Strategic plan School district outlines goals and direction for education. PAGE 5 Hard landing Report details causes of docking mishap by B.C. Ferries. PAGE 10 Nanaimo business Latest news from community’s financial sector. PAGE 3
Whitecaps program PAGE 18
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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2012
VOL. 24, NO. 93
NANAIMO
Living with diabetes Marti Demo and her family don’t let diagnosis stop them from enjoying activities BY NIOMI PEARSON THE NEWS BULLETIN
A
t just six-and-a-half years old, life changed drastically for Marti Demo. The normally affectionate and active child was inexplicably losing weight, sleeping all the time, and refusing to be touched. “The way she described it was, ‘everything hurt’,” recalled her mom, Jennifer Demo. When she wasn’t at school, Marti was at home in bed. She even started passing out on school field trips. “We were at the museum, they were reading us a story and I fell asleep on the carpet,” she said. One visit to the doctor was all it took for the diagnosis: Marti, then 7, had Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes. “He sort of sniffed at her and said ‘she’s a diabetic, I can tell from here’,” Jennifer said. “Because we live with her, we didn’t notice it.” Tests confirmed the diagnosis and revealed that Marti’s ketone levels were dangerously high and she was rushed to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital emergency. It took hospital staff about 18 attempts to start an IV on Marti, who had become severely dehydrated. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the beta cells on the pancreas are dead or do not produce enough insulin to regulate carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Without the insulin, the body produces ketones, which
’T DON S MIS ! OUT
start to consume the cells around it, such as lean muscle and stored fat. In high levels they are particularly toxic. For Marti and her family, it meant adopting a whole new lifestyle, and relearning everything they thought they knew about eating. Instead of spontaneous birthday parties, goodies and eating whenever and wherever, it meant continuous label reading and calculating, in addition to constant monitoring of insulin and blood sugar levels; three injections a day and blood tests from five to eight times a day. “It was hard... All my friends [at school] would have these big bags of popcorn, eating them and I would be sitting there with nothing,” Marti said. When ill at school, she would get pulled out of class until her mom or dad could come to the school to administer her medication. This week marks the fifth year since Marti was diagnosed. Until a cure is found, she will have diabetes for the rest of her life, but she hasn’t let that get her down. The 12-year-old is currently on her school’s volleyball team, enjoys participating in other sports, and spends plenty of time hanging out with friends and playing the saxophone. Though she now wears an insulin pump, which directly infuses insulin to her body, she still has to be very careful about her blood sugar levels, which can cause symptoms like dizziness, hyperness, hallucinations and passing out. ◆ See ‘DIABETES’ ‘ /4
Marti Demo has been living with Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, for the last five years. Despite the trials and tribulations that come along with manually monitoring her blood sugar levels, Demo still enjoys being a kid, participating in school sports and hanging out with the family dog, Jake. NIOMI PEARSON/THE NEWS BULLETIN
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