No good or bad Type 1 diabetes.

There is no such thing as a good or a bad type of Type 1 diabetes. You either get diagnosed or not. There is no Pre-Type 1, we are not that lucky...not so for Type 2 diabetes.

The day my son with diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes will remain burned in my brain along with the day he was placed in my arms for the first time. I distinctly remember in the hospital on his diagnosis day when the Pediatric nurse told me my son had Type 1 diabetes that my first question was, "Does he have it bad?" She looked at me and smiled and said, "There is no better or worse, he has diabetes."

At the time, I had no idea what she meant. Now after being the main caregiver for a child living with Type 1 diabetes, I fully understand what she meant. You cannot have a little Type 1 diabetes, just like you cannot be a little pregnant, you either are or you aren't. You either have Type 1 diabetes or you don't.

Upon diagnosis you immediately require insulin from an outside source because the child's body cannot and will not make any more of it's own insulin. Without insulin the child will die. There is no good or bad, it is Type 1 diabetes, a life long disease that begins at diagnosis and ends...well, you know, in the end.

Now one of the main differences between Type 2 diabetes and Type 1 is that you can be diagnosed with Pre-diabetes which means that you are on your way to getting Type 2 diabetes. With great effort on the person with Pre-Diabetes there is a chance that they will not get the official diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes. Exercise, changing to a low carb or healthier diet, losing weight, can all possibly help a person with Pre-diabetes from actually getting Type 2.

There is no such option for people diagnosed with Type 1. When your child is diagnosed with Type 1 it is usually in the hospital. The child usually goes from being healthy to very sick seemingly overnight. Once the autoimmune process of the body begins to attack the cells in the pancreas, and it becomes apparent to the parent that something is not right, you usually have a very sick little boy or girl on your hands. No exercise, diet, low carb, water, or whatever else that can possibly prevent Type 2 diabetes can do anything for the child being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Once the child has it, he has it. Not good or bad. Not a little or a lot. Not worse or better. A child diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes will have that disease forever.