juvenilediabetes

Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death by disease in America.
Currently, there are sixteen million people in the U.S. and 120 million worldwide that have this disease.
A new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 40 seconds.
Left uncontrolled, diabetes can result in:
* Loss of eyesight and kidney function,
* Problems with the liver and heart,
* Amputation and ultimately death!
* Life expectancy is ten to fifteen years less
if the diabetic will control this disease!

This is how these children have to live their lives day in and day out to simply stay healthy!
"Jessi Martin, 4, begins each day with a needle stick. It will be the first of 10 times her mother will zip open the case Jessi calls "my buddy." Inside is the equipment Debi Martin uses to monitor her daughter's blood sugar.
"Diabetes is like driving a car down a narrow road with a cliff on either side," Debi says. "Too low and you risk seizures, brain damage, coma and death. Too high and there's a chance of blindness, stroke, cardiac disease, amputation."

Food - regular controlled meals and snacks - are key. But emotions also contribute. Jessi saw a spider and spiked into the danger zone. Debi has been warned that adolescence will be "a special challenge."

From her home in Clermont County, she trades information with parents all over the world via the Internet. Mostly at night. "We're up anyway," she says. Checking blood sugar levels. Sometimes Jessi will suck the juice straw in her sleep. A woman in Michigan tells Debi she slips tablets into her 11-year-old son's mouth at night and whispers, "Chew, Phillip. Chew." Trying not to wake him. Trying to save him."

LINKS -

http://www.jdf.org/
This is the Official Website for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Internationally.

http://www.walkforthecure.com/index_english.html
Dedictaed to finding a cure for juvenile diabetes.

http://www.childrenwithdiabetes.com/index_cwd.htm
An on-line community for children and their families with recipes, chat room, warning signs, camps for children who have Diabetes, up to the minute research that is going on for Diabetes with online support for email pals for the children and parents

http://diabetes.health-support.com/
There is a lot of good information on this site for how a diabetic child can maintain living healthy

http://www.diabetes.org/main/application/commercewf
This is the American Diabetes Official Website! They strive for a CURE and the CARE of Juvenile Diabetes.

http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/
There is a lot of educational material on how to maintain a child with diabetes on this website

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/chloe/
This is a website of a little girl named Chloe' who is 5 years old and suffers from Juvenile Diabetes Category 1.

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~jmccom1/project1.html
http://www.kudosonline.org/care_givers/caregivers_default.htm
http://vfair.com/conditions/diabetes.htm
http://co.essortment.com/juvenilediabetes_rlkc.htm
http://www.diavan.com/

THE PROMISE TO REMEMBER ME CAMPAIGN Yes, there is Legislature before Congress to support federal policies that will help find a cure for juvenile Diabetes. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Promise to Remember Me Campaign 2001-2002 picks up where the successful Promise to Remember Me Campaign 2000 and the 2001 JDRF Children's Congress left off - continuing to ask Members of Congress to "promise to remember" those affected by diabetes when making decisions impacting research.

The mission of the Promise to Remember Me Campaign is to further relationships between people who are affected by diabetes and their lawmakers, and to capture the request for a "promise" in a photograph posted on this website . Families affected by this disease will meet with their Representatives and Senators during local town hall meetings, in local offices, and at events throughout the country.

Our hope is that the Promise to Remember Me Campaign will put a face to the millions of Americans who live with the disease and result in commitments by Members of Congress to support federal policies that will speed our path to a cure.