Months after Jeff Courtright and Lynn Healy moved from Mississippi a few years ago, they realized something was wrong with their 2-year-old son.
Aidan Healy-Courtright was soaking his diapers continuously and didn’t feel well, crying and screaming all the time. Healy tried to convince his pediatrician something was wrong. After two appointments, the pediatrician tested Aidan’s blood sugar.
It was so high it didn’t register on the meter.
A trip to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle followed. Then he went to Blair Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson.
Aidan was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Courtright and Healy were shocked. The family had always been concerned with health and didn’t eat sugar. There was no history of diabetes in their family.
“We weren’t ready for it or expecting it,” Healy said.
Now 5 years old, Aidan is a lot like any other kid. He loves crocodiles. He wants to be an artist and his pictures fill Courtright’s and Healy’s offices at work. And like most kids, he likes to be outside running around, so he and his family will attend the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi’s annual Walk for Diabetes at the Columbus Riverwalk on Sunday.
The walk begins at 2 p.m. Registration begins at 1 and is also available online at www.msdiabetes.org.
The family has attended the event for the last three years, since Aidan was diagnosed. It includes a 5K run and one-mile fun walk for families — though Devin, now three, usually doesn’t walk that long.
“It will probably be about a quarter of a mile for us,” Healy said.
The event includes bounce castles, face painting, food and other activities. In years past, families have made their own T-shirts. Aidan’s are bright yellow with a crocodile modeled after his favorite stuffed animal on the front and says “Crocky’s Crew.”
The walk helps raise money for the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi, which provides resources, education and funds to individuals with diabetes.
The foundation has been there for Aidan since that first trip to Batson, Healy said, when representatives arrived at the hospital with a backpack full of toys, books and other resources on diabetes.
Treating diabetes
All the money raised at the walk stays in Mississippi, said Nancy Carpenter, who serves as an ambassador for the foundation and has attended the event for the past eight years. Carpenter’s parents were both insulin-dependent, and she has also been diagnosed with diabetes. So she knows about the difficulties in living with the disease.
“It tests your strength and endurance and your stamina at times, and certainly your willpower,” she said.
It’s particularly difficult on children, she added. Not just because of the stress of checking blood sugar multiple times a day, but making sure parents, teachers and other adults in the children’s lives are educated in how to care for them.
For Aidan, that means making sure his teachers can give him insulin shots and keep juice in their classrooms in case his blood sugar gets too low. It can spike or plummet unexpectedly, Healy said. And he won’t wear a monitor, meaning his parents or teachers at have to test his blood sugar by pricking his finger. He gets shots multiple times a day — twice at breakfast, once at lunch, once at dinner and usually a more throughout the day when his blood sugar spikes.
He’s getting to the age where he’s starting to ask questions about his disease — and why he has it, but his brother and friends don’t, Healy said.
“In terms of exercising and eating, in terms of just being a normal kid, he can do anything,” she said.
But he still has to consistently have his blood sugar checked, and the family has to keep a steady supply of insulin and other medical supplies people with diabetes need. And those things don’t come cheap, especially in Mississippi where families pay much of the cost out-of-pocket. In most other states — such as Michigan, where the family used to live — insurance pays for all medicine and equipment for children with diabetes through their 18th birthdays.
It’s why the work the foundation does is important. It keeps the money raised in the state and goes to providing resources and education for families like theirs.
“I can’t say enough good things about them,” she said.
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