So by now, if you have read previous instalments of my Blog, you probably know my six year old daughter was diagnosed Type One diabetic last October. What you may have missed was the part where me and Mrs.Sparky agreed to help with research into genetic links for this auto-immune disease that may help explain why some children get it and not others.
Mrs.Sparky's test came up negative. Mine, however, tested positive for one anti-body that suggested there might be a small chance of my eventually developing Type One.
If you want to know the differences between Type One and Type Two, google it. It's too late to explain right now, but essentially the older you get, the less chance you gave of developing Type One. Not always, but mostly.
The next step for me, after another blood test, was an oral glucose test. That was today.
Essentially, it all went pretty well. The nurses I had met before were both friendly, and sympathetic to the fact that I am not the biggest fan of needles. I had to have a cannula put in, blood taken, and was then made to drink a sweet, glucose concoction within a 5 minute window. For the next three hours, the nurses would extract blood at regular intervals, and send it away for testing.
Those three hours went by pretty fast. The experience was nowhere near as bad as I had been expecting, and as well as enabling them to closer monitor me, it might also serve to help others as their research attempts to answer many of god wussy ions still unanswered about Type One Diabetes.
You note I use the phrase Type One A LOT. That is because too
often people rope both varieties of the disease together, and assume
you get it just from over-eating, over indulging in too many sweet foods, and generally not taking care of yourself.
I'll say it again: Type One has nothing to do with these factors - it is an auto- immune disease and prompted by a pancreas that no longer wants to work as it should!
The good news is that I made significant progress on my forthcoming Zombie apocalypse novel in the time spent during the glucose test, got petrol money for my troubles, and bought lunch by the Trialnet nurses doing the study. I was also left feeling fairly good with myself that I have done something get may well benefit others in the future, and maybe even Emilie in the long run.
The more they can discover about this disease the better.
I may even consider giving blood on a regular basis, something I was always dead set against before because of my needle phobia.
The moral of this story: sometimes it feels good to perform a good deed.
This week, this is the second such good deed I've done - the other being bringing to your attention a certain author with a nasty and unsavoury past.
If I don't stop doing good deeds soon, I might start developing a reputation...
This is Sparky, signing out, on Day 5 of 30...
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