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Young diabetes patients get help understanding disease and its treatment at camp held by hospital
By Tracy Wheeler
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008
From her top bunk in the girls' cabin, 14-year-old Lauren Geib stops braiding a friendship bracelet long enough to inch up her T-shirt, grab a fold of skin near her belt, and give herself a shot of insulin.
Unfortunately, the camp counselors hadn't included her upcoming lunch when calculating how much insulin she needed. So a few minutes later, they were back with another syringe. Lauren sighed, then gave herself another shot.
''Is that it for now?'' she asked, with a hint of sarcasm.
Just diagnosed in January, Lauren already possesses a calm, it-is-what-it-is demeanor: She has diabetes, she needs insulin, so she gives herself shots.
No big deal. Except, of course, it actually is a big deal.
Diabetes is a serious disease with serious complications, including the possibility of heart disease, blindness, nerve damage and kidney failure. And it's getting more serious every year, as more and more Americans are diagnosed with the disease.
Most of the attention has spotlighted the increase in Type 2 diabetes, which used to be known as adult-onset diabetes. Closely linked to obesity, cases of Type 2 diabetes have expanded along with Americans' waistlines.
Lauren, though, has Type 1 diabetes, as do the other 17 teens attending Akron Children's Hospital's first diabetes camp last week at Camp Y-Noah in Green.
Though it doesn't always get as much attention, Type 1 diabetes — formerly known as juvenile-onset diabetes — has increased at alarming rates, too. And just as troubling, the disease is striking children at younger ages.
''We're seeing 2- and 3-year-olds with diabetes now,'' said Dr. William Riley, the hospital's director of pediatric endocrinology.
When he worked at the University of Kentucky 30 years ago, Riley searched the files of all juvenile diabetes patients in the university medical center archives and found just five cases of Type 1 diabetes in children under 5.
''Here, we probably see that many in a week,'' he said.
According to an article in the journal Diabetes, ''At the start of the 20th century, childhood diabetes was rare and rapidly fatal. By its end, some 3 to 4 children per 1,000 in Western countries would require insulin treatment by the age of 20 years . . . ''
The question is, why?
No one knows for sure, but the prevailing theory at the moment is that children's environments have become too clean. The idea is that children are not exposed to as many infections as past generations, so young immune systems are not properly ''trained'' to attack germs.
In Type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks the body's beta cells in the pancreas, which produce insulin.
''It may be that the immune system doesn't know how to react,'' Riley said, ''so it reacts wrongly.''
Whether cleanliness is the cause of this is still up for debate, but it's clear that part of the cause is genetic and part is environmental.
The Diabetes article pointed out that increases in Type 1 diabetes have been seen in ''genetically stable populations,'' meaning that genes alone are not to blame. ''It suggests that something has changed in the environment our children encounter or in the way they are reared,'' the paper said.
Whatever the cause, though, more children are being diagnosed at increasingly young ages.
10-15 cases per month
At Akron Children's, a child is newly diagnosed every 48 hours, Riley said, or about 10 to 15 new diagnoses a month.
''That's a lot of kids with diabetes,'' he said. ''And this is a lifelong disease with multiple injections of insulin every day. It's extraordinarily difficult.''
And that's why Riley decided it was time for Akron to have a diabetes camp — to help kids understand their disease, how their bodies react to the disease, and their treatment.
It's also a chance for the staff to see what the life of a diabetic is really like by spending an entire week with them, day and night, testing blood sugars and calculating insulin dosages.
''You'll get a better idea of how it feels and why sometimes they don't stick with it,'' said Camille Rice, a camp counselor and soon-to-be nurse practitioner in Riley's office.
For Lauren Geib, camp offered a chance to fit in. At Sandy Valley High School, only one other student has diabetes.
''It's nice to be here,'' she said of camp. ''It's nice to meet other people my age with diabetes.''
More importantly, though, Lauren learned to manage her condition better, said her mother, Rose Geib.
''She came back a completely different child,'' she said. ''She understood the importance of scheduling, of watching her blood sugar. It was really a defining moment. She figured out, 'Oh, OK, if I do it on a certain time frame, I'll feel better.'
''It's hard enough being a teen, let alone a teenager with diabetes.''
Facts:
In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas doesn't produce enough insulin, which ushers glucose (blood sugar) into cells to give them energy. Without insulin, too much glucose stays in your blood.
Type 1 diabetes is most often diagnosed in children and young adults. Symptoms include:
Being very thirsty.
Urinating often.
Feeling very hungry or tired.
Losing weight without trying.
Sores that heal slowly.
Dry, itchy skin.
Losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet.
Blurry eyesight.
Source: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Tracy Wheeler can be reached at 330-996-3721 or tawheeler@thebeaconjournal.com.
From her top bunk in the girls' cabin, 14-year-old Lauren Geib stops braiding a friendship bracelet long enough to inch up her T-shirt, grab a fold of skin near her belt, and give herself a shot of insulin.
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