A childhood that needs constant control

Sofia is a kind and cheerful 8-year-old girl. She was not ill with anything special, but last spring her life began to change. At first, she had occasional abdominal pain, then it became more frequent. The child was constantly hungry and wanted to eat every 2 hours. Sofia began to lose weight rapidly and lost 5 kg in a few months. She was constantly thirsty. When the doctor sent the child to take a glucose test, it became clear what was happening to the child's body all this time – all these symptoms were associated with extremely high blood sugar levels for a long time.

So Sofia was admitted to the hospital, and her acquaintance with insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes began. The girl's treatment schedule is strict. Daily insulin injections in the morning, evening and before each meal. A clear miscalculation of food through the scales. It was an extremely heavy burden for the family, let alone for the child. Sofia had to learn to live in a new way: to overcome her fear of injections, learn to inject herself and constantly monitor her blood sugar. After all, the cunning of this disease is that a person looks healthy on the outside, but in a matter of seconds can feel unwell and even lose consciousness. Low blood sugar affects brain cells. And high sugar levels can cause poisoning and severe complications. A child does not always feel low sugar, and does not feel high sugar at all, so to ensure a healthy life without complications, constant monitoring of blood sugar levels is necessary.

With the help of monitoring, a child can lead a full life without fear of falling asleep and not waking up, or going to school and fainting due to severe hypoglycemia, because monitoring allows you to see the real picture of glucose levels. And you can react in time to changes in the child's body.

Unfortunately, in our country, this monitoring is not provided by the state, so you need to buy them yourself. One sensor costs about 2,000 UAH and works for only 14 days. Sofia's mother works as a laboratory assistant at a factory, her father is an ordinary worker in the woodworking industry, and her grandmother is a teacher at a local kindergarten. Especially nowadays, it is very difficult to provide a child with everything she needs – to buy sensors, disposable needles for syringe pens used to inject insulin, alcohol wipes, lancets to check her sugar levels with a glucose meter. Even without the girl's illness, the family's financial situation allowed them to buy only groceries, pay for utilities and basic necessities. And in times of war, it has become even more difficult. The girl's mother is begging for help with her daughter's treatment.