DIABETES RESEARCH: Talk the Talk, and Walk the Walk

GUEST COLUMNIST One morning about two years ago, my 17-year-old son again complained of a sprained neck muscle. I told him it was unlikely the doctor could do much to help, but I took him any way. "Not much I can do to help the muscle, but is there anything else I should know about?" I thought for a moment and told the doctor that he had been exceedingly thirsty. He's also been very irritable, but he was a teenager after all. I felt a bit like an alarmist but he agreed to run the test.

My son and I waited for the results that would certainly cross diabetes off the list. Soon, the doctor walked in and my heart sank when I saw his expression. Our world had just changed.

I often wonder what would have happened if my son had not sprained his muscle or if I didn't know that unquenchable thirst was a symptom of diabetes.

"What is diabetes? Am I gonna die?" my son asked. I was wondering the same thing. I assured him that many thousands of people had this and he would live to be an old man. I tried to remain calm and collected as though this was no big deal. Honestly, I had no clue about Type 1 diabetes.

The doctor answered our questions -- questions that now seem ridiculous -- "Did I feed him too much pasta? Did he eat too much candy?" He explained that Type 1 (also called juvenile diabetes) has nothing to do with anything my son did or ate, and unlike diabetes that adults can get that is brought on by diet and other factors, one day his pancreas simply stopped making insulin. And without insulin to control his blood sugar, he would die. This meant many injections a day, every day, for the rest of his life. I try to put my son's expression at learning this out of my head.

JUST AS WE were walking back into our house, my head still swimming, my mother called. How was I going to tell her? She asked in a very concerned voice if I was OK. How could she have possibly gotten the news already? It didn't make any sense. After some confusion on both our parts, she told me to turn on the news.

There aren't words to describe how we all felt when we learned what happened that morning at Virginia Tech. As a Tech alumna, I'm still in disbelief that this happened at my school. For a few minutes, I was distracted from our personal drama.

Then it hit me.

My son wasn't in Norris Hall that day, April 16, 2007. He'll get through his challenges. He's alive. At the exact time he was being told he was a Type 1 diabetic, 32 innocent people were losing their lives. I thought about the victims' parents. They won't find a cure to bring their children back, but maybe I can help find one for mine. Since that time, I've been trying to help raise money for diabetes research.

Until that unforgettable day, I didn't consider myself a worrier.

Now I worry every day that my son's blood sugar will drop and he'll go into a coma. I worry he'll eat too much sugar or he won't have his prescriptions filled before they run out. I worry he'll lose his needles and that he'll one day lose his sight or a limb, as some diabetics do. I worry that he'll be turned down for health insurance when he's on his own. I worry about that one a lot.

I'M CONCERNED that, in these economic times, people will stop donating to organizations that fund research for diseases that afflict those they love. Now, every time I consider buying something unnecessary, I think that perhaps that amount is exactly how much more money is needed to perfect the artificial pancreas, or discover a breakthrough that will mean my only child won't have to inject himself countless times over his lifetime. I buy fewer of those unnecessary items. I don't get pedicures. I can paint my own doggone toenails.

My feet may not look quite as good as they once did, but they're being put to better use. I've started a team for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's fundraising walk on Sept. 20. Contributing to causes that spend almost every penny they raise on research has become increasingly important to me.

I feel very hopeful these days. And sometimes, I even feel lucky. I still worry, but I'm a mom. That's my job.
Dawn K Waters, director of communications for VCUarts, volunteers for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Contact her at , and find out more at http://www.jdrf.org/centralvirginia.