Misstropolis

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Learning to Recognize Diabetes

by Andrea Pyenson

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For a parent, there can be no greater horror than the death of a child. When it happens, there are, occasionally, remarkable people like Sara and Mark Weiss who emerge from their grief and build on their experience to benefit others.

In January 2003 the Norwalk virus was ravaging New England, sending people to emergency rooms all over the state. Absentee rates throughout the public schools were averaging 25 percent. More than a quarter of nine-year-old Jordan Weiss’ fourth-grade class at Mason-Rice elementary school in Newton had been absent during the week preceding the three-day Martin Luther King weekend. So when he threw up on Thursday morning, his parents assumed he had the same virus everybody else did.

On Saturday night, concerned because he was thinner and seemed lethargic, his parents called the hospital’s after-hours urgent care line. A triage nurse said he had the flu and to call in the morning if he wasn’t feeling any better.

But the next morning was too late. Some time in the early hours of January 19, 2003, Jordan died in his sleep, the result, his parents learned, of complications related to Type 1 (also known as Juvenile) diabetes, which no one knew he had.

In retrospect, although Jordan had been active until the last two days of his life, there had been warning signs – but they were so subtle, and so few people know the warning signs of diabetes – let alone diabetes in children, that his parents did not pick them up. Jordan started wetting his bed several weeks before he died. But two of his close friends had started doing the same thing at the same time. When they visited their pediatricians, neither physician mentioned the possibility of diabetes and both told the boys’ parents that 9 1/2 – 10 was a very common time for bedwetting for boys. Jordan told his mother he was feeling “pressure about life,“ so she missed a potential warning sign. If Jordan was drinking a lot of water (and he must have been at some point), his mother says no one really noticed because, “our whole family drinks a lot of water,“ and he was old enough to help himself whenever he wanted a drink.

“When I found out the diagnosis,“ Sara says, “I asked everyone I knew, ‘do you know the warning signs of diabetes?‘“ Few of them could name even one symptom.

So Sara and her husband started the JBWfund to increase awareness among parents and educators in Newton and the greater Boston area of the warning signs of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and their related complications. The fund also provides scholarships for Mason-Rice students who do not have the means to pursue the arts and sports, which were Jordan’s two passions; and to award annual college scholarships to graduating Newton high-school seniors who are Mason-Rice alumni.

There is a diabetes epidemic in this country. Recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control state that children born in the year 2000 have a one in three chance of having diabetes in their lifetime. Most of these people will develop Type 2 diabetes, which is a genetic, metabolic disorder. A significant key to controlling or avoiding Type 2 diabetes (formerly known as ‘adult onset’) is to be thin. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, the genes for which are present at conception, though they are not always triggered. The typical age of onset for Type 1 diabetes is 9 – 10 or preadolescence. Symptoms of Type 1 diabetes, which often occur suddenly, are:

• Excessive thirst
• Frequent urination, sometimes exhibited by bedwetting (in large quantities)
• Sudden vision changes
• High amounts of sugar in the blood and/or urine (fruity, sweet or wine-like odor on the breath)
• Extreme hunger (increased appetite)
• Rapid or unexplained weight loss
• Fatigue (weak and tired)
• Irritability and mood changes
• Drowsiness, lethargy
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Abdominal pain
• Rapid, hard breathing (heavy, labored)
• Confusion, stupor, unconsciousness
Many of these symptoms can also be related to illnesses that are not associated with diabetes, including the flu. So it is vitally important to seek proper medical attention if any or all of them are present.

The JBWfund had these warning signs, as well as the signs for Type 2 Diabetes, printed and distributed to every public school in Newton. Beginning in the fall of 2004, the brochure was sent home to every student in the public school system and given to every staff member, from the custodians to the teachers. Every fall, all of the school nurses also review the warning signs.

To spread the word beyond Newton, Sara is a senior volunteer with the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Every year in Massachusetts, the ADA and Joslin Diabetes Center perform in-service training for school nurses around Massachusetts. Sara presents her story at these trainings and distributes the warning signs, which she also had translated into Spanish. She is also on the ADA advocacy commission for Massachusetts and the Diabetes Coalition of Massachusetts.

Since the JBWfund began distributing its warning signs, the brochure has led to the diagnosis of five children in the greater Boston area and helped saved the lives of a five-year-old boy in Chicago and a 10-year-old boy in Dorchester. The more the word gets out, the more lives will be helped, if not saved.
On September 5, the JBWfund will hold its fifth annual golf tournament at the Lost Brook Golf Club in Norwood, followed by a luncheon at Union Street in Newton Center with an auction and raffle. Carl Beane, the voice of the Red Sox at Fenway Park, will be the emcee at the luncheon. Lost Brook is a par 3 course, so it is perfect for golfers at all levels, including kids. Golf tournament fees are $65, which includes the luncheon. Luncheon only is $20 for adults and $10 for children. Or you can just make a donation, to: JBWfund, P.O. Box 590223, Newton Center, MA 02459.