At the beginning of Kathryn Carson’s junior year of high school, her father, a Type 2 diabetic, suggested she test her blood sugar on his meter.
Then 16 years old, Carson had spent months feeling worn down and losing weight despite eating constantly. The final straw was when she went on a school trip to Michigan over the summer for a sports tournament and had to ride back to her home state of Kentucky with another couple instead of with the other students because she needed so many bathroom breaks.
“Once we got back, my dad was like, ‘We need to test your sugar,'” remembered Carson, who is now in her 30s.
For a non-diabetic, blood sugar should range below 100. But when Carson tested, it was in the 400s.
By the time she got to the doctor’s the next day, it was in the 600s.
That was when Carson was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
“They just throw you in and they teach you how to give yourself shots and how to count carbs,” Carson said. “… At that point, I had no idea what was really happening, how it was going to be 24-7, a life changer.”
Now a Columbus resident, pharmacist and mother of two, Carson is one of about 393,000 Mississippians living with diabetes, according to numbers from the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi. While Carson said the condition requires constant managing — she has to check her blood sugar regularly and count her carbs before every meal so she can administer the proper dose of insulin to keep sugar in the necessary range — it doesn’t keep her from doing anything she wants to do.
“I can honestly now do anything, it’s just I have to take a few extra steps,” Carson said. “If I want to exercise, I have to be sure I have my glucose tabs. … If I want to eat a piece of cake, I can eat it, I just have to know the carbs and then give myself insulin.”
Helping Mississippians
Though more than 30 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with diabetes according to the American Diabetes Association’s website, Mississippi is one of the states with the highest number, said Hannah Byrd, public relations and marketing coordinator for the Diabetes Foundation in Mississippi. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 2017 the state ranked third in the nation for overall diabetes. High rates of obesity throughout the state — 70 percent of adults and 40 percent of children ages 2-5 — contribute to those numbers.
The foundation works with diabetics and their families throughout the state, organizing conferences and events to help teach patients how to manage the disease and raise money to help pay for medications and equipment. The foundation also works to raise awareness of the disease — November is National Diabetes Month — and correct misconceptions.
“People will always say, ‘You can’t have sugar or you have to eat everything sugar-free.’ And that’s just not true,” Byrd said. “We’re big on portion control. So whereas one kid might eat 10 pieces of candy, a kid with diabetes would eat less. But as long as you … have the insulin to correct and count your carbs, you can really eat whatever you want to.”
Byrd also talked about the difference between Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas can’t produce insulin at all. Those diagnosed with it are completely dependent on insulin and can’t manage the disease with a strict diet or medication, said Byrd. Though it’s typically associated with juveniles — Carson was older than average when she was diagnosed at almost 17 — it can also occur in adults.
Type 2 occurs when the pancreas becomes insulin-resistance but still works, and individuals diagnosed can manage it with strict eating habits and a healthy lifestyle, Byrd said. She added it’s not always the case that those with Type 2 diabetes are overweight. About 75 percent of Mississippians with diabetes have Type 2.
The CDC puts the costs of the disease at $245 billion nationally between equipment and medication, costs of doctors’ visits and lost wages.
That’s particularly a problem in Mississippi, said Byrd.
“Because the poverty rate (in Mississippi) is so high, there’s a lot of people that do not have health insurance at all or have health insurance that does not cover very much,” Byrd said. “A vial of insulin can run anywhere from $500 to $2,000 without health insurance.”
Day-to-day
For Carson and her family, living with Type 1 has become part of her routine.
“It’s such an invested part of our life every single day that it is just another thing we have to deal with,” said Carson’s husband, Chris. “It’s kind of like vacuuming the floor or cleaning the dishes.”
Kathryn and Chris always make sure to exercise and eat healthy. Kathryn checks her blood sugar regularly and counts her carbs before every meal so she can administer the proper dosage of insulin to regulate her blood sugar. Her children, ages 2 and 4, know not to play with her pump.
There have been times where dealing with the disease has been difficult and even scary, she and Chris said, such as when her blood sugar fluctuates wildly, and during her two pregnancies, which required extra doctor’s appointments and even more diligent monitoring of her blood sugar and health than usual.
But Kathryn’s never been ashamed of having diabetes. She likes answering questions about it, particularly for patients she meets through work who have themselves just been diagnosed.
“It’s a day-by-day thing,” she tells them. “You just have to constantly pay attention to everything, everything you’re putting in your body, doing to your body. … There’s days that you get kind of bummed, discouraged, but you just have to pick up and keep going because it’s not going to change.”
She said it’s not a “textbook disease.” Certain foods like cereal make her blood sugar spike alarmingly, but those foods may be different for other diabetics. Everyone has to pay attention to their own bodies.
Chris called Kathryn his “hero” because of the way she’s handled diabetes for the last 20 years.
“It won’t change, so you have to make a conscious effort to just be happy and live your life and not hold anything back,” he said. “Because what she said earlier is absolutely right: There’s nothing she can’t do. She just needs to take a couple of extra steps every once in a while.”
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