The day was Sunday March 25, 2018. It started out normally but when Samantha, my 13-year old, got up she just didn’t look right. She was gaunt and felt nauseous. I told her to lie down on the couch and we would watch her. She tried to eat a little, but was unable to hold anything down. By early afternoon, I was getting worried; something was wrong. I honestly thought that she was bulimic and somehow we had missed the symptoms. I texted her best friend’s mom to see if her daughter had any insight. Nope – nothing. An hour or so later I looked at my husband and said we were going to urgent care. Something was wrong.

Within 10 minutes of seeing the doctor I was pulled out of the room, told it was Type 1 Diabetes and an ambulance was on the way. Samantha was going to the ER immediately. I was scared and numb. How could she have Type 1 Diabetes? And how could I have missed it? What exactly would this mean for our whole family?

I took a deep breath, choked back my tears and went to tell Samantha and my husband. Samantha seemed to take the news well. I don’t think she understood what T1D meant. I was scared for her. I was no expert, but I knew insulin shots and finger pricks were in her future and I knew the long term effects diabetes can have. All I could think of was how would she handle this physically and emotionally? She was 13 – not an easy age to suddenly be different. She already struggled with girl drama and 13-year olds are not known for their sensitivity.

The next few days are kind of a blur, but we got a crash course in caring for someone with T1D and I began checking out the JDRF website. I knew she would need some help to cope and I was looking for something positive we could do, maybe as a family. I have learned in life that although we all feel self-pity at times and that a good cry is VERY beneficial, cutting those pity parties short is also important. I’ve learned that hope in the midst of tragedy or loss is very powerful. It doesn’t fix everything, but it gives you a reason to move forward. I wanted all of us to have hope, especially for a cure.

I found the One Walk website and starting talking to Samantha about it. She was receptive and her Dad was coming up with all sorts of fun things to do at the walk. She smiled as we talked about all the things we could do to make the walk fun for her.

She was amazingly upbeat when she left the hospital and overall stayed very upbeat for the next 2 months. In fact, she handled the whole situation far better than I did. She approached it head on and never asked, “Why me?” I, on the other hand, was a mess! I spent every morning listening for her to wake up. I wanted to know she hadn’t died in her sleep that night.

Then suddenly she wasn’t handling her diabetes well. She was tired of being different. Her friends were trying to be supportive, but she was sick of hearing how sorry they were for her. She was tired of not being able to eat when her friends ate and of carrying her glucose monitor everywhere. She wanted to be “normal” again.

I helped her as best as I could and kept talking about the One Walk. She was now hesitant about participating, but I held out hope that this phase would pass.

By September her feelings had mellowed and she was once again on board with the walk. She had chosen a team name, we created our team page and she created her very inspirational personal page. We started reaching out to family and friends for donations and she picked 6 specific friends she wanted to invite to join our team. Quickly the donations started coming in and all her friends joined the team and committed to join her at the walk in October. As we continued to raise money, I kept telling her we were raising money for a cure. A cure is out there. We just have to find it and the JDRF is key to that goal! I kept focusing on hope.

The day before the One Walk she was excited and nervous. She was worried that her friends wouldn’t show or that she would hate the walk. Luckily, all her friends arrived at our house promptly that Sunday morning. Most of them were half asleep, but they were there and the day was a blast!

By the end of the walk her friends were all talking about next year and how they wanted to change the team name to Sam’s Hams and all wear pink pig pajamas. They kept talking about how JDRF was going to find a cure and that they were all part of that journey now. The look on Samantha’s face as she listened to her friends was both surprise and elation. She felt so special and so loved. She told me later that she was sure a cure would be found and that we would continue to help fund research to do just that.

So if you see a bunch of teenagers wearing pink pig pajamas at the One Walk this year, just know that’s Sam’s Hams. If you ask us why we walk, that’s simple. We walk for hope!

By Karen Janos