 |
A Bundle of Energy
Discovering that their young son has childhood diabetes was a tremendous blow
to this Middletown couple. But with a little help from Meridian’s professionals,
they’ve now learned how to cope with and successfully manage his disease.
If you watched Middletown toddler
Marcus Gore laughing and
jumping around on the exam table
or confidently chatting it up with
the staff at K. Hovnanian Children’s
Hospital, you’d notice the unbridled
energy you’d expect in any 3-year-old
boy. And, in fact, Marcus is remarkably
similar to other kids his age…except
for the fact that he has type 1 diabetes,
the most serious form of the disease.
Nearly 16 million Americans have
been diagnosed with some form of
diabetes — and millions more are
unaware that they even have the
disease — but in adults, it is most
often linked to physical inactivity
and obesity. In children, however, the
signs can be more subtle. According
to Santhosh Eapen, M.D., a boardcertified
pediatric endocrinologist
and diabetes specialist at K. Hovnanian
Children’s Hospital at Jersey Shore
University Medical Center, "For
children, symptoms such as excessive
urination and thirst can easily be
missed, so they often present at the
hospital after becoming very sick with
high heart rates or dehydration, and
they can even go into shock."
Marcus Gore is a case in point,
and his experience demonstrates
how childhood diabetes isn’t always
evident to parents right away and
how challenging managing the
condition can then be for families
after the diagnosis.
The Initial Scare
On the weekend of his mother’s big
40th birthday celebration, after having
displayed no other signs of something
abnormal, Marcus showed a noticeable
lack of appetite. True, he’d been very thirsty and had many
wet diapers, but given
the general hubbub
of excitement around
him that was no doubt
throwing off his normal
routine, his parents
didn’t think there was
anything major to
worry about. Additionally,
some of the relatives
who had flown in
from England to attend
the event arrived with
colds, so his parents
suspected that might
have contributed to
Marcus’s seemingly
minor symptoms.
But on the night when
everyone was leaving,
Marcus’s breathing
became labored. His
parents, Katherine and
John, brought him to
the emergency room
at Riverview Medical
Center, where he was
promptly seen and
given a chest X-ray, blood tests,
and physical exam. From that point
on, there was a whirlwind of activity
around the Gores.
Katherine recollects the harrowing
evening: "We were told Marcus would
need to be hospitalized right away,
and Riverview arranged for quick
transportation to Jersey Shore. Marcus’s
blood sugar level was in the 600s,
and he fell unconscious during the
ambulance transport."
On the Pediatric Intensive Care
Unit at K. Hovnanian Children’s
Hospital, the team was mobilized and immediately worked to bring
down Marcus’s blood sugar level.
After 24 hours, he was stable enough
to be moved to the general pediatric
floor, where he remained for a week.
Managing the Disease
Once the initial crisis had passed, the
real educational process began. "The
doctors and nurses really looked after
us and told us exactly what was happening and what we would need
to do without overloading us," Katherine
says. "When the nurse, Kevin, looked
into my husband’s eyes and said, ‘Hang
in there, Dad, it’s going to be okay,’
John was comforted."
Dr. Eapen’s expertise in this area
was also a comfort. He explains,
"Diabetes is a complicated disease
that requires a multi-disciplinary
approach managed by a pediatric
endocrinologist in collaboration
with other experts, including nurses,
nutritionists, educators, and social
workers. In type 1 diabetes, the body
is unable to make insulin, as the cells
in the pancreas have been destroyed.
Treatment involves different combinations
of insulin injection, and blood sugars
are also controlled through exercise
and carbohydrate intake in the diet. In the case of children, parents have
a lot to learn and do following diagnosis."
Katherine can confirm that.
"The mental transition is the biggest
challenge; we had no inkling of
what we would need to do. We
wondered how we would administer
insulin injections multiple times per
day, but within three days in the hospital,
we could. The medical team was gentle
but firm in how they guided us."
A Solid Support Network
The help and support offered by the
Children’s Hospital didn’t stop once
Marcus was discharged. "We called
them every day with questions when
we first got home," Katherine continues,
"and they were there every step of the
way for the first two months. Now we do all this without thinking, and the team
at K. Hovnanian Children’s Hospital got
us to this point.With our family located
4,000 miles away, the medical staff has
been an exceptional support network.
They’ve made us stand on our own two
feet.…Dr. Eapen is wonderful. Not only
is he a very skilled physician, he is very
personable. He supports us and listens
to every concern."
As for the object of all this love and
concern, Katherine and John couldn’t
be prouder of their little boy. "This
hasn’t changed Marcus at all. He is so
brave. Every day, he chooses which
finger will be pricked for his blood test,
and he pushes the button on his lancet.
We talk to him, and his voice doesn’t
change for a second when the needle
goes in."
 – Ryan Younger
|
