THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Kathy Swegger, of The Woodlands, Texas, felt her life turn upside down when her 11-year-old son, James, was diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness: Type 1 diabetes.
“I was just drinking a lot of water, so I knew I didn’t feel right, but I didn’t really think anything of it,” James Swegger said.
The family said they explained away thirst, weight loss and fatigue with a host of other possibilities.
“Oh, he was tired all the time, he got sick when he’d go away,” Kathy said. “Even years previous, was that the start and we just didn’t notice?”
“I remember, my vision would always get really blurry, but I just felt lightheaded and really dizzy. It was hard to walk and stuff,” James said.
None of those things seemed alarming in the moment until Kathy saw a post on social media about symptoms of Type 1 diabetes. The friend who posted the infographic helped guide the Sweggers through a process that changed their lives.
“She’s the one who said ‘I think you need to check his blood glucose,’” Kathy explained. “I said ‘it says 400 is that high?’”
It was high. From there, the Sweggers went to the emergency room.
“He thankfully was not in DKA, he was on the verge. They just decided to keep him out of the ICU.” Kathy said.
DKA is diabetic ketoacidosis and an estimated 42% of patients are in this life-threatening complication at the time of their diagnoses. James was almost there when he got to the hospital.
While they’re happy to now understand their diagnosis, Type 1 adds a lot of worry to the daily lives of families dealing with it. Children like James have to regularly monitor glucose, know their numbers before and after meals (even in the middle of the night) and be ready to treat it if needed.
James is doing remarkably better now that his diabetes is under control. He is now in eighth grade and plans to play football and be on the powerlifting team at his school.
Kathy now works with global diabetes nonprofit “Beyond Type 1″ as an advocate for the See The Signs Campaign, a life-saving grassroots effort to get the symptoms of T1D in front of as many people as possible. This is the same campaign that helped Kathy recognize the signs of her son’s diagnosis through their graphic.
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