Diabetes Awareness Month: Inspired by Isabella

At age 4, Isabella Dooley has calloused fingertips that look as if she has played guitar or violin for dozens of years, even though she has never handled either instrument.

In fact, her hardened tips have been caused by being pricked with a needle eight to 10 times a day to test her blood glucose levels, a necessity since she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) two years ago.

“Amazingly, she has never shed a tear, although we know it hurts because my husband and I have both done it once with the little lancing device just to test ourselves,” her mother, Kristina Dooley, says.

Isabella is among a growing number of children with type 1 diabetes, which has increased 23 percent in young children within the last decade.

Unlike the causes of type 2 diabetes, the autoimmune disease has nothing to do with a child’s or adult’s diet, lifestyle or being obese. Like other children or adults with the disease, Isabella’s pancreas doesn’t produce insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar into energy. This forces Kristina and her husband, Greg Dooley, to constantly check what Isabella eats, especially foods with too many carbohydrates that are instantly converted into sugar.

Adapting to a Different Lifestyle

Triplets Isabella, Mia and Max were born while the Dooleys of Macedonia were living in Argentina, where Greg was working for the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

Only days before Isabella’s second birthday, Kristina says her usually energetic daughter became listless and lethargic, forcing her to take Isabella to a British-American hospital in Mexico City where she was found to have the disease.

Not only did the couple quickly educate themselves about T1D, the Dooleys’ lifestyle had to change.

“We had to learn how to give her insulin injections, how to count her carbs and a whole bunch of things. It was almost like going to boot camp,” Kristina says. “But we learned quickly because every child — every person whose has type 1 — needs a different amount of insulin.”

From the start, Greg says he and Kristina explained to Isabella in a simple way what diabetes is and why she needs to have multiple daily injections.

“Although she still doesn’t fully comprehend her diabetes, Isabella does understand that she needs insulin daily,” he adds.

“We didn’t want her to feel different, but we did want her to understand why she needed insulin and her triplet brother and sister did not,” he says. “We also wanted her to understand her disease would always be with her and has to be managed properly every day to ensure she would remain healthy.”

Coping for the Dooleys and their daughter has been made easier through a strong support network of families with T1D children, with whom Isabella has made friends.

The friends she has made through the family’s close association with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) will be a “huge source of support for her as she gets older,” Greg says.

Isabella is still too young to attend diabetes camps, like Camp Ho Mita Koda in Geauga County. As she gets older, however, Greg says he and his wife will consider enrolling her in one.

In the meantime, the family has opted to attend the Children with Diabetes “Friends for Life” Conference in Orlando, Fla., the last two years. Although it is not a camp, Greg says the conference allows parents and children with diabetes to learn how to better manage physical and emotional challenges that come with diabetes.

Fighting for a Cure

Currently, there is no cure for type 1 diabetes. This is why the Dooleys are hoping and working for one by participating in JDRF events, along with sharing their story and resources through the family’s website and social media sites called Inspired By Isabella.

“We’re dedicated to finding a cure not only for Isabella, but for every child and person because we want better treatment, prevention and eventually a cure for this disease,” Kristina says.

“Her life depends on these blood checks and the insulin pump (a patch) she now wears, but we don’t want Isabella to be ashamed or embarrassed about having type 1 diabetes, or let it define who she is as a person,” she says.

In reality, Isabella is medically different from other children. She cannot eat some of the foods and goodies they enjoy and faces life-threatening consequences if the disease is not controlled by insulin. Yet, she willingly talks about her pump with anyone who asks, isn’t ashamed about showing it off and has even learned to check her own blood sugar, Kristina adds.

To learn more about the family’s fight to raise awareness and funding, along with diabetes resources, visit inspiredbyisabella.com.

Also, November is Diabetes Awareness Month, visit neo.jdrf.org to learn more about the disease.