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(( Not saying that you're a dummy but hey ;D ))

Okay well, first off, there are two types of Diabetes, Type One and Type Two.

I am a Type One Diabetic so, here's my 'short winded' version:

In your body, as you know, there are different sort of systems to help your body fuction. The Digestive Track, the Endocrine System, the Reproductive System, etc, etc.

Diabetes happens in the Endocrine System... In your pancrease.

What Ha-happens with type one... is that something (Doctors would like to believe it is a virus but they just do not know for sure yet) causes your immune system to freak out and attack your pancrease.

Because of this your pancrease can't produce Insulin.

What is Insulin?
Insulin, is a type of "juice", if you will, that helps break down sugar. Believe it or not, everything in your body needs sugar to function.

Think about it like this, everything is locked up. There are doors in the way of your brain, legs, eyes, muscles, etc. When these doors are locked up, they need the insulin to unlock the doors so the sugar can get in effectivly and work properly through out your body.

When you don't have enough you can have a LOW blood sugar

And when you're pancrease does not work, and you do not have insulin you can have a HIGH blood sugar.

This can lead to something called Keytones.

What are Keytones?
When you have Keytones or go in to Ketoacidosis, in a nutshell your body can not use the insulin anymore. This usually happens when your blood sugar goes very high (out of a normal person's range of 80-120) and you CAN fall in to a Coma and Die.

From here, when a person has keytones they have to:
Drink a ton of water
or
Go to the hospital and get an insulin IV drip.

Then learn about diabetic stuff and take shots and yep...

As a type one I have to:
Test my Blood Sugar Frequently
Take at least 4 shots a day including two different types of insulin
Monitor and Scheduel what I eat.

Diabetes is a challenging disease, but can be controlled easily if controlled smart...ly? XD

Umm.
Tag team! Feel free to add ^^

Most common signs are (for type one anyways) :

Unexplained and HORRIBLE fatigue
Extreme loss of weight
Unexplained Hunger Cravings
Extreme Thirst
Using the bathroom alot
extremly dried skin
Aching Joints

^^'

neutral k. thanks guys.

They know what causes diabetes, it's that your cells start to attack your pancreas. The thing they don't know is why your cells start to attack the pancreas.
So in a way they only know half the equation.

I had extremely high keytones Saturday night after draining a Strawberry Slushie ><. It was idiotic, and it isn't fun. When I was little and had keytones, I'd be throwing up half the day. Another way to treat it, though, is to take the insulin you'd normally take to treat your high, and divide it by 5. Then you add what you got to your normal amount. That's what my friends do for keytones. It doesn't work for me, but I'm abnormally insulin resistant, my doctor says.

Example:
You take 17 units, divide it by five, and you get 3.4. Add 3-4 units to your total, and take it.

Also, one thing that bugged me, but there are three types of diabetes: Type one (juvanile), type 2, and Gestational Diabetes, which is a type of diabetes that only happens when one is pregnant.

Hi, I just recently moved in with my boyfriend (18 days ago) and before this, have never personally known a Type 1 Diabetic, let alone spend 24 hours a day with them (except for a half hour here or there for showers or phone or chatting with neighbors). I understand what he has to do and can administer the insulin myself if it was serious, and I understand the explanation for it, but none of the information I see or hear seems to help... me.

1.) When he's in Ketoacidosis, he is obviously in a lot of pain. I couldn't administer insulin because he'd taken some earlier, I just wanted to try and figure out how to have him in less pain... It was awful, and I felt helpless because I kept asking if there was anything I could do and he just kept saying "no" while he was on the floor.

2.) Less haunting images here because this affects me less because it doesn't seem as awful to him, is the foot swelling. He sits with his legs crossed too much and his ankles swell with that and uh, I think he said Neuropathy or something, I don't remember now, don't quote me on that one; so for the past few days i've noticed that his feet are noticeably different sizes- one swollen. I don't believe that's 110% fun, I see him stumble every here or there, so I am trying to figure out what could help that. I've seen advertisements for "Diabetic Socks", but we are not exactly rich, we're more concerned about having the Insulin and having the Emergency Candy stashed throughout the house, car, and our coats, just in case he has low blood sugar when we're out.

Anyway, I know I wrote a lot, I am a very descriptive (and protective, caring, easily-frightened) person who is looking for answers- not from Google and About.com, but from my favorite forum since 2002; from Gaia Online, where there's always at least ONE person around somewhere that does have an answer <3