SHE HAS NEVER LET DIABETES HOLD HER BACK”

Vicksburg, Miss. – Elizabeth Anne Boyd enjoys swimming and playing softball. Most of all, she enjoys riding horses, especially her pet horse, Cinnamon. And she really likes competing with Cinnamon in various competitions, like barrel-racing and pole-bending.

She just started fourth grade, and when she grows up, she wants to be a large-animal veterinarian. She’s loved animals since the first time she stepped onto her great grandpa’s 100-acre farm filled with cows, goats, horses and exotic birds. And she and her grandpa now raise chickens together.

“Elizabeth Anne does all the things that children enjoy doing,” said Marty Boyd, her father.

There’s just one minor detail that’s been left out– Elizabeth Anne is the first one in her family to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. When she was 13 months old, after her parents initially were told that she had pneumonia, Elizabeth Anne’s symptoms intensified so much that her parents took her to a doctor on-call.

“She had a blood-sugar of 1,068, and the doctor thought that the results were incorrect,” Boyd said.

But after the tests were redone at the hospital, the results were conclusive- Elizabeth Anne had type 1.

“It was a very big surprise,” he said. “Really, it just came out of the blue. It was something totally new to us.”

And it was during this new stage in the Boyds’ lives that the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi (DFM) stepped in to assist with educational materials and encouragement, he said.

“The DFM has absolutely been helpful,” he said. “They offered us so much support and comfort in knowing that we weren’t alone. They provided us with all the information that we needed to help us in better understanding diabetes, and if they didn’t have the answers, they found them for us.”

Undoubtedly, it was a difficult transition for the family.

Both Boyd and his wife Cheryl took turns staying up sometimes until two, three or four in the morning just to watch Elizabeth Anne sleep, making sure that she was all right, he said.

“It’s challenging to be the parent of a child with diabetes,” said Boyd.

At birthday parties, parents and children would stare as Boyd or his wife gave Elizabeth Anne her insulin injections.

“Parents would always whisper, ‘I could never do that,’ and I told them, ‘When it’s a life or death matter, you would be surprised at what you can do when it’s your child,” said Boyd.

Throughout the years, in most ways, Boyd admits, managing Elizabeth Anne’s diabetes has gotten easier. She now can recognize the symptoms of high or low blood sugar, and now she can tell her parents how she is feeling.

Before the start of kindergarten, she required at least two to three shots every day, but now that she’s on an insulin pump, things have gotten easier, because she has more freedom to be a child, Boyd said.

“And when she was a baby, Cheryl and I had to be more proactive and watch her more closely, because unlike small children, she could not tell us if she was feeling hurt or dizzy,” he said. “But now, emotions are involved, and the difficulty of diabetes management has taken on a whole new level.”

“She tells us, ‘It’s not fair,’ and all we can tell her is, ‘No, it’s not, but it is how it is and we have to deal with it.’ She knows we didn’t choose this for her,” Boyd said.

In spite of having diabetes, Elizabeth Anne continues living a very active 10-year-old life. “She stays very busy, and she keeps her mom and I very busy, too,” he said with a hint of pride in

his voice. “She has never let diabetes hold her back.”

Elizabeth Anne participated in the DFM-sponsored Camp Kandu two years ago, Boyd said. And she had a blast participating in the karate exhibition, tie-dying T-shirts and making friends with other children in her situation.

Camp Kandu– one of the several outreach programs sponsored by the DFM– is a weekend camp for children and their families at Camp Twin Lakes in Florence. The camp is held twice a year– once in the fall and once in the spring. Children with diabetes attend the camp for free

The Boyd family also has encouraged diabetes awareness in the community by participating for over five years in the annual Mississippi Walk for Diabetes. The walks, which are held in eight different towns around the Magnolia State, help raise money for diabetes research, educational programs and services for Mississippians with diabetes.

“We always walk as part of a family team,” he said. “It’s a good way to raise money for a great cause and get the word out that diabetes is not just a disease for the elderly– it affects everyone.”

The DFM is the state’s only nonprofit health organization that provides diabetes research, information, patient services and advocacy, and its mission is to provide hope through research, programs and service to the 346,500 Mississippians with diabetes. Every dollar raised by the DFM stays in the state to support these efforts. Likewise, 90 cents of every dollar raised goes towards the organization’s charitable purposes. The DFM is the one diabetes organization totally dedicated to all Mississippians– from children to seniors– who live with diabetes.

Vicksburg will host Mississippi’s Walk for Diabetes on Saturday, Oct. 6. Registration begins at 1 p.m. at Bancorp South. For registration details or other information about putting together a team of walkers or participating as an individual, please contact the DFM at 601-957-7878, or visit the DFM Web site, www.msdiabetes.org.