{"id":165731,"date":"2010-01-11T12:40:08","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T17:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.diabetesforums.com\/forum\/type-1-diabetes\/47495-todays-feelgood-story.html"},"modified":"2010-01-11T12:40:08","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T17:40:08","slug":"todays-feelgood-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/165731","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Feelgood Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
Southwest High freshman’s paper may have helped save a life | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\nSouthwest High freshman’s paper may have helped save a life<\/b>
\nPosted Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 <\/p>\n

By EVA-MARIE AYALA<\/p>\n

eayala@star-telegram.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH \u0097 It was just another biology homework assignment for Johnny Trinh.<\/p>\n

But for his teacher Lori Roque, the paper helped save her daughter\u0092s life.<\/p>\n

Because of Trinh\u0092s paper, the Southwest High School teacher learned that her daughter had juvenile diabetes and quickly got her medical attention that caught a life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n

"You never know when something that seems so insignificant to you can change someone else\u0092s life," Roque said.<\/p>\n

Trinh, a freshman, is in Roque\u0092s pre-Advanced Placement biology class at Southwest. Before the winter break, students were to submit summaries of a disease that affects multiple organ systems in the body.<\/p>\n

Trinh chose diabetes, a health condition that has affected his father and uncles. The 15-year-old said he waited until the last minute to do the assignment but was quickly able to find resources to finish it because of his family\u0092s experience.<\/p>\n

"It\u0092s changed a lot of what my dad can eat," Trinh said.<\/p>\n

During the break, Roque was reading Trinh\u0092s summary, which outlined some of the symptoms of both types of diabetes. The symptoms of type I, also known as juvenile diabetes, include fatigue, the need to use the bathroom frequently, being excessively thirsty and extreme hunger without gaining much weight. All these she had noticed in her 14-year-old daughter, Hope Escalante.<\/p>\n

"Independently, none of them sent up a red flag," Roque said. "But when I read his paper and it listed them all together, it just clicked."<\/p>\n

On Dec. 23, Hope saw her regular doctor, who confirmed she had type I diabetes. Her blood-sugar level topped 350 \u0097 the normal range is about 70 to 120 \u0097 and she had a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis, which can lead to coma or death. Doctors also worried that Hope was underweight, at 5 feet tall and nearly 80 pounds.<\/p>\n

Hope was immediately taken to Cook Children\u0092s Medical Center, where doctors worked to stabilize her.<\/p>\n

Roque said she tries not to think about what could have happened if her daughter had not gotten help when she did. As Hope stabilized, a doctor joked that she owed Trinh a consultation fee.<\/p>\n

"Then he stopped and looked at me straight and said, ‘No. Really, this was very serious,\u0092 " Roque said. "It makes me so grateful."<\/p>\n

Hope said her mom did her best to prepare her for what diabetes might mean, but she was a little scared when she had to be hospitalized.<\/p>\n

"I was freaked out about having them take a lot of samples with the needles and give me more medicine with the needles," she said. "I don\u0092t like pain and needles. Then they said I have to take shots every day, and I just cried."<\/p>\n

But Hope, an eighth-grader in Crowley, said she\u0092s adjusting and has learned that her life doesn\u0092t have to change too much. She checks her blood sugar first thing in the morning and gives herself a shot an average of four times a day. If she plans on exercising, she makes sure to eat beforehand so that her blood sugar doesn\u0092t drop too low.<\/p>\n

She is grateful for Trinh\u0092s work.<\/p>\n

"I just want to thank him and let him know it really made a difference," Hope said. "I\u0092m sure like every other person, it was just something the teacher assigns you and you have to do it to pass."<\/p>\n

Trinh never expected his homework to have such an effect.<\/p>\n

"I was surprised, but it\u0092s good," he said. "And I\u0092m happy I got a good grade."<\/p>\n

EVA-MARIE AYALA, 817-390-7700<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Southwest High freshman’s paper may have helped save a life | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com Southwest High freshman’s paper may have helped save a life Posted Monday, Jan. 11, 2010 By EVA-MARIE AYALA eayala@star-telegram.com FORT WORTH \u0097 It was just another biology homework assignment for Johnny Trinh. But for his teacher Lori Roque, the paper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}