Living with diabetes a learning experience

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A child's first day of kindergarten can be an emotional roller coaster for both child and parent in the best of circumstances. Kara Soltys and her family rode a different coaster all together approximately six years ago when she got on the bus for the first time, having recently being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Formerly known as "juvenile diabetes," diabetes mellitus type 1 afflicts approximately 5 to 10 percent of the near 21 million people living in North America that are afflicted with diabetes. It is an autoimmune disease resulting in the permanent destruction of insulin-producing cells of the pancreas in which the resulting lack of insulin causes an increase of blood glucose. The first clear symptoms of the condition include frequent urination and continous eating or drinking.

"I don't remember being scared at all," said Kara, who was 5 at the time of her diagnosis.

Her mother, however, remembers that she was immediately upset and wondered what she could have done to prevent the onset of the diabetes.

She also said that, though it sounds silly in retrospect, some of her first thoughts were how she was going handle kids' parties now that her kindergartner had diabetes.

After a three-day crash course at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh on living with the condition, Mrs. Soltys and her husband, Brian, understood there is no form of prevention for type 1 diabetes, though research agencies like the American Diabetes Association are attempting to discover means of preventing or delaying the onset of the condition.

"They work like a well oiled machine," Mrs. Soltys said of the hospital. She said they could call the hospital any time they needed, which at the outset was almost every time Kara ate, and they experienced little or no delay in having their questions answered.

It was a learning experience at first, having to keep track of how many carbohydrates were in what foods, but there was nothing Kara wasn't allowed to have. Mrs. Soltys said she was advised to keep things normal because it is human nature for people to crave the first thing they're told they aren't allowed to have.

Kara was, however, forced to eat on a very strict schedule at the beginning, as a dosage of long-lasting insulin would have to cover her for the carbohydrates consumed at breakfast and lunch and another for her other meals and snacks for the day.

"It was horrible," Kara said, as she had been accustomed to eating as much as she wanted when she wanted until her diagnosis.

The situation caused a different kind of stress for the rest of the family. Mrs. Soltys recalled on the way home from Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh that they were caught in traffic and wondered where they would find something for her to eat if they were still caught in traffic at mealtime. She also said she experienced anxiety about the closing of Wallaceton-Boggs Elementary School because it meant an extra 15 or 20 minutes a day on the bus in which something could go wrong.

Those anxieties were lessened in October when Kara switched to the Animus insulin pump, which allows her to determine the number of carbohydrates she will be consuming during a meal and her blood glucose level, then program the pump to release her insulin accordingly.

Despite being diagnosed with a life-lasting condition at such an early age, Kara is not inhibited in the least by the condition.

Last summer she attended a diabetes camp at The Pittsburgh Presbytery Crestfield Camp and Conference Center in Slippery Rock, where the activities ranged from hiking and swimming to exploring the clay pits in the area. The children also participate in a number of arts and crafts and hear from a number of guest speakers afflicted with the condition.

One such speaker was William Cross, a type 1 diabetes patient who climbed Mount Everest in 2004.

The main goal of the camp is to show diabetes patients can enjoy normal and productive lives, and everyone in attendance, from the counselors to the children, has been diagnosed with diabetes.

Kara said that when she is old enough she hopes to return to the camp as a counselor like some of the people she met there two summers ago.

Mr. Soltys also noted his daughter has never been treated with anything but polite curiosity from her peers regarding her condition.

"No one's ever made fun of me because I have it," Kara said.

"I think they've even learned a lot," added her parents.

The biggest of those learning experiences came last year when the Soltys family and the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District teamed to raise almost $11,000 for the American Diabetes Association by way of the School Walk for Diabetes program.

The money was raised in two school-wide competitions, the first of which was a "penny war." Jugs were placed outside each classroom and students could drop pennies or dollars in that jug to earn their classroom one point for each cent contributed. Classrooms would attempt to thwart rival classrooms by placing silver coins into the jugs, decreasing that room's overall score.

A second competition, a "backpack race," saw an additional $600 contributed to the fundraising effort. Mrs. Soltys said the competition consisted of students purchasing paper backpacks labeled with their name and room number for a cost of $1. They were then placed on a racetrack set up on the first day of the fundraiser, and the competition ended when one classroom had purchased and placed enough backpacks on the track to reach the finish line.

"It was unreal," said Mrs. Soltys. "Every night we were just shocked." She said families are already approaching them in the community to say their jars are set to go.

They won't have to wait long to be put to good use, as Mrs. Soltys said a kickoff assembly is set for Oct. 20. The backpack race and penny wars will get under way Oct. 27, with the actual walk set for Nov. 6.

Mrs. Soltys said the goal of $1,000 set for the first year was obviously too low since it was shattered by such a significant amount. This year's goal will be $5,000.