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Juvenile diabetes hits home for Harrisburg family

Robin Gardner / rgardner@independenttribune.com

By Robin L. Gardner | Independent Tribune

Published: April 25, 2009

HARRISBURG — - Five-year-old Grace charms you with a flash of a shy smile, and welcomes you into her home. Standing slightly behind her mom, she giggles and tangles her feet while twirling her long blonde hair.
Grace looks and acts like any other 5-year-old, excited to talk to the stranger who has come to see her, but Grace isn't like other children. She has juvenile diabetes.
Grace was diagnosed three years ago.
"She was laying around a lot, which is unusual for her; she's the active one," said Hope Morris, Grace's mother. "She was drinking everything in sight, waking in the middle of the night, wanting something to drink. I finally called the doctor, and they saw us that night."
The doctor thought she looked fine, but Hope's intuition was telling her something else. She insisted the doctor do a diabetes test.
"Sure enough, the test came back, and her levels were in the high 300s," Hope said.
In most people, 70 to 110 is a normal read for blood sugar.
Type I or juvenile diabetes happens when the body has trouble regulating its blood sugar levels. Also called insulin-dependent diabetes, it's a disorder of the body's immune system, which is the system for protecting itself from viruses, bacteria or any foreign substances.
Grace was sent to Carolinas Medical Center-Charlotte immediately, and by the time she arrived her blood sugar was in the 700s.
"They put you in for two days," Hope said. "They pump you with all this information. You have to learn how to give her shots, meet with the dietician and learn what you can and cannot give her to eat. It's everything you need to know, and then they send you home. It's overwhelming."
Those two days gave her a fast education, but she was constantly on the phone with questions.
"I had no idea what diabetes was," Hope said. "I didn't know that if she didn't take her insulin, she would die."
She is still on the phone three years later almost daily. Grace's blood sugar spikes and drops constantly, and they aren't sure why. It's a battle to keep it at a safe level.
Grace has between seven and 10 shots a day, mostly in her stomach. Her finger is pricked several times for readings of her blood sugar level. There is a pump available that regulates insulin. It tests and injects what is needed, but for Grace, the pump hurts and rubs against her. She asked to go back to shots at the beginning of the school year, and has learned to give them to herself.
"Either my mommy or me do my tummy, but the pump I don't do anymore," Grace said.
"Luckily, there is nurse at her school," Hope said. "In the beginning, we were getting calls every hour. They have to contact me if her sugar levels go high."
"The nurse lets me do it myself," Grace announced proudly. "I can do it by myself now. You have to count to six before you pull it out."
Grace started giving herself the shots about three weeks ago, but she's been pricking her finger for a year.
"She wanted to," Hope said. "Ever since then, we watch, and we have to dial in how much insulin to give her, but she does a good job."
This may seem like a full-time job for a mother to handle, but Hope also has a 7-year-old son, Sean, and another daughter, Sydney, who is 17-months-old. She gets help from husband, Sean, but he works two jobs and is gone a lot. So much of the worry falls to her.
"We meet with the doctor every three months," Hope said. "Right now the doctor is baffled because her insulin is so erratic. Every time she eats food, instead of it gradually going up, it spikes up, and then the minute she gets insulin, it spikes down. It's supposed to be a gradual thing. Her body is just real sensitive."
Grace is the only one in the family who has diabetes.
Hope begins to tear up.
"She has to depend on insulin 24/7," Hope said. "I have to wake her up at night to give her the insulin shots. She screams and fights it, but we have to wake her up at midnight and three. She does go back to sleep, but getting her awake is hard. I don't blame her."
"I want people to know she can't outgrow it," Hope added, tearing up again. "That insulin is a life support. I want to get the word out. I want my child ...
"I think that since we saw she was normal, in most of her early pictures, and then, after she was diagnosed ... well, it's just hard. It's hard giving her shots. It's hard not letting her go places, spending the night at friends, mommy's always with her. It's just hard."
Grace asks why her mommy is crying, and gives Hope a huge hug.
"It's frustrating that people don't know much about it," Hope said. "I didn't until she was diagnosed with it. All the shots that she gets, and all that she goes through, no child should have to go through that."
"I love you Mommy," Grace said.
According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Web site, "Every hour of every day, someone is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, the most severe form of a disease that annually accounts for more than $100 billion in health care costs in the U.S. alone.
Usually striking before the age of 30, Type 1 diabetes takes a harsh toll on people. Not only will they be insulin-dependent for life, but also devastating life-limiting and life-shortening complications such as blindness, amputation, heart disease and stroke and kidney failure are an ever-present threat. Insulin is not a cure for the disease, it is merely life support.
Grace and her supporters will participate in a "Walk to the Cure" event at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium in Kannapolis on Saturday. Registration for the 3.1-mile walk will begin at 8 a.m. The walk will start at 10 a.m.
Donations in support of Grace's team, "Grace's Cowboys," can be made online at www.walk.jdrf.org.