Article content continued
“It was scary. My husband wasn’t allowed to go to the hospital for COVID-19 so he was home and I called him on the phone and told him what was going on,” she said.
“When I heard the diagnosis, I asked the doctor two questions. The first was, is it the bad type (of diabetes)? The second was, can I give him my pancreas? Is there any way we could switch and I could become diabetic? “
She learned that TD1 is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, making it impossible for the body to regulate blood sugar levels.
People diagnosed with TD1 depend on insulin injections to survive.
While TD1 tends to develop early in life, only 0.1 percent of children ages 1 to 4 were diagnosed with diabetes in Canada in 2013-2014.
In the months following Ryder’s diagnosis in May, Roy and her family were very frustrated, anxious, and financially under pressure.
Ryder’s blood sugar level needs constant monitoring and he receives about seven to 10 needles a day. Roy also needs to make sure Ryder is on a special diet.
Additionally, T1D is particularly difficult to treat in babies and young children because they are often non-verbal and unable to move independently.
“Children who are young cannot communicate with you yet – they cannot tell you when something is wrong or pick you up when they are not feeling well. You have so many other things in front of you that mask diabetes, like teething, ”said Roy.
