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- [S106] The Mountain Press, 17 Sep 2012.
Living with diabetes: Brown family adjusts to life with Gracie’s condition
by GAIL CRUTCHFIELD
SEVIERVILLE — As a nurse practitioner, Hannah Brown started noticing a few worrisome things about her 4-year-old daughter, Gracie. She was thirsty all the time, always hungry and had to go to the bathroom more often.
Her father, Trinity, pointed out that the normally happy girl was also more irritable and cranky than she had been.
Adding up the symptoms, Hannah decided to take Gracie to the doctor to see if her hunch were true, but hoping it wasn’t.
“She wants the doctor to tell her it is not type 1 diabetes,” Trinity said. But the doctor confirmed Gracie had it. From that day forward, the family’s life changed as they all adjusted to how best to take care of the little girl.
“We were pretty upset,” Hannah said. “It means this is a life-long adjustment for her. This is something that’s going to be with her, hopefully until they find a cure.”
There’s no immediate family history of type 1 diabetes. The child of one of Trinity’s cousins also has it, but that’s the closest relative they can associate the disease with Gracie.
“It’s an autoimmune disorder,” Hannah explained, not a genetic abnormality. “She had a virus in February that was similar to the flu — high fever, head congestion — and they think that possibly in children a virus will trigger it.”
Grace takes shots four times a day and she’s doing pretty well, her family said. “She actually has a really, really good understanding, better than you would imagine a 4-year-old would,” Dwight Maples said of his granddaughter.
She has to test her blood six to eight times a day, pricking her fingers to draw a tiny drop of blood for the meter to read. “Definitely not the toes,” Gracie said with a little giggle.
The biggest change is her schedule, said Patricia Maples, Hannah’s mother and Gracie’s “Mimi.”
“She has to be on a schedule,” Patricia said.
“We never did schedules before,” Hannah said. “We ate lunch when we were hungry for lunch, not because it was noon. Now we eat lunch because it’s noon. We have scheduled snack times and scheduled bed time.”
Getting off schedule can cause Gracie’s sugar to get too low. Gracie must eat something within 30 minutes of taking each of her four insulin shots throughout the day and they keep track of her diet — mainly her carboyhydrates — to control her blood sugar levels.
A pink and white polka dot bag now goes everywhere Grace goes. It has all the items she needs to manage her diabetes and her diet. Along with her meter, testing strips and doses of insulin, the bag includes a set of collapsible measuring cups.
The measuring cups are to portion out Gracie’s meals when they’re eating out, to keep track of how many carbohydrates she’s eating as that affects her blood sugar.
“Her insulin dose is based on how many carbohydrates she’s going to eat,” Trinity explained. So when Gracie sits down for a meal, she has to eat her carbohydrates first, because if she doesn’t eat those carbs her blood sugar levels will drop.
Pam Ogle, a long-time family friend was shocked to hear Gracie’s diagnosis. “You don’t think a perfectly, normal healthy child would be diagnosed,” Ogle said. “Hannah started to tell me they’re right on the verge of some breakthrough. I thought we need to know how they’re progressing these things.”
She started looking into area foundations to find out about current research and learned that Knoxville was the closest chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. “They had never had a fundraiser or activity or anything in Sevier County, so I said, well, that’s crazy, that needs to change.”
Taking it upon herself, Ogle began making plans for a fundraiser for the JDRF. A carpet golf tournament will be held at 4 p.m. Oct. 29 at Fire House Golf at Walden’s Landing in Pigeon Forge. The $20 entry also includes dinner provided by Calhoun’s restaurant and a movie provided by The Forge Cinemas.
“It is kind of a rush put-together,” Ogle said. “But I think with support of everybody it will be successful.”
Tickets can be purchased at Red Roof Inn, Riverstone Resort and Pigeon Motor Lodge, all in Pigeon Forge.
“It’s going to be a pretty fun-packed night, and what we’re hoping is that we have a lot of the kids in the county that have this, who really haven’t had a support group locally come and meet each other and us get something started,” Ogle said. “So we’re hoping we have the kids with diabetes there, we’re hoping to have their families for the support and then we’re hoping we have just a lot of community support just to observe.”
Hannah said having a support group for juvenile diabetes in Sevierville would be helpful.
“I don’t think people understand what a huge life-change it is,” she said. “It’s a stressful change, because you can’t do anything to undo it. As a mom you’re supposed to be able to fix things and you can’t fix it.”
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Groom's Name Bride's First Name Bride's Maiden Name County Date of Marriage File #
BROWN TRINITY R HANNAH E MAPLES SEVIER 06-08-2007 22687
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
636151 TRINITY RAY BROWN HANNAH ELIZABETH MAPLES
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Abt 2008 - (~ 16 years)
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