Diabetes Awareness Week 20-26 November 2007

Case Study - Hannah

I am seven years old and I got Type 1 diabetes when I was 15 months old. I wish I did not have Type 1 diabetes - I wish I was just like my big sister.

You see, everyday I have to do blood glucose tests, remember to take glucose when I exercise, count all the carbohydrate I eat at each meal and each snack, and give myself insulin from my pump. Every three days my mum stabs me with a needle to change my pump site - it hurts and sometimes I cry, even now.

I don’t want people to feel sad for me - I want them to help me. I love gymnastics, go-carting, swimming, playing with my dog Hugo and my mice Speedy and Milo. I love going to school, to birthday parties and to my friends’ houses to play. I want to play hockey next year and,  when I’m older, learn to drive a car and work in a pet shop. I want to be a mum someday. I can do all the things you do. I just have to plan and work things out a bit more than you.

The only way I can explain what having Type 1 diabetes is like is to say that I have two lives - my normal life and my Type 1 life, and I have to take care of both of them everyday. It’s hard some days to do that. Yet when people see me, even my friends, they think I have just one life - a normal life. I don’t want them to see me as different or weird, especially at school, so I don’t tell them what it’s like for me.

My diabetes scares me because it just jumps out at me when I don’t expect it. I’m hyper or hypo, sometimes thirsty or hungry, or I have a sore tummy - it’s confusing. Mum and Dad help me a lot, but even they make mistakes. Sometimes I don’t know what’s happening in my body - my diabetes plays tricks on me. I feel calm when I can test and know that I am safe. 

If I didn’t have Type 1 diabetes I’d still be me, but I’d be free.

© Diabetes New Zealand Inc. November 2007