Most people freak out when they hear the word “diabetes.” It’s an unmanageable and unpredictable disease. But it’s not the same for Nada. Nada is a mother to a now 2.5 year old and has T1 diabetes. In her daily life, she uses the device Freestyle Libre.
She felt her condition was often used against her to keep her from doing activities like sports or going to study abroad. Nada also struggled to manage her diabetes when she was a teenager as there’s a lot of information to digest and it was difficult to understand diabetes is a lifestyle and it requires everyone’s involvement
Type 1 is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. Only 5% of people with diabetes have this form of the disease. In type 1, the body does not produce insulin. The body breaks down the sugars and starches you eat into a simple sugar called glucose, which it uses for energy.
Most people with the condition have type 2. The pancreas makes a hormone called insulin. It’s what lets your cells turn glucose from the food you eat into energy. Unlike T1, People with type 2 diabetes make insulin, but their cells don’t use it as well as they should. Doctors call this insulin resistance.
Nada says diabetics have to be very smart, like mathematicians, making calculations all day to manage their condition – something made easier by having up to date information, removing a lot of the guesswork involved.
Diabetes may cause depression for many people. The American Psychiatric Association found that the prevalence rate of depression in females was double the rate in males. The American Diabetes Association has concluded that women experience depression twice as frequent as men, and that depression increases in women with diabetes.
Despite all the difficulties, Nada hopes to raise awareness about the possibility about managing diabetes and to break down misconceptions that diabetics need to be excluded from activities or schools.
Nada is definitely one of the superhero moms. She is a great example of an Arab woman who has broken the barriers of Diabetes and lives her life to the fullest despite her illness and is teaching her son the same.
