JDRF

JDRF

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation  

My Story:

When I was in second grade, I was constantly thirsty, needing to go to the bathroom a lot, always tired, losing weight, and never had energy to do fun activities.  

When my parents realized something was up, they told me I had to get a little prick on my thumb, with a special meter. I complained, because I was scared it was going to hurt. When I finally had enough courage, the pricked my finger and a little bubble of blood tricked out.

They used to meter to suck up the blood. When they did that. It said “HI” which means over 599. Then, my parents knew.

They rushed me to the emergency room, and they put an IV in me. Right when it kicked in, I vomited. A LOT. That was because I was very dehydrated. I went through 2 IV bags in less than an hour.

The next morning, a nurse came in and explained that I had something called DIABETES. She explained that diabetes happens when something in your body called a PANCReAS does not produce a hormone called insulin. When it does not produce the hormone, the sugar that you eat to make energy, just goes into your blood. It goes higher and higher and higher and that's why you start to not feel good. It can be very dangerous. If it stays like that for a long time, you can ever pass away in your sleep, lose a leg, go blind, and lose a lot of weight like I did. The nurse also told me that you can not get diabetes from eating too much sugar, or not exercising.

When she was done explaining about diabetes, my doctor came in and said, if I wanted to get better, I had to take five or six shots a day. I would also have to prick my finger six to eight times a day. It would be hard at first, and I would have to be brave.

But, here I am now, in fifth grade, and I have a pump. I have hope that we will hopefully find a cure soon. Diabetes does not stop me!

In October my school will help me by bringing awareness of diabetes and raising money to find a cure. Tee shirts will be for sale soon! Students can also buy chances to guess at how many Legos are in the jar. We will also have hat day. Last year we raised $2,720!!

Josie S. 5th Grader
Shaw Elementary