ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: KATHY LU STAFF WRITER
Eight-year-old Robert Smith sat on the soft purple mat, pricked a minute hole in his finger and squeezed a drop of blood onto the small, white spot of a target on the blood-glucose monitor. After a 45-second countdown, it would indicate his blood sugar level.
Surrounding him Friday afternoon, the last day of camp, were 12 other children between the ages of 7 and 14 doing the same thing - a ritual that is performed four times a day at Camp Too Sweet, a weeklong day camp for children with diabetes.
"We try to teach the children to learn how to live with diabetes," said Lynda Hubble, camp coordinator. "We want to give the children more self-esteem in things like giving themselves their own shots, and to do it all at their own pace."
Hubble, a registered nurse and diabetes educator at Carilion Radford Community Hospital, said there was a guest speaker for each of five days of camp and the week's lessons were divided into the five M's: monitoring, meals, motion, medication and management.
For example, Monday's topic was monitoring, and TV weatherman Robin Reed was the guest speaker to talk about how he monitors weather. On Wednesday, the Salem Avalanche Sports Nut mascot and a few players from the minor league baseball team were the guest speakers for the motion topic.
Hubble said although she had no takers on children doing their own injections this year, everyone was taught how to give injections on a skin model. Robert actually learned how to monitor his own blood sugar level on the first day of camp last year, and hasn't let his mother do it since.
The hospital and Radford University agreed to sponsor the camp six years ago, and this is Hubble's third year as coordinator. While the hospital provides the staff - usually four other volunteers besides Hubble - the university provides the space: a matted room in the basement of Peters Hall.
Hubble charges $25 per child, which pays for snacks and crafts, and relies on donations from organizations such as the Physician's Fund and the Meter Companion to provide rest, including equipment such as the monitors that the children use during the day.
Camp runs from 8:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the days are filled with activities such as kickball games and movies. Every afternoon ends with a 45-minute swimming session.
"I've learned that it takes a lot of hard work to take care of diabetes," Kristen Christian, 8, said. "I've learned to draw up insulin and having to hold it like you're darting yourself, but I don't think I'll ever give my own shots. I want it to be pills."
Jerrelle Hilton, the oldest camp member at 14, said that the way he feels when his blood sugar level gets low can be scary.
"Your whole body goes limp and it's hard to move around," he said. Jerrelle was diagnosed in August 1995 after he kept losing weight and feeling sick.
"I've been giving myself shots since the second day after I was diagnosed. I was scared to do it at first, but after a while, It doesn't hurt that much anymore."
Though this is Jerrelle's first time at camp, some of the children are second-timers like Robert, and some don't even have diabetes. Hilton's sister, Amanda, is one who came just to learn more about it.
Most of the children at camp have diabetes mellitus, a condition where the pancreas cannot produce insulin, which helps the body use sugar and other carbohydrates. Thus, diabetics cannot eat too many sweets and most need to take two types of insulin injections twice a day.
Maintaining a healthy diet and getting regular exercise are of the utmost importance when caring for diabetic children, Hubble said. Most children have to eat about six times a day - three meals and three snacks between the meals - and they have to eat healthy, on-time and as sugar-free as possible.
"I've never had a syringe in my hand before this. It's the toughest thing I've ever had to deal with," Paula Smith, Robert's mother, said as she watched the children eat their lunches. She visited the camp occasionally during the week.
"But I've learned things here that I didn't know before and being with the older kids, I know what's down the road for me. Camp has been great."
For most of the children, watching others eat cookies and ice cream is the only difficult and different part about being diabetic. But some, like Akeem Akers, 9, who was diagnosed at 16 months, have already come to terms with that difference.
"You can't be really jealous of people eating candy and stuff because you have a special way of eating that's healthy."
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ALAN KIM STAFF Kim Schneider (left), Moniqueby CNBBrouillet, Lindsey Brown and Kristen Christian (right) check their
blood-sugar level after playing a game of kickball outside. color
2. Akeem Akers, 9, mans second base while watching John Plott pitch
a kickball. As a paramedic, Plott aided the youngster when he was
diagnosed with diabetes as a 16-month-old.