There are other children with Type 1 Diabetes in Ghana! Who knew?

Late Thursday afternoon, we met with a support group of other parents of children with diabetes here in Ghana. There weren’t a lot of people, but there were enough children there for Alexandra to finally understand that she’s not in it alone. The ages of the children ranged from 1 up to 14 years old. Some of them came with their mothers, fathers, aunties and in one case, grandfather. Not all of the individuals spoke English, some of them were clearly from remote villages, but I thought it heartening that they came all the way to Accra, battling crowded trotros with crazy drivers and long waits in traffic jams, to be a part of this group.

The meeting started out with Dr. Renner asking all of the children to introduce themselves – their name, age, school and how long they’d been “friends” with Dr. Renner. Again, the range was broad, Alexandra and 3 other children were all newly diagnosed, within the last 4 months, and a few of them had been with her for 10 years already.

The first guest of the day was really the most encouraging. Nashir is a 49 year old gentleman, of Indian descent, but born and raised in Ghana. At the age of 7, he was diagnosed with diabetes. He told of how difficult it was as a child, how he had lost almost half of his weight due to incorrect diagnoses for 4 months, and finally a doctor at the Military Hospital saying, “Hmmm, could this be diabetes?” He offered such encouragement, maybe not so much to the children who were busying themselves with the free food that Dr. Renner had begun handing out, but the parents were enthralled. He looked fit, trim and healthy, and his outlook on diabetes – as a disorder, not a disease – gave us all hope and reassurance. It is possible to live a long and healthy life, even here in Ghana!

The doctor was talking about nutrition, and I realized that she was aware of the (mis?)information from the dieticians because she indicated that children shouldn’t be restricted to a “finger” of this or “two fingers” of that, which is the way the dieticians describe the amount of food to eat. She understood that children need to eat to grow. With that in mind, she started passing food around. Oh boy.

Just prior to the start of the meeting, Alexandra had polished off half a dozen crackers and a small juice box. She really didn’t need all this food now, but I couldn’t deprive her, because everything looked so nice. First, juice boxes and then individual trays of fruit were handed out to the kids. Alex had both. Then they passed around sandwiches which we were told were “healthy” – consisting of tuna fish, lettuce and tomato on white bread. It looked nice, but Alex preferred the two meat pies that were handed out to the parents! So, she gobbled that down instead. Then cream crackers were passed around and some weird concoction that woman had donated – she claimed it was milk and juice mixed together, but it was warm and not so nice. A lot of whispering was going on as people sniffed and sipped, and I was reminded of one of the Little Rascals episodes… whisper whisper “don’t drink the milk, it’s poisoned.”

A clinical psychologist was on hand to talk to the children about difficulties, and the kids spoke of being upset that they couldn’t eat sweets like their friends could, and some were upset because they were singled out in school or being called “sickler,” which happened to one little girl who had passed out from low blood sugar. That little girl, well, I don’t think she’s got a glucose meter so she never knows how low she goes. Her mother saw me take out Alex’s meter to check her sugar at the end of the meeting, and asked to see it to show the girl’s grandmother.

The doctor singled me out to list some websites on the board which were very handy, and naturally I listed all of my favorites which have been so helpful to me. She also mentioned that a brochure would be available shortly and that Alexandra was going to be on the cover of it!

By the time we left it was almost 6:00 pm, and Alex was due for her insulin. She checked her sugar – 15.7!! – all that food, I guess. But I gave her her insulin and by the time we got home and she was ready for a snack, she was back to normal ranges.

I’m anxious for another parents’ meeting. Hopefully, by that time, I’ll have some donated meters to give out. These kids deserve a chance.