November is Diabetes Awareness Month.
A six-year old Milton girl is hoping to bring some attention to the disease. Chloe Pow was diagnosed with diabetes two-years ago, when she was just four-years old. Chloe was diagnosed on October 31st, 2018, after her father, Conrad, had noticed that something was off with his daughter. She was urinating a lot, and nothing could quench her thirst.
Thankfully, as luck would have it, Conrad had just begun a new job in the field of diabetes and was able to get ahold of a test to use. Just before going out Trick R Treating, they used the test. It had gone from a light pink colour to a dark brown in the matter of seconds. Pow then rushed Chloe to Milton District Hospital and she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
Conrad adds that most children find out about their diagnosis after the passing out stage. He says his family was very fortunate that this was not the case for Chloe.
His and his wife’s first reaction was “why?” It’s unclear as to how Type 1 Diabetes is developed – it just kind of appears, says Conrad. Through the first stretch, he says they essentially became Chloe’s pancreas – the two were in charge of her insulin. They would go to her school, help her with the injections, and the process was smooth.
Then, they had to get back to their routine lives, and things had to change a bit. Luckily, Conrad and his wife were able to get a public nurse to help Chloe. That was great, but the issue was they didn’t know how her glucose levels were doing because the slightest change – whether it’s diet, exercise, weather, mood or stress – could change it in an instant.
How much do you know about diabetes? For Chloe, she now knows everything she can about the disease that’s affecting her. That’s thanks to Dexcom Continuous Glucose Monitoring technology that tracks what she needs to know as soon as possible. Conrad wants people to know how important this technology is for diabetics.
Conrad says the Dexcom CGM allows him, his wife, and Chloe to look at an app on an iPhone and see how her levels are doing and what she may need to do in case some adjusting is needed. That came in very handy because through the Dexcom CGM technology, they discovered that while Chloe was at school, she was experiencing dangerously low glucose levels before lunch. That means that every single day before getting the Dexcom CGM, while at school, Chloe could have gone into a coma.
It’s been a difficult year for the Pows due to COVID-19. Fortunately, none of the family members have contracted the virus. With diabetes, Chloe is not at an increased risk to contract the virus, but she is considered immunocompromised. That means that should she contract the novel coronavirus, it would be disastrous for her health.
Conrad says they are taking each day one at a time. Chloe is no longer attending a physical school for her education and is doing everything entirely online. They make sure that she gets fresh air and exercise, and when she goes out, she is sure to wear her mask; however, Conrad and his wife understand that she isn’t being as active as she would be if she were physically attending a school, and have therefore adjusted her insulin levels accordingly.
Despite the last two years of her diagnosis, Conrad says Chloe isn’t afraid of her diabetes – she’s okay with it; she has accepted that this is her life. She wants to become a role model for others, and she is always thinking of putting the world first.
You can follow the Pows story through a personal blog that they launched upon receiving Chloe’s diagnosis.
There is also an Instagram page dedicated to their ‘Type 1 Diabetes Journey’.
