28 year old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and is having a hard time getting his insulin regulated.  he ran across a girl with a pump and when her sugar gets too low the pump injects her insulin automatically, but he got no info from her on how or where to obtain one.
126593
Here is a great web site you can compare various kinds of pumps. Best Wishes..\n\nhttp://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_technology/insulin_pump_models.php
364674
Tell your friend to go to the store and get a glucometer.  They can range from inexpensive to real expensive but most have mail in rebates which make the meter virtually free.  Any brand is good and the simpler the operation the better.Have her test her blood sugar once a day in the morning before she eats (fasting blood sugar, a good indicator of control).  The normal range is 80-120, anywhere within that range is good.  Most new kits come with a 10 day supply of everything and you can use the lancet (pricker, the thing with the needle on it) up to 4 times before it starts to dull.  Plus supplies can be bought over the counter.\n\nFoods to avoid:  Quick sugars, candy, anything with high fructose corn syrup, anything covered with sugar or sugary glaze, sugary cookies, table sugar, etc you get the idea\n\nFoods in moderation:  fresh fruits and fruit juices (some are very high in fruit sugar and some of the juices have high fructose corn syrup added), pies and cakes (small portions are good)\n\nFoods allowed: Pastas, rice, beans, meats, cereals ( hot cereals, not flavored-cold cereals, not sugar coated or flavored), juices (citrus, cranberry, lite or no sugar added),applesauce (no sugar added), vegetables (fresh or canned), etc.\n\nHave your friend  call the local hospital and ask for the dietician. Have her explain the situation and take her advice.  If she needs to make an appointment then do it.\n\nShe must take a proactive attitude and get all the information she can.  She can also go to the library and get books on diabetic diets and cooking.  As her friend look up American Diabetic Associan on the web, they have a site for recipes and other information that will be helpful.  Good Luck!
46184
Time for insulin!  Needing insulin is a natural progression of the disease, and most people with type 2 end up on it eventually.  Diet, exercise and pills are not enough at this point probably.  Talk to your doctor about going on insulin.  It's nothing to be afraid of.
30948
If she is taking insulin she has type 2 diabetes.  There are medications she can take to help with the weight gain. Weight gain is a problem with type 2 diabetes.
85717
Any boy who thinks your diabetes is more important than you should be ignored. No matter how cute, he's an idiot. \n\nWhat if you had asthma or allergies (actually your diabetes is related to allergies since you're a Type 1) or a limp or even, heavens forbid, glasses? In none of these cases are you any less of a person, and if he concentrates on the problem, he's not very interested in you, is he?\n\nIn any case, your diabetes is likely to be curable in the near future. There are several research schemes for putting back beta cells (in type 1s, yours have died or gone out of business) and that would be a cure for Type 1s. There may be problems with such transplants -- they may require immuno-suppressive drugs like heart of lung or ... transplants do. But several of the transplant schemes think they've figured a way to avoid this, so... \n\nBe the best person you can be, learn as much as you can, and whatever boy you eventually find (or who finds you) will find all that (ie, you) much more interesting than the fundamentally trivial, though a real nuisance, diabetes. \n\nDon't despair, if you weren't worried about something you'd hardly be normal. Most girls worry about their hair, or nails, or clothes, or whatever. Aren't you glad you're not worrying about any of that mostly unimportant stuff?
548973
You need to have a C-peptide test done. This test lets you know if your body is still producing any insulin on its own. If there is still some insulin being made, the person is a type II diabetic, if not, they are a type I. Good luck!
