“It’s changed our lives”

_{Archive footage reproduced by kind permission of Rick Cresswell.}

We’d like to open with a video of Emma describing what a difference genetic testing has made for her son Jack, who was born at 38 weeks gestation with a birth weight of just 2kg and was diagnosed with diabetes at just 17 days old.

Jack’s blood glucose was very high, he was vomiting and was in diabetic ketoacidosis, a condition where the body can’t metabolise blood glucose and instead breaks down fats, causing build-up of harmful ketones. Jack was started on insulin immediately. There was no known family history of diabetes.

It was exhausting, absolutely exhausting, because his blood glucose would go from one extreme to the other. One minute his blood glucose would be 20 and then it would be 2 and you’d be running milk and hypo stuff into him. Emma (Jack’s Mum)

Managing diabetes in such a young child is extremely difficult and, despite frequent monitoring of Jack’s blood glucose and regular insulin injections, Jack’s family found his diabetes very hard to control. Watch the video to hear more about their experience.