A Picture Stroy about Type 1 Diabetes

This pink thing here is a pancreas.  It is located in your body across the back of your abdomen and behind your stomach.  Those black polka dots are islets or beta cells.  These beta cells create something called insulin.  When you eat, insulin tells your muscles to open up and receive the sugar or carbohydrates you ate and to use it for energy.

Sometimes someone is born with one or more HLA Complex genetic markers that will cause their immune system to see the beta cells as a foreign body and it will attack and kill them.  It's an auto immune disease.  Sometimes a virus will get in there and help the process along.  One can be tested to see if they have the genetic marker, still there is no telling at what time in their lives it will manifest itself.  

People who have Type 1 Diabetes have a dead pancreas.  It does not create insulin anymore.

Without the beta cells making insulin, telling the muscles to unlock for sugar, the sugar gets trapped in the blood stream.  The body does not receive any energy from the food that is eaten.  After a while, the brain thinks the body is starving and will start breaking down the fat and muscles for energy to stay alive.

As the muscles and fat are broken down, something called Ketones are produced and they also get trapped in the blood.  It's a poison and will make a person very sick.  Very high measurements of Ketones can make them throw up, dehydrate, and the body will hyperventilate to try and release toxins through the breath.  It is diagnosed as DKA or Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

This is when you get to go to the hospital because if you don't you will die.  This is where you learn you have Type 1 Diabetes if you don't already know.  This is where you get better.

Because the pancreas isn't working, insulin is delivered to the body via needle and syringe.  It is given 4 times a day.  A long lasting insulin once in the morning or night, and then a short acting insulin before each meal.  The blood sugar levels are checked at least 4-7 times a day to make sure everything is going o.k.

Now, all that sugar can go into the muscles and brain like it's suppose too.  The body can grow and develop like it should.

So this is what happened to Sweets.  She is o.k. now, but her pancreas will never make insulin again. She will always have to have it given to her through a needle or a pump for the rest of her life or until research offers something better or a cure.  She is happy though.  Which is a wonderful thing.