The girls were all slumber party age-appropriate, whatever that was, and the junk food was scattered all about. A very pretty blond girl was labeled a picky eater until she whipped out her glucose meter and pricked her finger. The other children were wide-eyed as she calmly took out a syringe and shot herself in the hip.

Shocking? Oh, yeah. The girls didn’t know what to do but stare. The child with diabetes smiled at them and told them that it was kind of cool that they were fascinated since her sister would have run screaming out of the room.

According to Audrey Buck, a registered licensed dietician, a certified diabetes educator and Director of Dietary at Bonner General Hospital, there are roughly twenty families in Bonner County coping with type 1 diabetes.

The exact cause of type 1 diabetes isn’t known, however it is known that it’s an autoimmune disease. A body that would normally fight harmful bacteria and viruses mistakenly destroys the insulin-producing (islet) cells in the pancreas.

The propensity may be inherited, but not necessarily. And until the individual suffers a triggering virus they may not know they have it. Although previously called juvenile diabetes people have been diagnosed well into adulthood.

Once the islet cells are destroyed, the person produces little to no insulin that normally helps glucose to enter the bloodstream to provide energy to muscles and tissues. Because there’s no insulin to let glucose into the cells, sugar builds up in the bloodstream, where it can cause life-threatening complications.

Buck said that modern medicine, diets and treatments have extended life expectancy and quality of life for type 1 diabetes sufferers. But, they often feel like they’re different or worse, peculiar.

On Monday, April 2, there will be a presentation called In Whose Shoes for youth and their parents. This interactive workshop is facilitated by a father and daughter team who are living with type 1 diabetes. They’ve been trained by the Sanofi-aventis U.S. Diabetes Education Program. Sanofi is a leader in the manufacture of insulin.

“This is a good time for parents to get together, a good time for kids to get together and for all of them not only to talk about the challenges of the disease, but to get a support network going,” Buck said.

The family dynamic is important Buck pointed out. She said that in our community there are great-grandparents caring for a five-year-old and a young mother of two whose infant has been diagnosed. To have the ability to interact at the workshop and to go away with contact numbers defines its purpose.

“Youth between the ages of eight and sixteen are welcome, as are parents of any age child with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes,” Buck said.

The free session will be held Monday, April 2, at 4 p.m. at the Brown House Conference Room, 520 North Third Ave., and is sponsored by Bonner General Hospital. For more information call 263-1441.

n Kathy Hubbard is a trustee on Bonner General Hospital Foundation Board. She can be reached at 264-4029 or by email at kathyleehubbard@yahoo.com.