7 Year Old Sydney Lyons, Congress and Diabetes: In June 2011, little Sydney Lyons of Pocatello, Idaho, testified before the Children’s Congress of the United States in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and was also able to speak to the Congressional Diabetes Caucus. Sydney has Type 1 diabetes and was before Congress to talk about funding more research for Type 1 diabetes so a cure can be found.
Young Sydney was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes three years ago. Her life changed at that time, but she does not let the disease control her, although she knows of all the complications that can arise from having Type 1 diabetes: “There’s a lot of issues that can happen. You can lose your legs, you can die, go blind, have heart disease or disease in your kidneys,” Sydney says.
“I’m excited to tell them about why it’s important to find a cure for diabetes,” Sydney said.
A young ambassador with a strong message.
A Food and Drug Administration spokesman told the Children’s Congress that experimental guidelines for an artificial pancreas would be drafted by the end of the year. The device is currently available in several foreign countries.
There is no cure for Type 1 diabetes. The treatment for it at this time is with the injection of artificial insulin. On a typical day Sydney Lyons, and her mom, Shamae, prick Sydney’s finger numerous times a day to test her blood sugar level. At the time of an interview in her local hometown, her blood sugar level was 166, 40 points higher than a normal person’s blood sugar level, but for Sydney that was an okay number.
Sydney’s mother stated that her daughter had already helped to raise $8,000 for diabetes research through an annual walk in Idaho Falls.
Sydney has sisters. Because Sydney was diagnosed at such a young age, her younger sisters have an even higher chance of getting diabetes, too. Shamae said that, “It is nothing any parent should have to go through. You do blame yourself for a while, you carry a lot of guilt, but then the more you learn about Type 1 diabetes, there’s really nothing you can do to prevent an auto-immune disease.”
The trip affected Sydney’s blood sugar levels by spiking and dropping because of the long days and the east coast humidity. That is an added incentive for the FDA to approve testing on the artificial pancreas. “If they had found a cure, I would be happy that I didn’t have diabetes anymore because I don’t like pricking my finger and all that other stuff,” Sydney said.
There are approximately 3 million American with Type 1 diabetes, most of them young children or young adults. Type 1 diabetes is different from Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is usually related to weight and lack of exercise. Type 1 diabetes is not related to weight or lack of exercise, but for some unknown reason (environmental or genetic), the body’s insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are killed.
To stay alive, people with Type 1 diabetes must take multiple insulin injections daily or continually infuse insulin through the use of an insulin pump. Along with the injection of insulin, the finger pricking is required to know how much insulin is needed to be injected or infused through the insulin pump. This is the more serious form of diabetes because along with balancing of the insulin dose with their food intake and physical exercise, they must also guard against a hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) reaction and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reaction. Both hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia are conditions that need immediate attention or could cause death. Both conditions are very life threatening and need prompt attention.
Like any good ambassador with a good cause, Sydney wants to be a doctor when she grows up, “to make sure other people do not have to feel bad.”