Thank your pancreas!

What is type 1 diabetes?  How did she get it?  Those are some other great questions I get.  They are big questions, with big answers…but I’m going to give them a shot.

You have a pancreas.  So does Mackenna.  When you eat or drink anything with carbohydrates, your body turns those carbs into sugar and deposits it into your blood stream.  That sugar is the fuel your body needs to think and move.  But your body can’t use that sugar if it’s sitting in your blood.  It needs to get into your cells in order to be useful.  This is where your pancreas comes in really handy!  Your pancreas has specialized cells called beta cells that make a hormone called insulin.  And insulin is the key that unlocks the cell doors so that the sugar can enter and provide energy so your body can function.

The beta cells in Mackenna’s pancreas have stopped making insulin.  That is type 1 diabetes.  When a person is first diagnosed with T1D, their blood is full of sugar because without insulin, there’s been no way for the sugar from their food to exit the blood stream.  If a person goes without insulin for too long, all that sugar stuck in the blood can actually make their blood turn acidic.  This is called diabetic ketoacidosis and can be fatal. A person with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin through needles or an insulin pump.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a great answer for the “How did she get it?” question.  I can tell you this for certain: there is nothing that she did or we did to cause it, and there is nothing we could have done to prevent it.  Mackenna did not eat too much sugar.  She is not overweight.  She exercises as much or more than any other typical child does.  T1D is an autoimmune disorder which means that the body attacks itself.  There’s a bit of a genetic component to it, but having T1D in your family does not mean someone else will end up having it…and not having T1D in your family doesn’t mean no one in your family will end up having it.

Our journey with diabetes has taught me a lot of things.  But very early on after Mackenna’s diagnosis, one of the things that really hit me was just how detailed our Creator is.  Understanding what I do now about carbohydrates, beta cells, insulin, blood sugar numbers, I am blown away with how complicated it is!  One little part of my daughter stopped working.  Her pancreas quit.  I spend my days and nights trying to take its place and it is HARD WORK!  I’m a pretty smart gal; I can crunch numbers and identify patterns and learn new strategies.  But I am not a pancreas.  And I am not even close to almost-as-good-as a pancreas.  That He would put that much thought and detail and purpose into one of our lesser-talked-about organs is astounding to me.  That for most people, it works beautifully, and they never have to think about it because of its perfect design is amazing!  So if you do not have type 1 diabetes, thank your pancreas!  It works hard for you and hardly gets any credit for keeping you alive!  But better yet, thank the One who made it!