I arrived on the unit one late summer night. Michelle A. told me she had a patient for me and I knew that patient might fall between being a cute infant with nervous parents to a confused elderly “jumper.” This time the patient was Jason, a 13-year-old, newly diagnosed diabetic. Now I should let you know why this patient was of interest to me. My husband, whom I grew up with, was diagnosed with diabetes at age 12. After we got married, his doctor told us we had a one-in-four chance that we could have a child develop diabetes. She was wrong. Rachael, my youngest, was diagnosed with diabetes at age 4 and Jessie, my oldest, was diagnosed at age 15.
When I entered the room, I found Jason asleep and Cathy, his mother, sitting in a chair, eyes red from crying. I introduced myself, and she said, “You’re the one they told me about. I have a million questions for you.”
After about a half an hour, I felt her most important questions had been answered. I told her “Get some sleep tonight and we’ll talk again in the morning.”
Jason was a deep sleeper, so that made it easy to sneak in and test his blood sugars. He barely woke for the insulin shots. When my shift ended, I returned to Jason’s room. He was eating breakfast. We talked about food and what to expect over the next few weeks. When I asked Jason if he had any questions, he said, “Yeah, what about soccer?”
Mom turns and says, “Oh no, you can’t play soccer!”
I said, “Why not? Exercise is good.”
It turned out Jason was on a very important competitive state team. As I talked about some of the things they could do to help keep his blood sugars from dropping too low, I had a thought.
I returned around 3 p.m. with my daughter Rachael. She was 12 years old and also into soccer. She and another diabetic girl on her team had put together a lot of helpful ideas for keeping their blood sugars up. When I entered the room, Cathy was talking to the school principal and school nurse. Jason was the first diabetic they had ever had and they were concerned about his needs. Cathy begged me to stay and help. Believe it or not, the principal wanted to know “if anyone could catch it.” I realized that not everyone sees things the same way. Several years ago, I found that by stating diabetes is a “metabolic disorder” instead of disease, people became more open to what I was saying. While Jason and Rachael talked soccer, I went to the diabetic educator’s office and got some information on hyper- and hypoglycemia. I then gave a little in-service information to the principal, school nurse, Cathy, and Jason’s father, Richard.
Though the adults were having trouble with the diagnosis, Jason only saw it as a little speed bump in his life.
He said, “I just want to get back to my friends and my game.”
By the next morning, Jason was drawing up his own insulin and giving himself shots. He left the next day.
I stayed in contact with Cathy for several years. They moved across the country and we eventually lost touch. While they were around, I heard that Jason decided to try the insulin pump. The school had another child diagnosed with diabetes. The school nurse asked Cathy and Jason to talk to this girl’s family, because they understood what her parents were feeling. Cathy told me it was because of what I did for them that she knew what she could do to help.
That first fall, Jason’s team won the state championship and Jason was named MVP by his team. Though the team would win many more championships, that was the biggest win for Jason.
Still River Road resident Charline Barron is a nurse at Emerson Hospital.