i
open
eyes
Personal Stories
Kate Noble
I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when I was 1 and 1/2 years old on January 2nd, my Dad's birthday. Type one diabetes occurs when your immune system, for some odd reason starts killing all of the cells in your pancreas that control the making and distributing of insulin( a type of hormone needed to let the sugar into the cells) throughout your body. Doctors have been puzzled up to now as to why the normal healthy cells do this. And this is what happened to me. The cells in my pancreas were killed, and now my pancreas does not make any insulin at all, which is the simple definition of type-one diabetes. There are two very significant terms that all diabetics know about. These are hypoglycemia (which is low blood sugar) and hyperglycemia (which is high blood sugar). When I have high blood sugar, it means that I do not have enough insulin in my body, and instead of the sugar going into the cells as it is supposed to, it goes into my blood making me very thirsty, tired, drowsy, and get very bad stomach aches and I feel faint after a while. Having high blood sugar is bad for my long term health and can cause problems such as circulation problems, kidney and eyesight problems and many more. Low blood sugar is when there is too much insulin in my body and not enough sugar in my blood stream. This causes me to become very shaky, angry, loose my balance easily, tired or hyper, basically loose all hand-eye coordination and most of my decision making skills. This is bad for my short term health and if untreated can lead into a comma or seizures. I have had two seizures when I was little and have had many, many, many hypoglycemic episodes in many different situations. Both low blood sugar and high blood sugar can be very scary things. On average, I test my blood sugar, by pricking my finger with needle and drawing a sample of blood, about 6 to 10 times a day. I wear an insulin pump that is in me 24 hours a day that continually drips insulin into my body. I have to change the site where it goes into me once every three days, using a big needle with a little tubing over it. Diabetes is a tough disease to live with because you have to think about it 24 hours a day. There is never a time when I am not thinking about how many carbohydrates I am eating or what my blood sugar is. I always wish I could just have a break from the daily hassle of dealing with Diabetes; this is why a cure would be so amazing. I started I Open Eyes with Denell so we can help raise money to cure this terrible disease, and then i would finally be able to not worry about everything that comes along with diabetes. If you have any questions feel free to email me
Denell Falk
During the end of my 8th grade year at Rancho Santa Fe
middle school, my family and I noticed marble-sized
bumps on the left side of my neck. At first we thought
they were enlarged lymph-nodes and stress-related, but
once I got a biopsy I was told that I had cancer. On
April 19, 2005 I was 14 years old and I was diagnosed
with Hodgekins Lymphoma stage 2. For the last 3 months
of my 8th grade year and the whole summer, I spent my
time in both Rady Children's Hospital of San Diego and
Stanford University in San Francisco. There I
underwent chemotherapy and radiation. Ending a day
before my freshman year at The Bishop's School in La
Jolla, I was finally cured! And I have been for 2
years. Cancer, I think, for teens especially isn't
stressed enough. When I found out I had cancer I was
suprised beyond my wildest belief- I never knew kids
got cancer nor did I know anything about the subject.
I think more teens need to be aware of their body and
how it is changing. That's why I am a strong supporter
of cancer awareness- I wish I knew the things I know
now. LIVE STRONG!
