Me and my mom set out for Lomas de Sargentillo, more or less 1hour and 40 minutes from Guayaquil. My mom knows Geavanny from before and now in the same town a girl named Melissa was diagnosed.
I read the material we are going to present to both children. It's a booklet about having diabetes, learning to live with it and all the messures taken in this situation. It is written for the children to read, easily explined, with no technical words.
My mom got from the foundation and her own poket the insuline (hormone that controls sugar levels in the blood, but diabetics don't produce) and seringe, glucometer (little machine that reveals the levels of sugar in the blood) and stripes (where the blood sample is put), the shooter (with a little stain that punches the finger to get the blood) and stains, alcohol swaps, etc. We went to the supermarket and got Splenda, sugarless marmalade and other supplies.
We finally find ourselves in the road. Listening music as a background I take an intrest on learning more about the children we are abut to meet and the job my mom has been doing. We speak about fairness and how it doesn't mean that low income families shouldn't get sick. It means that they shouldn't be excluded from the society. They should get help from the institutions that are suposedly meant to do so.
I thought about the kind of leaders that are the heads of the children's hospitals. I know for a fact they are doing some part of their job, but then my mom tells me that Geovanny was taken to emergency and as soon as they realized he wouldn't be able to afford the medicine they sent her mother to buy some kind of cheaper insuline. This can't even be called insuline. It just kill them slower that the lack of it would. I'm thinking "doctors can't be capable of this". I'm even more motivated to do this.
When we get there Geaovanny is waiting for us on the main street and gets inside the car to show us the way to his house where his family, Melissa and her mother, are waiting. They receive us warmly and I already feel like this is making it worthy. We sit in the living room surrounded by aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters, granfathers, etc.
We conversed for 4 hours with both children, showed the images in the booklets and asked if they any questions. My mom explained how to messure food Carbs and relate it to how much insuline they need. We taught Melissa how to use the glucometer, insuline, etc. We told both of them to use the supplies for several days and not just throw them after one use. And we told them to relay on each other children and moms. Finally we came up with a unit of insuline and food plan for eac child. Melissa's mom was following us every step of the way and Geovanny being older and having diabetes for 4 years now, understood for himself which is ultimately the goal for every kid. They are the one with the condition, they have to be willing to live with it and take care of themselves.
Afterwards I took some contact infromation, medical history and personal information. We told them about the diabetes camp organized by the foundation and they agreed to come. This would be Geovanny's second one and he told Melissa about the activities, the people helping and the other children in the same situation as them. We took Melissa and her mother to their house. And after a lot of thank yous from each family and making a schedule for control visits, we got back to Guayaquil.
I read the material we are going to present to both children. It's a booklet about having diabetes, learning to live with it and all the messures taken in this situation. It is written for the children to read, easily explined, with no technical words.
My mom got from the foundation and her own poket the insuline (hormone that controls sugar levels in the blood, but diabetics don't produce) and seringe, glucometer (little machine that reveals the levels of sugar in the blood) and stripes (where the blood sample is put), the shooter (with a little stain that punches the finger to get the blood) and stains, alcohol swaps, etc. We went to the supermarket and got Splenda, sugarless marmalade and other supplies.
We finally find ourselves in the road. Listening music as a background I take an intrest on learning more about the children we are abut to meet and the job my mom has been doing. We speak about fairness and how it doesn't mean that low income families shouldn't get sick. It means that they shouldn't be excluded from the society. They should get help from the institutions that are suposedly meant to do so.
I thought about the kind of leaders that are the heads of the children's hospitals. I know for a fact they are doing some part of their job, but then my mom tells me that Geovanny was taken to emergency and as soon as they realized he wouldn't be able to afford the medicine they sent her mother to buy some kind of cheaper insuline. This can't even be called insuline. It just kill them slower that the lack of it would. I'm thinking "doctors can't be capable of this". I'm even more motivated to do this.
When we get there Geaovanny is waiting for us on the main street and gets inside the car to show us the way to his house where his family, Melissa and her mother, are waiting. They receive us warmly and I already feel like this is making it worthy. We sit in the living room surrounded by aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters, granfathers, etc.
We conversed for 4 hours with both children, showed the images in the booklets and asked if they any questions. My mom explained how to messure food Carbs and relate it to how much insuline they need. We taught Melissa how to use the glucometer, insuline, etc. We told both of them to use the supplies for several days and not just throw them after one use. And we told them to relay on each other children and moms. Finally we came up with a unit of insuline and food plan for eac child. Melissa's mom was following us every step of the way and Geovanny being older and having diabetes for 4 years now, understood for himself which is ultimately the goal for every kid. They are the one with the condition, they have to be willing to live with it and take care of themselves.
Afterwards I took some contact infromation, medical history and personal information. We told them about the diabetes camp organized by the foundation and they agreed to come. This would be Geovanny's second one and he told Melissa about the activities, the people helping and the other children in the same situation as them. We took Melissa and her mother to their house. And after a lot of thank yous from each family and making a schedule for control visits, we got back to Guayaquil.
Melissa - This is a beautiful story and you write well. You need to tag this entry with key words so that other people can find this blog and learn from it and share their experiences.
ResponderEliminarI have a question. Doesn't Splenda do just as much harm as sugar, but in a different way? I have heard that all artificial sweeteners are harmful. Also, why take sugarless jam to this boy when you can teach the mother how to make jam in the house? Isn't sugar cane (panela) recommended in this case, or can diabetics not eat panela either?
Thank you for your comment! Answering your question, I think it's a great idea to teach them how to make their own jam because eventually they will run out of the bought one and it will come in handy. Maybe I can download the info or recipe from internet and explain it to the families, thanks for the suggestion I hadn't thought about it!
ResponderEliminarAbout Splenda, it has been said that the use of it is connected with memory loss and other neurological damages, but nothing is certain. Like my mom says, they do need some kind of sweetener in their juice and just drinking water for the rest of their life is practically not an option. It is better for them to use these sweeteners than sugar itself. My brother eats desserts, candy or chocolate, sometime, not frequently. The abuse of sugar, even if controlled with the opposite insuline. And as days go by they would need more and more insuline in each application because of the sugar level in the blood.
Perhaps it's not 100% reliable, but as f now Splenda hasn't been proved to do harm. Bottom line it's the only answer. Sugar or panela, which is sugar without the industrial process and the chemicals,means more insuline and for them it's better to use the lowest amount of insuline possible.
Hope it helps clear your doubts!!