You find out that your immune system has destroyed half of the primary function of one of your organs. Then, you hope your insurance covers your new bionic “organ.”
Becoming a bionic person is not as glamorous as one might think. In fact, it’s pretty awful -- not only because you don’t turn into a cyborg with all of your new mechanical parts and take down evil while looking really awesome, but because you were also probably close to dying to get that bionic organ.
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There are many ways to gain a mechanical organ, whether it be through a car accident, an act of God, or a medical complication. For millions of people, the ability to gain a bionic organ comes from a biological failure within: their immune system decided to turn against them.
Allow me to explain. Type 1 Diabetes, or Diabetes mellitus type 1, is an autoimmune disease that affects the pancreas. The disease occurs when the immune system confuses the insulin producing cells of the pancreas as hazardous cells and attacks them, destroying the healthy cells until there are no more, or so little of them, left to produce insulin for the body. Insulin, as many of you probably know, is a hormone that helps to regulate blood sugar in the body and allow the body to absorb and use sugar as energy to keep it working from a cellular level. Without insulin, the body cannot absorb sugars in the blood correctly, leading to a multitude of problems which include: fatigue, intense thirst, weight loss, coma, and death in untreated cases.
Once a person has been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, they can begin to care for themselves properly. They can begin to take insulin to give their body the key it needs to being able to acquire the energy it needs. They can also monitor their blood sugar with the help of a tiny machine that takes a drop of blood and gives them a numerical reading which can then be used to figure out how much insulin to give themselves. These aids, along with doctor visits and diet and exercise, can all help to allow a diabetic person to live a long and healthy life, which is still a medical miracle today.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Kathy, what does this have to do with being a bionic human? To that I say, dear reader -- I’m so glad you asked!
In his article, “Artificial Pancreas System Aimed at Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus,” Paul Karoff discusses the newest insulin delivery system being tested this year for diabetic management. Karoff describes the system as “[a] closed-loop system consist[ing] of an insulin pump, a continuous glucose monitor placed under the user’s skin, and advanced control algorithm software embedded in a smartphone that provides the engineering brains, signaling how much insulin the pump should deliver to the patient based on a range of variables, including meals consumed, physical activity, sleep, stress, and metabolism.”
Basically, this new system consists of an insulin pump and a wearable blood glucose monitor, both of which have had variations of themselves on the market for some time. What’s so special about this particular system is the new software going into the monitor and pump and the patient’s phone, allowing the wearer of the technology to have more freedom and better care with their blood sugars.
But Kathy, you might ask, if there’s technology already on the market similar to this technology, why is this so important? Reader, your curiosity is a wonderful thing, and I’m so excited to answer your burning question!
Although insulin pumps and wearable blood glucose monitors have been available to patients for many years now, what’s different about this particular piece of tech is the software that they’ve put into the wearable monitor and made available to smartphones. Blood glucose monitors measure the amount of sugar in a patient’s blood. If that amount is too high, the patient must take a prescribed amount of insulin to allow the body to absorb the sugar, and if the amount is too low, the patient must ingest food or something with sugar in it to help balance their levels. Wearable blood glucose monitors help simplify this process because they can take a blood glucose reading several times an hour, letting the patient know when their levels start to rise or dip past a certain point. This early detection can help keep a patient’s levels at a regular interval rather than allowing the number to constantly rise and fall.
A more relatable example of this system would be the tire pressure light in your car. In a car with no internal tire pressure monitor, a driver must either check the tire pressure or guess the pressure based on how the tire looks and how the car drives. This system, for obvious reasons, isn’t the most effective way to keep your tires at their best. What if you don’t realize your tire is flat until it’s too late? Conversely, a car that has a built in tire pressure gauge can allow a driver to know when their tires begin to lose their pressure, giving the driver the ability to quickly fix the issue and keep their car running as well as possible.
A patient with a non-wearable blood glucose monitor doesn’t have as much precise control of their health versus a patient who does wear a blood glucose monitor. Unless they’re getting ready to eat, a patient with a regular monitor doesn’t usually test their blood sugar multiple times an hour, and so they must constantly be aware of how they are feeling, looking for signs of high blood sugar (hyperglycemia), and low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). These sign can sometimes manifest much later than what is considered “safe,” and can leave a patient in a bad situation -- such as being unable to acquire medicine, food, or help.
