Jantsen Brinkley can’t remember not having diabetes.
The 14-year-old, a freshman at Loganville Christian Academy, was
diagnosed with Type I?Diabetes at 11 months old, and has strived to
contain his disease since infancy.
“It was very difficult,”?said his mother, Tammy Brinkley. “The
younger years were very difficult, giving him shots of insulin,
having to hurt him to keep him alive. But it’s gotten better.”
Without any frame of reference, having diabetes is just business
as usual for Brinkley. He uses a insulin pump to regulate his blood
sugar and meets with the school nurses, Stephanie Bruno and Alison
Lassiter, daily to check his levels and eat his specially-prepared
lunch.
But he’s still a normal kid in many ways, going to camp in the
summer, playing on the football team at LCA and doing his best to
be one of the guys.
“It’s a lot of responsibility,”?Brinkley said. “You have to make
sure you eat the right things, count carbs, not eat too much sugar.
It’s just a lot to do.”
And it’s not always easy.
“When all my friends can eat cake and ice cream, it’s hard
because I can’t have it,”?Brinkley said.
But he’s determined to make sure others can in the future, as he
and his family are walking in the Walk to Cure Diabetes event,
sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Oct. 16 in
John’s Creek.
“I’m looking forward to it,”?Brinkley said. “I?think it will be
pretty fun walking with people I?know.”
Brinkley’s mother credits LCA for being so supportive of her son
and said he couldn’t have handled his condition with more
aplomb.
“He’s had an awesome attitude,”?Tammy?Brinkley said. “I?couldn’t
ask for better.”
For Brinkley, it’s all just life as usual.
“It’s not too embarrassing,”?he said. “But it is a lot of stuff
to remember.”
