I know for many this is not exciting news, but for those of us with type one diabetes, this is game changing. On September 28, 2016, the FDA officially approved the Medtronic hybrid closed loop system. That is essentially the fancy name for what those of us in the diabetic community call an artificial pancreas: a device that links a blood sugar monitor with an insulin dispenser to automate doses of insulin to accurately lower high blood sugars. No more finger pricking. No more injections. No more stress.
For those who aren't aware, Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic illness that affects a person's ability to regulate blood sugar. Basically, the body's immune system decides the pancreas is an invasive being and thus attacks it. This means the body no longer produces insulin, a hormone that allows your cells to convert sugar into energy. Without insulin in the body, blood sugar rises to dangerous levels. Common indicators of high blood sugar, hyperglycemia, include being very thirsty, frequently using the bathroom, extreme weight loss, hair loss, etc. If blood sugar rises too high a person can enter ketoacidosis or a diabetic coma. This may be deadly if an individual does not receive treatment.
Luckily for me, my mother took me to the doctor long before my blood sugar reached levels high enough to put me in a coma. I was diagnosed October 1, 2013, in the fall of my sophomore year of high school. I want to say my entire life changed that day, and I guess it did, but the main thing was just that I now had something else I had to worry about. In the matter of a week after being diagnosed, I was in full management of my blood sugar. Unlike other lucky individuals who have a pancreas to perform this job, every moment of my day was concerned about my blood sugar levels. Every meal came with a finger prick to check my level and an insulin injection to keep my levels under control. Eat, prick, inject. It's now part of my daily routine.
This is why the artificial pancreas is so important. Since there isn't yet a cure, the closest thing we can get is making life with diabetes as comfortable as possible. This is especially important because Type 1 Diabetes is primarily diagnosed in childhood. Expecting a child to mature overnight to juggle testing blood sugar, monitoring sugar levels, and injecting appropriate insulin units is unacceptable. Now there have been advancements that have decreased the pressure, such as the pump which eliminates syringes and blood sugar monitors that are permanently attached to you which eliminates finger pricking. However, the artificial pancreas is by far the most convenient advancement that has been made. With it a child no longer has to take so much of their time managing their diabetes, the pancreas does it for them. Soon it will be easy to forget we have diabetes at all.
With all that being said, there is still more work to be done.While the artificial pancreas has finally been approved by the FDA, after years of work by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation(JDRF), it is by no means accessible to the masses. Through more donations, the JDRF will work towards making the artificial pancreas the norm in Type 1 Diabetes care while also trying to find a cure so no one has to live with it anymore.
I highly encourage making a donation to the JDRF at www.jdrf.org or at least sharing this article so more people are aware of this far reaching illness. I believe that awareness as important as donations. We've made progress but we won't stop till we find the cure and we need all the help we can get.