A patient wearing their monitor has more freedom allowed to them. Their monitor is constantly checking their blood sugar levels and can alert a patient when their levels begin to dip or spike into dangerous levels, allowing the patient a better handle on their disease by being able to keep their numbers more regular which will improve their quality of life as they get older. With diabetics, one of the most important parts of keeping yourself healthy is keeping blood sugar levels in a steady and consistent range. With a monitor that can alert you early about rising and falling blood sugars, this process becomes much easier.
Not only is this aspect of the new software fantastic, but the added features of its measuring abilities is also amazing. For instance, women experience hormonal changes monthly. These changes affect blood sugars. Having something that allows a wearer to better control their blood sugar levels during this time would help them stay feeling good, but also, let them feel better about their overall health in the future. Another example would be changing one’s metabolism. An example: someone starts running in the mornings. With this, their metabolism increases. This is a good thing! But it’s also a cause for worry in a diabetic. When your metabolism increases, your body absorbs sugar differently, meaning your old prescribed doses of insulin might not work correctly anymore. With a monitor that can detect these changes and alert the wearer of any blood sugar level changes, a diabetic can feel more secure about not having any issues arising from their new activity and allow them to continue without incident.
For a diabetic lacking this new technology, beginning a new exercise regimen can be terrifying. What if my sugar drops and I can’t tell it’s too low until it’s too late? What if later in the day after lunch, my number skyrockets or plummets because my insulin dose is wrong? These worries can stop a diabetic from experiencing new things due to fear of what might happen if they aren’t able to check their blood sugar in time and something ends up happening to them.
This fear is something I have experienced. If I didn’t make it obvious, I’m a Type 1 Diabetic, and have been since 2010. I was diagnosed while I was in high school, which meant that I already had certain activities and schedules I had to keep up, and I wasn’t going to let my new diagnosis stop me from these things. That was the case, until I experienced my first low blood sugar. It was terrifying. My body suddenly became weak and I felt like I was trembling. I was becoming sluggish mentally and physically, and I felt like I was losing control of my body because it wasn’t working the way I knew it should. Luckily, I was home when it happened and so I was able to have family with me through this scary experience.
After this experience, I was able to attribute the low blood sugar experience to too much physical activity. I became scared of going out and exerting myself. For almost a year, I was very cautious about my activity, keeping it at a certain level and making sure to test my blood if I felt different. Often, these extra blood tests weren’t necessary and ended up wasting a lot of expensive test strips I could have used later. It wasn’t until my brother made me go biking along a canal for several miles that I felt more secure about myself and what I allowed myself to do.
I’m considerably more active, now, then when I was first diagnosed, but even with all of my experience and knowledge, I sometimes still don’t catch my blood sugar in time and end up paying the price. If my blood sugar is too high, I become cranky, thirsty, tired, and feel pain all over; if my number is too low, I get spacey, shaky, distant, weak, and clammy. Either way, I feel terrible and the people around me worry for me, which is something I hate doing to them. It frustrates me often and makes me wish this disease were easier, even though I know that’s wishful thinking. But still, I hope.
For diabetics everywhere, this new technology is exciting and gives us hope for a life with less visits to the doctor and hospital. Hope for a life that isn’t filled with constant finger pricks and feeling lousy all day because of one bad blood glucose level. A life that allows us more freedom to say yes to going on adventures and trying new things because suddenly we’re not alone in our effort to stay alive because now, we have help. Although being a bionic human might not be your desire in life, it might be the thing that changes your life for the better. And besides, how many people get to say “Hello, my name is ______ 2.0.”
A wise man once told me, “Being diabetic is like trying to walk a tightrope in a strong wind.” Well, with this technology, us tightrope walkers can have a net right underneath us to catch us should we misstep or lose our balance, giving us the confidence and willpower to get back on that rope and keep walking.
Keep your fingers crossed that the trials for this new technology are successful, because if they are, new freedoms await us in a brilliantly new and brighter world.