38220
unlike conventional pharmaceutical treatments... which address the manifestation of disease or illness, i.e., symptoms, gene therapy is a potential permanent therapy or cure. \n\nthink about taking daily doses of insulin to treat diabetes or the drug lipitor to lower cholesterol levels... whether its a natural biological product (insulin) or a chemical compound, a patient needs to intake these drugs because they can not be manufactured in the body.\n\nwhat if instead of taking manufactured insulin, you were able to restore the body's natural ability to produce insulin by transfering the insuling gene with a subset of cells or the appropriate organ... you'd end up with a lifetime therapy... not a short term treatment.\n\nI participated in the first ever human clinical gene therapy trials at the NIH... it was to treat a girl with ADA (adenosine de-aminase) deficiency... essentially an immune suppression that leads to the 'boy in the bubble' syndrome where the person is ultra hypersensitive to external antigens. \n\nsome of the challenges and issues then still remain and some are advanced...  gene identification, gene cassette construction, gene transfer, gene expression, longevity, immune rejection, \n\ngene identification - with the completion of the human genome project, many more genes have been identified and available to be used as a cure... \n\ngene cassettes - the genes need to be engineered to produce the appropriate gene product (protein) within the body...\n\ngene transfer - the gene needs to be transfered from outside the body (ex vivo) to the appropriate organ in the body... engineered (think neutered) viruses serve as vehicles to carry the genes... they are further engineered to target specific organs or cells... e.g., liver, T-cells... pros & cons with different viruses exist, e.g., size, infection rate, immune reactivity, etc...\n\ngene expression - once the gene arrives at the desired location, it has to borrow the cells machinery to produce the proteins... the delivered gene can be express transiently or more permanently... usually when its transient, it requires on-going treatment (... not desirable)... but in order to establish a permanent footprint in the DNA, it must be careful not to cause insertional mutagenesis (get stuck in the middle of an essesntial gene and cause untoward damage)\n\nimmune rejection - colds are caused by viruses... viruses are used as gene transfer vehicles... the body tries to fight off a cold... the body tries to fight off the gene transfer vehicles... a severe inflammatory reaction to a gene transfer event can lead to death...\n\nbesides the technical difficulties, there are ethical, legal, social implications (ELSI) associated with gene therapy... so far gene therapy has been discussed in terms of somatic cell thereapy (adult body cells), not germ line therapy (sperm or egg)... it's one thing to affect a single person, but if you make changes to a sperm or egg, then there is the potential now to pass along the changes to the next generation... \n\ngene therapy, much like other advances in biotech/medicine, was overhyped in its early days... the promise of a cure for intractable diseases raised hopes for patients (and investor)... because the expectations were so high the initial results failed to meet them, but continued progress in this area occurrs each year and soon I believe we will realize the full promise of gene therapy.
207643
Always pleased to further the resaerch into diabetes and it's effects. I have been diabetic for 10 years now and still struggle with the fact i have it. I thinl there should be some kind of couselling form newly diagnosed diabetics but... yeah send those questions on. joelle@melvern.co.uk
38009
When you have a pump, there is a stint that stays in you like with an IV, but the pump and tube itself can be removed if you're going to be active. You won't need insulin during love-making or any other physical activity. The stint is small and you can place it wherever you think is more comfortable - even your backside. When your activity is finished, you can just replace the tube in the stint and you're good to go.
233338
There's two types of diabetes.  Type 2, or adult onset, when the pancreas produce insulin but for some unknown reason the cells do not recognize it.  Halle Berry has Type 1, or juvenile diabetes, which means she was diagnosed with it as a child.  You can't catch it, and I have never read that it was inherited.  In this type of diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to break down glucose for digestion.  In her case, it has nothing to do with being fat, nor is she over weight.
562588
Like all things in medicine it is usually clear cut - if you're sugar is sky high and you are acutely ill, and you fit the profile, you are almost certainly type 1. If your sugars creep up over years, and you feel fine, and you fit the profile, you're almost certainly type 2. Then there's the in betweeners. Blood tests can determine how much insulin the body still produces. (Early in type 1, the body may still produce insulin. This is the "honeymoon period.") Usually, though, it's pretty clear
93954
I was the only diabetic in my school as well. I got it when I was 10, in 4th grade. Now I am 26 years old and a law student. I found that though some people put me down and told me that I wouldn't be able to do anything because of my diabetes I could succeed in anything. I could do anything the other kids did. I made it a point to tell my class about my diabetes, how it is cared for, etc. It helped a lot of people to be more understanding and more accepting of me. My friends were a wonderful support to me. I wish you the best.
