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Piecing Together The Diabetes Puzzle
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Published: March 21, 2008
Individually, the symptoms were unremarkable, but all together they were staggering. Jennifer Roan, 39, of Clearwater, looks back on the day her young daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and recalls, "The symptoms were right in front of my face and I didn't pick up on it."
Rachel Roan was 8 years old at the time and just wasn't feeling like herself. She complained of headaches, but doctors found nothing wrong. Then she mentioned her vision was a bit blurry. Her parents made plans to schedule an appointment with the eye doctor.
Jennifer thought it was odd that her daughter was hungry all the time but attributed it to growth spurts. She was a petite, thin child — underweight, actually — but it wasn't worrisome. One day, during a family outing, Rachel said she was thirsty and quickly downed a huge cup of soda only to ask for another. It didn't seem odd that Rachel made extra trips to the bathroom, because she was drinking a lot of fluids.
Then Rachel wet the bed. Twice in one week. "That was very unusual for her," Jennifer says. "She had never wet the bed in her life." She took Rachel to the pediatrician thinking it was a bladder or urinary tract infection.
Dr. Gary Goldstein remembers the day Jennifer brought Rachel to his office. "It was an unforgettable day for everyone involved. It fell on April 1, 2004, but it was no joke." Goldstein listened to what had been happening with Rachel, the hunger, the thirst, wetting the bed, and knew they weren't dealing with an infection. He suspected diabetes before ever running a single test.
"The classic nature of her symptomatology," he says. "Right out of the textbook."
Type 1 diabetes used to be known as juvenile diabetes because it was diagnosed in children, usually those under the age of 20, but it can occur at any age. It's an autoimmune disease in which, for unknown reasons, the immune system launches an attack on the body. This attack results in an insulin deficiency. Without insulin to move nutrients like glucose into the cells, glucose builds up in the bloodstream. That leaves the body's cells starved for nutrients and causes symptoms such as dehydration, extreme thirst, frequent urination, increased hunger especially after eating, unexplained weight loss, nausea and vomiting, fatigue and blurred vision.
Rachel remembers the extreme hunger. "There wasn't a time I remember where I was just full," she says. "And I couldn't stop eating, and I just ate constantly."
But as soon as she was diagnosed and began treatment with insulin injections, everything changed. "I just felt a lot better," she says.
Today, Rachel is a soft-spoken but articulate 12-year-old. She is in seventh grade and has mastered the latest insulin delivery technology, an insulin pump. She tests her blood sugar levels eight to 10 times a day and knows the carbohydrate counts in all her favorite foods.
The Roans shared their story to help other families put all the pieces of the diabetes puzzle together early.
On Tuesday, the American Diabetes Association will "Sound the Alert" that diabetes is a serious, often silent disease that can strike at any age. On Diabetes Alert Day, all Americans will be invited to assess their risk for diabetes with the free ADA Diabetes Risk Test by calling 1-800-DIABETES (342-2383) or on the Web at diabetes.org/alert.
At 5 p.m. Tuesday, tune in to News Channel 8 to see Rachel's story in the medical news segment.
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