Birmingham family tells how they live with diabetes

Sep 15 2009 by Diane Parkes, Birmingham Mail

MUM Karan Coffey could not understand what had happened to her son. Six-year-old Mathew had never been a naughty child but over the last few days he had become a nightmare to control.

Having just undergone an operation and had chicken pox, she realised he had been through a difficult time but she had not expected his behaviour to change as a result.

“He was like a demon child,” she recalls. “He would eat his dinner and then just go mad and start shouting and throwing things around. I could not understand it at all. I kept thinking what have I done for him to change like this?”

At the same time Mathew of Castle Vale was showing other changes.

“He was drinking all the time and wanting the loo all the time,” Karan says.

One night while lying in bed Karan realised what could be causing the problems.

“It just suddenly came to me that it could be diabetes,” she says. “So the next day I took him to the doctor and he did a test and we went straight to Heartlands Hospital.”

There the diagnosis was confirmed and Mathew spent two days in the hospital while doctors regulated his blood sugar levels.

But that was only the beginning for the family.

“The staff at the hospital were really good, they still are,” says Karan. “But they give you all this information and you then just have to go away and get on with it. You have to start doing the injections immediately and there is nothing you can do about it.

“It is really difficult but they told me I would have to do it as there wasn’t anyone else who could.”

Initially Mathew had to have two insulin injections a day but just a few weeks ago that was increased to four. The diabetes also means everything he eats and everything he does has to be monitored.

“You are suddenly having to do all of that and you do feel a bit lost,” says Karan. “But you do get used to it. You just need to be careful of the glycaemic index on all the foods. You become good at reading the labels.

“But each day can be different depending on what Mathew is doing – there is no such thing as an ordinary day. If he is doing sport, or going to a party or doing anything which will use up energy that has to be taken into account.”

But Karan’s job is made easier because Mathew, now 11, is good at managing his own condition. He began doing the injections himself a couple of years ago and Karan says he is sensible with what he can and cannot do.

“He has always been really good,” she says. “He doesn’t tend to want sweets and knows how to manage it.

“It isn’t easy but you do all get used to it.”