Published: February 25, 2007 08:15 pm      

Woman overcoming diabetes

While other 12-year-olds worried about homework, tests and the latest gossip from school, Diana Wilborn had something more serious on her mind. Her doctor had told her she had juvenile diabetes.

“When I first found out, I was terrified,” she said. “My biggest fear was needles, but I got over that fear really quickly.”

In juvenile diabetes, the pancreas does not produce any insulin and can’t break down glucose. Wilborn controls her sugar levels with a pump that stays on 24/7. It gives out insulin at the appropriate dose that goes into the skin through a plastic catheter. She added that an advantage to the pump is that she can eat any kind of food she wants and mentions other reasons why things are easier with the new treatment.

“I have to check my sugar every time I eat and then two hours after every time I eat,” she explained. “The thing I used to check my blood sugar with used to be as big as a video cassette tape, and now it’s as small as a pager. A big misconception, though, is that a lot of people think that you are a ‘bad diabetic’ if you have a pump, but it actually reduces some of the complications.”

Wilborn now works as a paralegal for Gorman, Sheatsley & Co. in Beckley. She said the job hasn’t really presented any problems.

“I work eight hours a day, and most of the time I don’t take a lunch,” she said. “I just keep a Coke with me just in case I need something.”

Pregnancy presented its own set of problems for her, though. She mentioned that going to the doctor every Friday for a check-up became routine.

“It was a tough pregnancy,” she recalled. “It was three months before I knew it because all the pregnancy tests came out negative because of the diabetes.”

During the pregnancy, she had trouble with her blood sugar and mentioned a particular incident when it dropped too low.

“I was watching TV and then I woke up in the emergency room,” she said. “My blood sugar dropped to 26 and I couldn’t talk or move. I thought I was having a heart attack.”

She said her husband and daughter have been there for her and have become very familiar with her condition.

“I’ve been driving down the road and told my daughter to check my blood sugar and she knows what to do,” she explained.

The pump also makes it so one diabetic can spot another, which can lead to conversations with someone who understands, Wilborn said.

“We were in Florida and a lady came up with an insulin pump, and we talked for hours,” she said.

Yet, she said she believes there are many misconceptions about the disease.

“One misconception that I hate is when people say you ate too much sugar and that’s why you’re diabetic,” she said. “People can also think that you are inhibited by the disease and can’t do certain things.”

She said the public tends to focus on Type 2 diabetes and can sometimes seem to forget about Type 1. She stressed the point that the two types are treated completely differently; Type 1 is a chronic disease.

“I think that sometimes people forget that there are two types of diabetes,” she said. “I wish the media and the public would focus more on Type 1.”

Wilborn advises people who find out they have diabetes not to be overwhelmed.

“Learning that you have diabetes does not have to be a death sentence,” she said. “The treatments available today make the disease much more manageable than it once was.”

Although dealing with the disease is not always easy, Wilborn has learned to deal with the daily routine.

“Every day I get up and deal with what happens,” she said. “I’ve been diabetic longer than I wasn’t, so I really don’t know any different. It has become second nature to me.”