A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
I will control my T1D. My T1D won’t control me.
By Amelia Rehrman
11 years old, Pennsylvania
Hi! My name is Amelia and I am 11 years old. I am so happy to be a 2013 Children’s Congress delegate from Pennsylvania. My favorite hobbies include photography and blogging, so I am taking this opportunity to combine the two. Here is a taste of what I will show my Member of Congress when I get to Washington, D.C., this summer!
Every day I struggle to keep my blood sugar on track. Am I high? Am I low? Every day I get up, test my blood sugar, bolus/give insulin for breakfast, wait a half hour, and then eat breakfast. I repeat the process for lunch and dinner. Depending on the day, I test 12 to 15 times. If my blood sugar is low, I test even more. Sometimes I am up late at night fighting a low or up early in the morning battling a high.
Sometimes my siblings eat stuff I can’t eat. Sometimes I am forced to eat or drink because my sugar is low. You may not be able to believe it, but I don’t like eating and drinking sweets all the time! The point is, I need to be alert about my type 1 diabetes (T1D) 24/7.
I wear an insulin pump, so every three days I need to change my pump site. I also wear a continuous glucose monitor. I change that every 6 to 10 days. It makes life with T1D a little bit easier, but it is not a cure.
Once somebody asked me, “Does your blood sugar go high and low in the night too?” I wish the answer were no. I wish the answer were that my blood sugar never goes high or low.
People always want to know how I test my blood sugar. I’ve explained it more times than I can count, but I think that a picture is truly worth a thousand words.
I get out my test kit—pricker, test strips, meter. That’s it below, sitting next to my teddy. I have to carry it everywhere!
I get out the test strip:
I put the test strip in the meter:
I prick my finger:
I put blood in the other end of the test strip:
My blood sugar appears on the screen! Then I treat my blood sugar if I am high or low. (And in case you were wondering, 85 is a very good number.)
My motto is “I will control my T1D. My T1D won’t control me.” I feel like we are getting much closer to a cure every day. With Children’s Congress, I bet we will get even closer to a cure.
To learn more about Amelia, visit her Children’s Congress delegate page, or her personal blogs: