Night out triggers warning for diabetic teen

By Natalie Babic, Written for UPI

Published: Aug. 28, 2009 at 8:17 AM

When 19-year-old Julian Aroney-Smith passed out on a bus after a night out in the city last year, he suspected alcohol as the cause, even though he's "not a big drinker.”

“I felt really dizzy. I was sweating heaps and I felt like I would throw up,” he said, composed as he recalled the life-changing incident. “I really hadn’t had too much to drink. I passed out four hours after my last drink, so it was really weird.”

After that “episode,” as he referred to it, Julian noticed he was drinking a lot of water.

“I could go through a bottle of water every hour for a whole day and still be thirsty," he said.

Julian eventually visited a doctor. A blood test showed he had Type 1 diabetes.

Excessive thirst is one of the telltale signs, along with fatigue, dizziness and sore muscles, all of which Julian experienced.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas stops making insulin. Without insulin, the body cannot turn glucose, or sugar, into energy. With the other form of diabetes, Type 2, the pancreas makes insulin but the body doesn't use it effectively.

“My doctor told me that my blood sugar was above 30 and it’s meant to be around 5.5,” said Julian.

He received a “crash course” at his local hospital on how to deal with the illness. It was during one of those education sessions that the creative arts student realized his episode on the bus was linked to diabetes.

“I had what is known as a hypo," he explained. "They occur when your blood sugar levels get too low. That’s why I fainted. Who would have thought a night out in the city could have turned out in diabetes?”

Diabetes Australia data show about 3.2 million Australians have diabetes or are pre-diabetic.The International Diabetes Federation estimates 246 million people have diabetes and the number could rise to 380 million by 2025. It is the world's fastest growing chronic disease and the exact cause isn't known.

“Type 1 is genetic," said Raelene Elliott, a nurse working in St. George Hospital's diabetes education department. "You’re going to get it because basically you are born with it. Although an inactive lifestyle and poor food choices are not the cause, it doesn’t mean that a person should stop eating correctly and exercising.”

For Julian, the diagnosis was a surprise, given his previous good health and his family's history.

“It was really strange," he said. "Mum and I checked and no one that we know of in my family has ever had Type 1.”

To manage the blood sugar levels diabetics must match the amount of insulin to their intake of carbohydrates.

“When I was diagnosed, I was told I had to make sure I had three meals a day with snacks in between, which was a bit tough." Julian said. "I had to watch everything I ate but it’s just meant I’ve had to change some things around in my life.”

“I wasn’t so much as scared when I was diagnosed but I tried to be more accepting of it. Everyone has to deal with it differently. Everyone has different habits. In my case, because I’m fit and healthy, playing sport, I have to allow for exercise. Once you have accepted that, it’s more of a lifestyle change. It’s easier to deal with.”

However, one of the biggest hassles he faces is frequently checking his blood sugar levels and giving himself four insulin injections a day to reduce the glucose. One is long lasting; the others act fast.

“You need to know what you are doing," he said. "If you take too much long-lasting insulin, it means that you will have a hypo. It takes a while to work out your limits. I go out with my friends. I play sport. I play soccer every week, just like I used to before I was told I had diabetes.”

Julian said it's "ridiculous" that such a common disease is so misunderstood.

"No one knows anything about it," he said, "and generally what they do know is wrong. Take for instance when I fainted on the bus. If I had just left it and didn’t end up going to the doctor, I could have ended up blind or in a coma, even dead. No one recognized, not even me, that something was actually wrong.”

Nevertheless, he said he's confident his affliction will be beaten some day.

"Yep, there is going to be a cure," he predicted. "If there is anything that is going to be cured, it’s diabetes. It has to be.”

The story above was selected for publication from work submitted to UPI’s new initiative for aspiring journalists, UPIU. Click here to learn more about UPIU.

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