[IPp] Our 15 Minutes
Here is a story done on the local families dealing with Type 1 Diabetes.
The pic is of me reducing Cole's basal before he went out to ride his bike
with the photographer.
http://www.dcourier.com/1.BigArticlePhoto.asp?p=48798a.jpg
http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&subsectionID=1&articleID=48798
Families struggle with disease: Walk aims to raise money, awareness
By T.M. SHULTZ, The Daily Courier
<http://www.dcourier.com/1.BigArticlePhoto.asp?p=48798a.jpg> + click to
enlarge
<http://www.dcourier.com/1.BigArticlePhoto.asp?p=48798a.jpg> Rachel
Allbright checks the insulin pump of her 9-year-old son, Cole Neufeld,
before he takes a bike ride in Skull Valley Tuesday evening.
The Daily Courier/Nathaniel Kastelic
Friday, October 19, 2007
Imagine stabbing yourself in the finger every couple of hours.
Imagine giving yourself shots several times a day or at least every three
days.
Imagine doing complicated math computations before you put anything in your
mouth or exert yourself in any way.
Now imagine that you're a child doing all this, and imagine that it will
never stop.
Some families in the Prescott area do not have to imagine any of this. They
live it every day.
The disease is Type 1 diabetes and it often strikes in childhood, although
adults can get it, too.
In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not make any insulin or makes very little.
The body needs insulin to convert carbohydrates into energy. Without
insulin, the body turns on itself in an effort to get the energy it needs.
Without the proper treatment, death is the only outcome. Even with
treatment, the risk of death from all causes is twice as great among people
with all types of diabetes than it is for people without diabetes, says the
National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse.
Another type of diabetes, called Type 2 diabetes, mainly occurs in adults,
although in recent years, more and more children are getting it. Experts
think that is happening because more children are overweight. Obesity is
often a trigger for Type 2 diabetes.
In Type 2 diabetes, the body does not use insulin as effectively as it
should. However, with Type 2 diabetes, proper diet, exercise and weight loss
usually can control the disease without having to resort to shots and needle
pricks throughout the day.
"This whole pricky-finger thing is really a pain in the butt," said
9-year-old Cole Neufeld of Skull Valley. Cole has had Type 1 diabetes since
he was 2 years old. "In fact, this whole diabetes thing is a pain in the
butt."
His mother, Rachel Allbright, sits in her mom's living room - where she and
Cole live while she finishes nursing school - and laughs, surprised by her
son's bluntness.
The two will walk in today's Step Out to Fight Diabetes event on the
Yavapai/Prescott Indian Reservation. Planners hope to raise money to look
for a cure for the deadly - and expensive - disease, whether Type 1 or Type
2.
"A bottle of insulin costs about $70," says LaDawn Dalton, a Prescott Valley
mother of four boys who have Type 1 diabetes.
Originally all four boys were getting several shots a day as well as finger
pricks to test their blood for insulin levels. Now they're all on insulin
pumps, as Cole is. The pumps require only one shot every three days, when
the user changes the pump site. Finger pricks throughout the day are still
mandatory.
Test strips for the finger pricks cost anywhere from 60 cents to a dollar
each. And it costs $10 every three days when the boys move the pump
injection sites. Each of them can change the injection site on his own.
Laura Markey's 9-year-old daughter, Alyson, has the disease. Her insulin
pump cost $6,000. Insurance pays for only part of it, Markey said.
"The scary part of it is when she becomes an adult, she's going to become
uninsurable," the Prescott mom added.
But somehow the family will work through that, she says. After all, Alyson
almost died before her parents learned she has the disease. The doctors
thought she had the flu. Then she became delirious and could not walk.
Eventually a medical helicopter flew her to a Phoenix hospital, where
doctors made the correct diagnosis.
"She was in a coma for two days. It was horrible," Markey said.
Equally horrible were the four shots and six needle pricks Markey and her
husband had to learn to give Alyson each day.
"She'd be angry with us and cry. We hated it, but we knew if we wanted her
to live, we had to do it," Markey said.
Simple things like eating a meal or even just a snack are problematic for
people with Type 1 diabetes.
"You have to monitor everything they eat," Dalton said. At one point, her
four boys had to eat seven times a day to manage their blood sugar and
insulin levels.
Getting teenagers to stay on top of things, she says, is hard: "They think
they're invincible."
If they do not correctly match the amount of insulin in their injections to
the amount of carbohydrates they are eating, they could end up in a coma.
Why did four of her five children get Type 1 diabetes?
Dalton says she does not know. Neither does her family doctor. He once told
her, "When they ask you what causes the disease, tell them the doctors have
no idea," she said.
Which is why today's walk is so important, she continued. Raising money for
research to find a cure for diabetes - or at least to find more answers - is
critical.
People do not realize how insidious this disease is, Allbright said. For
seven long years Cole's mom got up between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to check her
son's blood sugar level.
"I've found severe highs and severe lows," she says.
She never misses a night.
The hardest thing, she and the other mothers say, is that they can never
relax, never leave their children with anyone, except perhaps briefly with a
grandparent.
"I feel so bad for the parents who don't have a support network," Allbright
said. "Educate yourself and reach out.
It's going to get easier, even though it seems like it's the end of the
world."
--
Rachel
Please Support Cole & me on our walk to cure type 1 diabetes!
http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=86858855
http://www.jdrf.org/arizona
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