Living with the disease since 1984

A healthy you means a healthy society. Khaleej Times’ latest campaign under the ‘KT For Good’ umbrella highlights common lifestyle diseases. In Part 3 of our series, we’re bringing you stories that paint a picture of a diabetic’s life, which includes not only their struggles but also the lessons they have learned

While it is not necessary that diabetes is hereditary, a mother and daughter have learnt how to live with the disease on a daily basis.

Patricia Mcinerney, a parent liaison officer in Dubai, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 1984 when she was seven years old. Since then, she has been taking insulin injections.

“It came as a great shock to my parents because most people think that diabetes can be hereditary. At that point, none of my family members had diabetes so it was a complete shock for us all,” she told Khaleej Times.

“It wasn’t that well known at that time, and it was considered the same as Type 2 diabetes,” she said, adding that over the years it has been discovered that it is an autoimmune disease.

“My pancreas does not produce insulin, so the carbohydrates that I consume do turn into energy,” said Patricia. “So I have to count the carbs that I eat and also give myself injections according to what I am eating and activities I do,” she said.

Patricia said that in the early days of her diagnosis, the disease was monitored very differently. “You were not expected to live very long … it was also seen as a terminal illness,” she said.

“It is ongoing but I am now about to celebrate my 35th anniversary and I have two beautiful girls … so I kind of proved everyone wrong, thanks to science.”

One of Patricia’s twin daughters, Scarlett, was also diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 15 months old. “We were lucky enough that we knew the signs,” she said.

“It did get to a point where her blood sugar had shot up and her organs were shutting down.”

Her second daughter, Khloe, helps both Patricia and Scarlett monitor their blood sugars several times during the day.

“We use the same kind of devices … We wear sensors on our bodies, and we scan using our phones and that gives us an indication of what the blood sugar levels are,” said Patricia.

Both of them also do fingerprick tests, which can provide almost real-time results. Years ago, however, tests were quite restricted, Patricia said.

She said that since the disease was misunderstood, it affected their eating habits, too. “I was told not to eat sweets, no ice cream, but now it’s been discovered that even though sugar does affect the sugar levels, it’s more of carbs that need to be taken care of.”

Scarlett is on a Mediterranean diet. “It is not only food that affects your blood sugar levels … Too much sleep or lack of sleep, too much of exercise or lack of exercise... everything affects us.”

The family, however, continues with their daily activities as usual.

Scarlett takes two types of insulin — a slow-acting one, which is taken at night before she goes to bed so that it stays in her system while she sleeps, and another fast-acting one when she is eating, which takes up to two hours to get into her system. She also has a scanner fixed to her leg that can give accurate results.