KMBZ: Coping Without a Cure, A Family Struggle

New technology is helping diabetes sufferers, and their parents, keep track of blood sugar and react in a timely manner, but the new devices have their drawbacks.

"The beeping on the phone, it keeps flashing, and there are days where it's beeping a hundred times a day and you think you're going to lose your mind," said Katie Harris, the mother of a 10-year-old boy with the Type I diabetes.

Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The immune system attacks the pancreas and kills all of the cells that produce insulin, a hormone that allows the body to process sugar into energy.

"It's really tough to deliver that news to a family," said Dr. Ryan McDonough, a pediatric endocrinologist at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. "To essentially tell them about a chronic life-threatening disease an hour and a half ago they didn't have any idea about."

High blood sugar is not the only problem with diabetes sufferers. The consequences of low blood sugar are immediate, and can be deadly, especially at night, when a child can sleep through the highs and lows, never aware that their sugar levels are out of whack.

Read the full story via KMBZ

Learn more about Endocrinology and Diabetes at Children's Mercy