After-school club for kids with diabetes in Delaware

Here's a great story I recommend everyone read.

There is nothing more nerve-wracking than sending your child with diabetes off to school everyday not knowing for sure whether she is going to the support she needs on campus from the adults there or how the kids are going to treat her.

Here's a story about a school district in Wilmington, Delaware, where they have an afterschool club for kids with diabetes where they learn about giving themselves shots, checking their own blood sugars and not using the disease as a reason to give up. Great story! Send the reporter a note letting her know how much we appreciate her work!

Students help each other cope with disease
Never before had Justin Laznik felt the stab from a shot of insulin he injected himself. Sure, the 9-year-old had pricked his finger for what seemed like zillions of times to test his blood sugar. That's what he learned to do after he was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes last year. He tests his blood four or more times a day.

But it was his mom or dad or, during school, his school nurse, Loretta Newsom, who poked his stomach with the doses of insulin that make up for what isn't made inside his body.

Justin knew his friend, Robert Mixon, a fifth-grader at Cedar Lane Elementary School in Middletown, injected himself. He'd even seem him do it. Robert also talked about how he pays careful attention to his diabetes by checking his blood regularly and carrying a juice box in case his blood sugar runs low.

So, at the last meeting of the Sugar Busters diabetic club, Justin aimed the insulin pen at his stomach and pushed the plunger, administering his first shot. "No big deal," he shrugged when talking about it the next day, though his wide grin betrayed his stoic words.

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Inspiring story/stem cells and faith

It's been quite some time since we've updated the site. I'm back on top of things and should return to the habit of posting regular updates from the world of diabetes research and happenings as well as fund-raising ideas and information for the upcoming walk in October. Here is some interesting reading:

A Sunday stroll could bring a cure to millions
For Buffalo News columnist Jerry Sullivan, juvenile diabetes became very real after learning that the 9-year-old son of a childhood friend had been recently diagnosed. Sullivan had marveled for years at the sports figures he covered who played while treating themselves for diabetes. With the disease striking so close to home, Sullivan writes about his new motivation to join the Walk to Cure Diabetes.
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Stem-cell research: A matter of faith?
Advances in medical science can cause troubling conflicts for those holding dear religious beliefs. Stem cell research is the current lightning rod for the debate with many pro-life advocates erroneously linking stem cell work with abortion. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal carried a story about a community of Methodists and Southern Baptists who support stem cell research at a time when many conservative Christians oppose the work of clinicians to find new treatments for a host of chronic illnesses, including Type I Diabetes.
Click the link below for the story of visit the family's Web site at www.pfaith.org.
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