Who Is a Diabetic Cookie discovered she had diabetes Type 2 in 1983, and since that time her diabetes has become progressively worse. The disease is so pervasive she couldn't ever answer in one sentence. To understand what it's like to come to school with diabetes, we offer a brief explanation for how diabetes operates in our system.
Food is turned into glucose or sugar for our bodies to use for energy.
The pancreas, an organ that lies near the stomach, makes a hormone called insulin to help glucose get into the cells of our bodies. When you have diabetes, your body either does not make enough insulin or cannot use its own insulin as well as it should. This causes sugars to build up in your blood. For Cookie diabetes has caused serious health complications which includes heart disease, kidney failure, lower-extremity swelling, and some blindness. In fact, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, which is a pretty scary fact to have bouncing around in your mind when you're trying to focus on academics.