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Lauren administers her own dose, eats her meal and goes about her day. The family is trying to keep things as normal as possible.
Lauren said she is getting used to the injections and the routine needed to manage her diabetes — something she needs to do to stay alive.
“At the start I was a little scared,” she said.
Though she found out about her diabetes in mid-October, Lauren took part in trick or treat with friends.
“We sold some of our candy,” Lauren said.
No other family members have diabetes, and the diagnosis came “out of the blue.”
There are 19 students in the Fond du Lac School District managing type 1 diabetes: elementary (6); middle (6); and high school (7), according to Marian Sheridan, coordinator of school health and safety programs.
Routine is key
John Coon IV, a teacher at Sabish Middle School, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes shortly after graduating from high school nearly 20 years ago.
“It was a life-changer at the time,” he recalled. “I was used to downing cheeseburgers at Hardee’s and that was an adjustment before college. Once you get the hang of it and learn how to adjust your life, it’s a very livable disease.”
Routine, he said, “makes it very easy” to manage.
Coon said diabetes is prevalent on his mother’s side of the family.
His family and a large team from Sabish take part each year in the diabetes walk. Coon and his father also hosted a brat/burger fry at the school recently, with proceeds benefiting the juvenile diabetes cause.
Courage
Mark Jurgella said he is surprised that there is still no cure for diabetes and no transplants of the pancreas, the organ that is defective in generating and regulating insulin.
He and his wife are proud of the way their daughter is handling the treatment and the change in lifestyle that has removed spontaneity in eating. Lauren has to be much more accountable than a typical 9-year-old child.
“It’s a life-changer and she’s handling it well,” he said of a condition that she will not outgrow.
The family urges parents who see symptoms similar to those they saw in Lauren to take their child to a doctor for a blood test.
