Mac’s Story: Tackling Type 1 Diabetes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Each year, more and more children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.Managing the disease is a 24-hour, all encompassing life change for not just the child, but the entire family.a Louisville family is tackling the ups and downs of diabetes.Click here: Watch Part 2Mac Morgan, 9, is a typical fourth-grader and Type 1 diabetic. At school, he sticks to a routine, a critical part of managing his diabetes.Mac?s body no longer produces insulin, so he has to inject it about six times a day. Insulin is necessary for survival. It processes glucose for energy and keeps the sugar out of the blood.He can?t eat without injecting insulin.?I have to give myself a shot,? Mac said.?If he?s low, we have to give him some glucose tablets and if he?s high, I call Mrs. Morgan and she tells me how many correct units he needs to supplement what she?s already planned for him,? said Morgan?s teacher, Kelley Schleg.?Most likely he actually started this process years ago. no one would have known this by looking at him. It’s only when you lose about 80 percent of the function of the pancreas that you actually have diabetes,? pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Kupper Wintergerst said.More With Dr. WintergeistWintergerst pointed out juvenile diabetes is an auto-immune disease. for some reason Mac’s immune system started attacking his pancreas..?Type 1 diabetes is completely unrelated to what a child ate in the past, whether they played basketball or just played video games at home,? Wintergerst said.Wintergerst said 90 percent of children with diabetes have Type 1.?It was textbook: using the bathroom a lot, stomachache at night from the acid that had built up with the keytones, rapid weight loss,? said Mac’s mom, Jane Morgan.Morgan learned her son had diabetes after taking him to the doctor with flu-like symptoms. from there, she said, things moved fast.?They call it education to not scare you, but basically you will not leave there until you can give your child shots, till you can measure up your insulin and until you know what you?re doing with diabetes because now you know that your child has diabetes,? Morgan said.Mac now thinks about food much differently. even his classmates have been educated on the ups and downs of diabetes.?When I found out, I was like, I can?t believe that he had diabetes,? said Trey Creech, one of Mac?s best friends.Mac’s mom said for the most part, his friends have taken it in stride.?There have been people who don?t want to have him over because they?re nervous about what would happen if he was high or low at their house and it doesn?t hurt his feelings, I don?t think. but you just want to tell them it’s OK and he?s fine,? Morgan said.?At my house he was 42 one time and he almost fell asleep on the couch, and another time he was so high he was just bouncing off the walls,? Creech said.Making his Body GoEvery day more children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and more families are adjusting to the challenge of the dangerous disease.after managing Mac’s diabetes with shots for several months, the Morgans looked for a way to improve his daily life.they investigated the insulin pump, and decided to try it.?He wants to do everything else that normal fourth-graders do. He plays basketball, football, golf. He?s a smart little boy. We’ll have to learn to make his body go,? said Morgan.?Insulin pumps provide the most flexible way of managing diabetes because as opposed to injections, a pump is actually delivering insulin all the time,? Wintergerst said.Instead of giving himself shots, the pump provides a constant stream of insulin. Mac inputs what he’s going to eat and the pump regulates the dose.?I don’t have to pick a spot every day and put a shot in my stomach, which hurts sometimes,? Mac said. ?I press buttons and insulin just comes into my body, so no more shots.??The difference that we have really enjoyed since getting the pump is being to correct him all day and have him function his body at a fairly normal blood sugar level at a consistent rate,? Morgan said.the goal is to avoid dangerous sugar highs and lows. over time, high blood sugars can cause a range of problems from blindness to kidney failure, even heart attacks.?It?s the closest thing we have right now toward mimicking the pancreas,? Wintergerst said.Controlling the disease is a huge focus of current research.?We are seeing dozens upon dozens of trials working to find ways to regrow the pancreas and find new medications to protect those cells so when we find a cure we can protect those children so they can honestly say they used to have diabetes,? Wintergerst said.

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