A 10-year-old girl sits in the intensive care unit as her body attacks itself. She has dark circles around her eyes and pale skin that sticks to her bones. She was told she has something called diabetes. In the storm of medical terminology and big words, she is left confused and in pain.
Junior Claire Shinn went to the ER a total of three times before she got the diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. After being turned away from the first two doctors, she went to the ICU with the risk of going into a coma.
“I actually didn’t know what diabetes was when I was first diagnosed,” Shinn said. “I was in fifth grade. I wasn’t that educated.”
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic disease where the body isn’t producing the right amount of insulin: a hormone that turns sugar into energy.
Shinn doesn’t like to make a big deal about her diabetes, but she has friends who will go as far as memorizing whether the beeps from her phone mean she is experiencing high or low blood sugar.
“I probably monitor her more than she does,” junior Rayln Miles said. “Anytime her phone goes off, I make sure she is okay and ask if she needs anything.”
Shinn has been lucky enough to have people help her figure out how to manage her diabetes, but many kids still struggle with learning the best way to take care of themselves. According to the American Diabetes Association, almost 304,000 children and adolescents younger than 20 years old need insulin daily to break down the glucose in their bloos stream.
“When a child is initially diagnosed, the family receives so much information,” Klein ISD Director of Health Services Dr. Yvonne Clarke said. “[This can lead to] their processing ability being shocked and a lot of fear.”
Dr. Clarke promotes the Breakthrough T1D website for information about how to deal and support people with Type 1 diabetes. Shinn is also on a mission to spread information about diabetes through her Gold Award project in Girl Scouts.
“I am going to write, illustrate, and self-publish a children’s book on diabetes, and hopefully get enough copies to send to our local hospitals,” Shinn said.
With the experiences sh
e has had from her journey with Type 1 diabetes, Shinn is paving the way for many more children who become diagnosed to have the resources they deserve in terms they will understand
“I hope that young kids with diabetes will read my book and better understand what is happening to them,” Shinn said. “The hospital can be such a scary place, so I hope I can provide them a safe place to learn in a way they will understand.”
