Episode 59: Raising Savannah

Keisha is the mother of Savannah. Savannah was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes in 2019 at 5 years young. For the first few years of her daughter's diagnosisKeisha searched for community, specifically for people that looked like herself and Savannah because that representation truly matters.One of her first obstacles was figuring out how she would care for/manage her daughter while she was in daycare. One thing that helped was that there was a booklet in a package from JDRF that talked about 504 plans. Being a single mom, that was her first community, and it helped catch her up to speed immediately.Savannah started showing symptoms by frequent urination and then losing a lot of weight over a 1-week period.Keisha took her for a well visit and they found glucose in her urine. She was then sent to the children's hospital.Because she had just started a new job, Savannah's father spent those first few days with her in the hospital.Keisha talks about how overwhelming this new diagnosis was. Everything from learning what CGM's were, to manually injecting insulin was all too much. She would break down often early on, while telling herself, "This can't be all." She had a lot of bad days at the beginning and told herself that she had to get out of her funk and reel it in! When Savannah was first diagnosed, Keisha did ask herself, "How can I date? How can I do things for myself?"Keisha also wonders how living with diabetes will affect Savannah as she does grow older and more mature.Savannah's hospital stay is a good memory. She remembers her father being there with her and playing with Legos. Now at 10, and soon to be entering middle school Keisha is teaching Savanna how to self-manage her diabetes.Keisha has a large following on TikTok @kreativefortune08 where she advocates for her daughter. People, even in her own family has had issues with her giving Savannah insulin in public and also hearing CGM alerts. She gets tired of explaining to people over and over again what T1D is. That is why she formed her TikTok so that loved ones would furtherunderstand what it was and how important it was.She has lacked support over these past 6 years. She has trainedfamily members but they still have no understanding of T1D and would rather just call 911. Keisha constantly thinksabout what would happen to Savannah if something were to happen to her considering that her father is notalive. Savannah's father was the only other person trusted with her care but recently he transitioned due to homicide.Keisha wonders how Savannah will get her supplies if something were to happen to her. Who would know what toget, how to order them and those nuisances.