529829
Hello i inject daily with Insulin and do not feel the pain at all. I inject once before each meal and then lastly before bed to inject with a long lasting insulin. So in total thats four times daily. The needles you use are now very small, and the smaller the better. The places you inject are where subcutaneous fat is, where he absorbs into the skin quite quickly. These places are located at the front of the thighs, around the lower half of your stomach below the belly button, or around the cheeks of your buttocks. You can also inject in the arm, near the biceps It is important to keep changing the places you inject, as small layer of fatty skin may develope in over injected sites but in all the years I have done it I have lucky to avoid it. I found nothing in the pain, but you will be given plenty of information before they allow you to do it for yourself and the common practice is for you to practice on a sponge ball. Diabetic nurses will look after you and soon you will think nothing of it. The fear is worse than the action so do not worry at all and good luck with your injections
17155
Correction- insulin does not remove glucose from the urine. It removes it from the bloodstream, and redirects it to glycogen, to be stored in the tissues.  It can also be stored as fat. IF her blood sugar is too high, she is eating the wrong things. She needs to watch her diet, and have a low carb profile. IF she eats low-carb, then her blood sugar will not spike like that, and the insulin will have nothing to act upon in a negative fashion.\n\nHer blood sugar is high to begin with because of a lack of natural insulin in her body, which then needs to be supplemented by injected insulin. The job of insulin is to remove excess glucose from the bloodstream. Excess sugar in the blood is like having a thick syrup circulating around. This is bad for the body, and causes the blood pressure to go up, which can cause strokes and heart attacks. When insulin acts in a normal body, it brings the sugar level back down to normal after a meal.\n\nShe does not need to eat more. This will really make her fat.  She needs to eat low carb more frequently.  This will keep her blood sugar more normal. \n\nThe higher the blood sugar, the  more insulin is needed, and the more the glucose will be stored as fat or glycogen.\n\nShe should never take insulin if her blood sugar level is normal or low, because insulin will still act in the same way, and drop her level to below normal. If it does go too low, she could go into a diabetic coma.\n\nIt all has to do with keeping the sugar level in balance - both with diet and with the insulin. \n\nDoes that make sense yet?
572817
As a nurse myself, I want to know how old are these children?  \nYou can ask about the different systems, like: What does the heart pump out through the body, or how to feel your own pulse.\n Many times children are diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus this is a great way to teach other children about  insulin and sugar and the affects on the body.\nThe possibilites are endless, but you need to know the age groups of who you want to teach and ask questions. Start with that first.
386661
I wish there were, but I have not heard of any.  The best news I have heard about Type I is the inhaled insulin trials.  As for transplants, frankly, they don't do them until the diabetic is so near death that not doing them would mean certain death.  The reason is that taking the anti-rejection drugs is more dangerous than being a well-controlled diabetic.\n\nI do want to warn you about something.  I was diagnosed as a Type I just before my fifth birthday and am now nearing my fourth decade.  I was totally uncontrolled as a child, teen, and young adult.  I was 24 before I finally got serious about it.  I have 0 complications at this point, low blood pressure, low cholesterol (I do not exercise regularly but I do eat well) and my A1Cs have been in the "non-diabetic" range for over 10 years (like 4.5 to 6).   My two, healthy children, were born at 6 lbs 9ozs and 6 lbs 12 ozs (I am female).\n\nDon't burden your son by telling him how great a cure will be.  I remember how often people told me that while I was growing up.  It made me feel like there was something wrong with me because I had diabetes and that diabetes would be the reason I could not accomplish things.  Fortunately, I "accidentally" found some great literature and accomplishments by Type Is.  There are lots of famous people with Type I who have accomplished many things.\n\nLife can be great with Type I.  Sucks your son got it, but it does not have him.  Show him how, once he makes taking care of himself a part of his life, it is an easy one if not one just like everyone elses (he should take pride in what he does to take care of himself).  Now that I just automatically check my glucose, determine my level of activity, and base my food choices on how I doing that day, it feels strange to me that non-diabetics don't do this and complain so bitterly about being told not to overeat.  I don't even need to check a books anymore, I know how carbs and fats affect my life off the top of my head.\n\nOf course, I want a cure.  But, I am just fine and dandy without one.  So, baring a cure, the best wish I can make for your son is that he focus on learning about the disease and how it functions in his body so that he can do all he wants to do in life.
664959
If you are in the US talk to your doc or call Joslin Clinic in Boston, MA. They can connect you with Joslin's Angel Network. I read about it in a Diabetes Digest. It said they help uninsured people with getting supplies. Good luck!