Let's help Hlib avoid new complications

Hlib grew up a healthy, cheerful, and joyful boy. No one could have imagined that a routine annual medical check-up before kindergarten would divide the family's life into "before" and "after."

That day, Hlib and his mother were on their way to the hospital. Getting off the trolleybus, the boy suddenly sat down on the curb and said he was very tired. For an active five-year-old, this was unusual. His mother picked him up and carried him to the hospital. There was a smell of acetone coming from Hlib. The doctors were rushing around, the glucometer readings were off the charts, and his mother could not understand what was happening to her child. Shortly after, they were urgently taken to the endocrinology ward. It was there that they heard the diagnosis that would change their lives forever – type 1 diabetes.

Fear, tears, despair, endless tests – life with the illness forced them to learn to count every gram of food, monitor every blood sugar reading, and live in a state of constant vigilance. But over time, Hlib changed greatly. Once an open and cheerful boy, he became withdrawn and quiet. He finds it difficult to express himself, to show his feelings and emotions. Sometimes he becomes irritable when he is not understood.

The most frightening ordeal for his mother came one night when, due to a critically low blood sugar level, she almost lost Hlib. From fear, panic, and confusion, she could not even measure his blood sugar, because her hands were trembling so badly that the glucometer kept slipping from her grasp. It was glucagon that saved Hlib's life that night, which his mother managed to administer in time. After that incident, they switched to continuous glucose monitoring sensors to see his readings around the clock and not miss dangerous changes in blood sugar.

Managing his diabetes is not easy for Hlib. Due to his age and character, he does not always understand the consequences of his actions. Diabetes demands constant discipline, which is very difficult for a child.

Unfortunately, the illness has already caused problems with the blood vessels in his legs, and he had to undergo eye surgery. In addition, Hlib has dysgraphia and dyslexia, which make it harder for him to study, read, and write. High blood sugar makes him tearful and irritable, while low blood sugar leaves him exhausted and lethargic. At school he often keeps to himself. He finds it hard to make friends and to feel like an ordinary teenager.

His mother is always by Hlib's side, surrounding him with love, attention, care, and support. Despite all the difficulties, they do not give up. And while science searches for a cure for diabetes, modern diabetes management technologies help them – giving Hlib the chance to live more safely, to study, to dream, and to simply be a child. A continuous glucose monitoring sensor is not simply a device. It is the boy's safety day and night, the ability to avoid dangerous episodes, to preserve his health, and to prevent the development of further complications.

We ask you to support Hlib in purchasing sensors. Every contribution is one more day of peace of mind for his mother, one more step toward better diabetes management, and one more opportunity for this boy to live, study, dream, and be an ordinary teenager.