Social Change and My Community by

My Community - Type 1 Diabetics

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:02:37 UTC

The Type 1 Diabetic community is a small but incredibly resilient and strong community of only around 1,500,000 in the United States. I was diagnosed about a year ago when I was 27. Appearance wise, I was in the best shape of my life, but after a doctor visit for something unrelated and some routine bloodwork, it was found that my blood glucose levels were around 780 mg/dL. A normal range for someone with a properly functioning pancreas that creates insulin is 70-100 mg/dL. This is an autoimmune disease that doctors are still unsure of why it happens, and is vastly different from Type 2 diabetes. This was very scary at the time but I committed myself to tackling it head on, learning as much as possible and seeking the advice of those around me. I remembered that my old Captain at my Fire Department when I was in the Air Force has been a Type 1 diabetic most of his life and I reached out to him for advice and turns out another Firefighter I worked with had recently gotten diagnosed with it in 2022 as well. The odds of that are very small but it started to shed light on this small niche community that I have since really had my eyes opened to, and tried to become as active as I can be in it. Because my pancreas no longer produces insulin, I am insulin dependent for the rest of my life. That means I have to wear a Dexcom (Controlled Glucose Monitoring device) and an Omnipod (Insulin delivery device). When I'm in public now its quite cool to recognize someone else wearing either/both devices or have them recognize you. I've been able to have really wonderful conversations with people in public or through the CPR business I run, that ask for advice, give their own advice or just want to talk and it can really make people not feel as alone sometimes.

Cultural

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:02:48 UTC

There is definitely a lack of information and sometimes as far as just ignorance when it comes to people knowing anything about Diabetes and the vast differences between Type 1 and Type 2. This can really effect people in this community as people will say things un-educated to you like "You probably shouldn't eat that" or "Aren't you not supposed to eat sugar" (Neither comment has anything to do with Type 1 Diabetes management) and even comments like these, some more invasive than those can make people feel very uncomfortable especially in group or public setting, even if that isn't the persons intent.

Historical

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:02:54 UTC

Historically this community has lived significantly shorter lives before recent advances and didn't have remotely the same level of awareness as now.

Environmental Factor of Skyrocketing Healthcare Prices

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:03:00 UTC

Access to healthcare (I wont even say affordable), has significantly improved over the years. But greedy pharma companies have continue to target insulin and other diabetes related essentials even in recent years that have had people rationing insulin and other things which are serious life or death decisions because of the greed of big pharma. The type 1 diabetic community has been hurt for so many years by the greed of big pharma and its sickening.

For context, my environmental factor even currently in 2024 is that in the United States (one of the few without Universal Healthcare) as a single, small business owner, pay $450 just for healthcare monthly AND another $110+ in Type 1 related supplies. I i had to pay out of pocket it would be roughly $1,400 a month.

Omnipod 5 (Insulin Delivery Device)

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:23:07 UTC

Dexcom G6 (Controlled Glucose Monitoring device)

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:25:20 UTC

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:40:32 UTC

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:41:58 UTC

ryandueker — 2024-04-06 20:47:31 UTC

Gone up significantly since this was released in 2011 as well!

Mental Health Awareness (Education)

ryandueker — 2024-06-06 02:53:03 UTC

One very evident thing in the T1D community is stress and mental health compounding and having very real life or death outcomes. Clearly these effect many people outside the T1D community everyday was well, but anything from financial stress, to relationship stress, job stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, etc can wildly fluctuate blood sugar levels very abruptly, causing insulin to be rendered not as effective, thus throwing the individual into a loop of now stressing about the fact that their device (and their partners monitor device) are beeping loudly and alarms are literally ringing, and many people can find this significantly compounds the pre-existing stress. I have found it to be very important to educate those in my life who I am around the most, or when at work, so that people can help me during those situations of stress to ensure that it doesn't become a life or death situation with a drop in blood sugar quickly due to stress or Insulin acting irregularly.

ryandueker — 2024-06-06 02:54:25 UTC

Racial Inequality in T1D Care

ryandueker — 2024-06-06 03:05:18 UTC

"Racial disparities in type 1 diabetes (T1D) treatment and outcomes have been extensively described. In the United States, non-Hispanic Black children have higher rates of ketoacidosis at diagnosis, higher rates of subsequent hospital admissions, and lower rates of technology use in managing their disease.¹ Rates of poor glycemic control, diabetes complications, depression, and diabetes-related mortality² are all higher in this population.³^,⁴ As technology has evolved to play a more central role in the management of this disease, these devices have not been used equitably." (Hawkes and Lipman)

Source- Hawkes, Colin P., and Terri H. Lipman. “Racial Disparities in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes: Yet Another Consequence of Structural Racism.” Pediatrics, vol. 148, no. 2, 27 July 2021, p. e2021050333, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-050333. Accessed 11 Nov. 2021.

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