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Heroes are all around us
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Commentary by Jodi Smith -Gunfighter spouse 5/20/2008 - MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho --

There was no way ... no way ... our five-year-old son could be sick. Yes, he matched all the criteria listed on the Web site, but he couldn't have diabetes! That was for old people, healthy five year olds didn't get that. It was just a coincidence he had all the symptoms on the list we found when we searched the internet for information. There had to be a simple explanation for what was wrong with him, but I knew there wasn't. In that deep down part of my heart, I just knew something was wrong. I was so sure, I made his father take him to hospital the next day, postponing the concrete knowledge that our lives were about to drastically change in a few mere minutes. They had only been gone for 10 minutes, but I sat staring at the phone. Knowing it was going to ring, knowing what would be said, but praying that somehow I would be wrong. When the phone rang 25 minutes later, it didn't startle me. I was expecting it and knew who it would be before I answered. I was right -- it was my husband. But it was also someone I had never heard -- someone who could barely speak, someone who sounded like he was having trouble breathing, someone with tears in his voice who was using every ounce of strength he had to stay strong. And then those three words came out of his mouth. "He has it."

Those three words were the beginning of a new and different life for our family. Our healthy and happy and joyous five-year-old little boy was officially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Life went into warp speed, finding a neighbor who could come over and watch our little three-year-old daughter, getting someone to drive me to the hospital a few blocks away because suddenly I couldn't think straight and my seventh-month pregnant body felt frozen and wouldn't obey the screams in my head to get moving. I made it to the clinic, and they sent us off by ambulance to the Children's Hospital 90 miles away. The next few days were a blur as doctor after doctor tried to explain things to us -- nutritionists, psychologists, endocrinologists, pediatricians and more. What was I doing sticking a needle into my son's leg while three adults held him down and he screamed at the top of his lungs? After that, they brought me an orange to practice giving injections on. An orange, after I had already stuck my son! Just tell me what you can do to cure him. Give him medicine to make this go away. Do something to make this nightmare stop! Five and a Half Years Later Back when he was first diagnosed, all the doctors said he would accept his new reality and stop fighting. They said this would become normal for us, it would become routine and our lives would continue on, only it would be a new normal. I told them they were crazy, and in my head I screamed at them for their medical nonsense and their trite words.

But they were right. The days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and the months into years. There were a lot of bad days, scary days, downright hard days, but slowly the good days started outnumbering those, and we did return to a so-called normal life. Though in our new life, normal was blood testing, shots, insulin and food. Collin did stop fighting, he did accept it, and he's growing into an incredible young man who had to learn some hard lessons very early in life; self-control, when he went to birthday parties and could not eat any cake because it was not time to eat yet; responsibility, he always has to make sure he carries his supplies with him wherever he goes and check his blood sugar at set times a day; compassion, he understands what it means to be different and it shows in the way he treats other people; and so much more. When he was six, he got an insulin pump and life got so much easier. He could now eat whatever and whenever he wanted. We were still checking his number by poking his finger up to 10 times a day, but he could be without us for a couple of hours and we could stop getting up at 2 a.m. for a blood sugar check. Now he's 11 years old. He doesn't even ask us for help anymore. He checks his own blood sugar number, programs his pump alone and counts all the carbohydrates he eats by himself. He plays sports; baseball, basketball, soccer and roller hockey. He swims, hikes, camps, goes skiing and white water rafts. There is nothing he can't do. And because of that, he is an inspiration to other young children and their families who are newly diagnosed with this disease.

For all these reasons and more, Collin was chosen by the American Diabetes Association to go to Washington D.C., to speak to congressional members May 2. He made a wonderful advocate. The senators and representatives he met learned the difference between Type 2 Diabetes, which affects the majority of diabetics, and type 1, which is an autoimmune disease and has nothing to do with weight and most commonly affects children. He appealed for $20.8 million to be budgeted for the Centers for Disease Control for research, for a 6.6 percent increase in funding to the National Institute of Health for research and prevention, and for the ADA Restoration Act to be approved for five more years so more research can be done to find a cure. I watched and listened to him in amazement as he sat in senate office after senate office. He spoke with Idaho senators Mike Crapo and Larry Craig and Idaho Representative Mike Simpson. He showed them his supplies and explained how his insulin pump worked. Gone was the scared to death, screaming five-year-old who ran and hid every time I looked at my watch because he knew it was time to poke him with a needle again.

In front of me was a responsible, well spoken, compassionate 11-year-old young man who was willing to share his personal story and appeal to men who lead our country for more funding to find a cure to help him and children like him all over the country. Proud doesn't even begin to express what I was feeling. Yes, my son is a Type 1 Diabetic, but that doesn't define who he is. Who he is, is our hero. If you would like to find out more about type 1 or type 2 diabetes, or any of the above mentioned bills that we are trying to get passed through Congress, see the ADA Web site at www.diabetes.org. Type 1 Diabetes doesn't have to be a life sentence. With your help and support, Collin and all the other children like him have the hope of a cure in their lifetimes.