some existing respiratory frailty. Even though T1 can complicate matters for some things, I’m sure a strong young dude like your son would just shrug it off.
Thebearcametoo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Parent of person with diabetes
Hi and welcome. My daughter was diagnosed nearly a year ago just before her 9th birthday. Going to hospital to get treatment started and to get blood glucose levels (and ketones) to a safer level is the norm. Yes untreated diabetes is dangerous but once treatment starts it is manageable. What we found was that my daughter seemed more ill in hospital in part because they were changing her glucose levels quickly and her body had been used or her being high so it takes a while for the body to adjust to what is actually a normal glucose level. We found she was in hospital perhaps longer than she needed to be because it was over a weekend (she was diagnosed on the Friday). The diabetes team here like to do a full programme of information and education before you get let loose again and over the weekend they just don’t have the staff to be able to do that. We got a lot of support from them in the first few weeks and slowly got into the routines of carb counting and treatment. My daughter did her own injections from the start too which helps in many ways.
Any illness alongside diabetes does affect glucose levels. She had a high temperature and viral symptoms within a week of coming out of hospital (also at the weekend when there was less support available). There are things you do differently when they’re ill (sick day protocols) and the book already mentioned was helpful in getting my head around that alongside the information the diabetes team had given us and a call or two to our out of hours diabetes team and we got through it. This time of year viral infections and flu are around so he may get sick but coronovirus is unlikely. If he were to get it then he would be treated quickly and efficiently.
You have a lot to process at the moment and will have fears both rational and irrational. That’s ok. Your child suddenly had a life long condition that if unmanaged would be very serious. The good news is that you will adjust. And that diabetes is very manageable these days and that minimises risk factors and enables our kids to live the life they want alongside their peers.
We’re here to support you. It will get easier.
Any illness alongside diabetes does affect glucose levels. She had a high temperature and viral symptoms within a week of coming out of hospital (also at the weekend when there was less support available). There are things you do differently when they’re ill (sick day protocols) and the book already mentioned was helpful in getting my head around that alongside the information the diabetes team had given us and a call or two to our out of hours diabetes team and we got through it. This time of year viral infections and flu are around so he may get sick but coronovirus is unlikely. If he were to get it then he would be treated quickly and efficiently.
You have a lot to process at the moment and will have fears both rational and irrational. That’s ok. Your child suddenly had a life long condition that if unmanaged would be very serious. The good news is that you will adjust. And that diabetes is very manageable these days and that minimises risk factors and enables our kids to live the life they want alongside their peers.
We’re here to support you. It will get easier.
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