Hello everybody. My name is
Colton, I am
5-years-old, and I have blonde hair and blue eyes. My mommy and daddy
are
the most important people in my life. They love me and play with me and
help me to take care of myself. I go to school at home with my
mom.
I like to go to school at home because I can do my school work and then
play the rest of the day.I love to do math worksheets, and I can even
read!
My mommy taught me how to read. Sometimes I like to sit and color and
draw
pictures. I drew a picture of a storm one day...what do you think?
I also love to draw pictures of
myself and
my friends. And I like to build things with blocks and legos,
especially
tall towers. It's so much fun to see how tall I can build them before
they
fall. Sometimes after I build them up I knock them down with my
cars.
I have two boxes of 'hotwheel' cars, and when they're not busy knocking
down my towers, they go for rides on the tracks I have to play with
them.
I like to build castles with my blocks. Sometimes my daddy builds
towers
with me when we play together.
I have an nintendo and a
playstation and
I like to play games on those
too. My daddy has some Sega
and Nintendo
games that he has on our computer and they are so much fun! Let's
see, what else? I like all kinds of sports. I play baseball and
soccer
outside with my daddy when it is not raining.
Some of my favorite t.v. shows
are Rolie
Polie Olie, Sponge Bob, and Jimmy Neutron. My favorite movie is
Flubber.
I have a little dog named Skooby.
I really
do like him a lot. There are some things that I do not like, though,
not
at all! I hate most bugs. I think they are yucky and they scare
me.
Except for lady bugs and rolly pollies, because they are cute.
Something else that I do not like
is getting
poked. The problem is that I have to get poked A LOT so that I can stay
healthy. See, I have something called diabetes, and if I don't take
good
care of myself, I can get very sick. Diabetes means that a part of my
body
called a pancreas does not work the right way any more; that it cannot
make the Insulin that my body needs. That's where the pokes come it.
They
tell my mom and dad just how much Insulin my body needs. If I have too
much sugar in my blood, that means that I need more Insulin. Pretty
confusing,
isn't it?
I have to check my blood sugar
many times
a day and I have to take 4
shots every day. I know that
doing
that keeps me from having to go to the hospital. It doesn't hurt
either, really! I can take my shots with a syringe, or I have
this
neat insulin pen that my mom uses sometimes.
Diabetes can make me feel very
tired and
run down when it is not well controlled. When it is, I can play like
every
other 5-year-old, which as you know is something I love to do! What
that
means is that I have to put up with all of the pokes, even though they
are definitely not fun. I have a finger poker that I poke my finger
with
and then I test my blood sugar level before I eat.
My mommy and daddy have to give
me shots
after I eat to keep the sugar from going too high. I can get sick
really fast if it goes too high, or even too low. For example,
one
time my blood sugar was too low and I had a seizure, and my body just
shook
and shook. It was scary and I cried, and I don't want to ever have
another
one.
I also have to eat foods that are
really
healthy and not junky, which is actually a pretty good thing, since
they
also taste good and make me feel full of energy.
So how do you like
this Colton
original?
My friends are like me....they
love toys
and they like to play outside. They don't laugh at me or make fun of me
when my mommy has to check my blood. They know it is important to
keep my blood sugar at a good number so that I don't get sick. My
friends know if I am feeling bad and they always ask my mommy or my
teachers
at church if I am OK.
Did you know that Diabetes is not
something
you can get by touching me or being around me? Some kids tease
because
they get scared of what they don't understand. It is not nice to make
fun
of other kids because it can hurt their feelings, make them sad and
make
them cry.
Having Diabetes is no fun, but my
mommy and
daddy tell me that God made me special because of my diabetes.
There
are lots of kids with diabetes.There are even famous people who have
diabetes.
I have pictures of some of them and an autograph too. I have a
picture
of Nicole Johnson, Kelly Kuehne, Mark Lye, and Michelle McGann.
*I'm now a big giant six years
old and will
be seven this summer in July! Even though I'm technically in first
grade,
most of my work at home is on a 2nd grade level. I'm going
to be moving in about 2 1/2 weeks, into our very own house from an
apartment.
Boy am I ever excited about that. I'll keep you posted. In the
meantime,
I'm happy that you took the time to read my story!
Now here are two funny pictures,
one of me in August of 2004, and the next of me at the end of May,
2005. Can you tell what happened to me in the meantime?
* Can you believe another
year has passed, and I'll be 8 in July.
And my brand new little sister Tobi will be three months old when I'm
8!
I'm still being
homeschooled and, guess what, I'm going into 3rd grade!
I like to play
outside---and now we have a great big outside...almost 2 acres. I
also love to go to garage sales on Fridays with my Paw Paw.
Want to know some
warning signs
of
diabetes?
How about reading a
poem about diabetes?
kallco1@sbcglobal.net
Joan
Fleitas, Ed.D., R.N.
Associate
Professor of Nursing, Lehman College, CUNY
Bronx,
New York 10468
Last
updated: June 25, 2005
