Posted Dec 24, 2010
Ian McConnell sticks out his tongue.
His eyes drift to the ceiling, to the floor, and then to watch the dog scratch an itch. He’s bored, and he doesn’t flinch when his mother jabs his finger with an needle and presses out a bright red bead of blood.
Ian, 3, has juvenile diabetes and while he isn’t impressed with blood or scared by needles, his family deals with his disease one insulin injection at a time.
“Diabetes does not run in our family, you can’t maintain it with diet and exercise and he will be insulin dependent his entire life,” mom Jennifer McConnell said. “We live for Ian’s constant care. He takes three insulin shots a day, we count carbohydrates, we watch what he eats, we check his sugar and then check it again. We all worry about his health.”
McConnell said Ian was just 2 when she noticed a change in his drinking habits. After trips to his pediatrician, everything seemed medically fine.
“The doctor said it was no big deal,” she said, “but I knew something was really wrong. Ian drank enormous amounts of water and he wet through his diapers. He had constant ear infections that wouldn’t clear up. He was sick — I could see it in his eyes. He didn’t feel good and no one would listen to me.”
McConnell took matters into her own hands and by the time Ian was transported to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, he was in critical condition. Now stable and just fine with the daily finger pricks, Ian still faces a lifetime of health concerns.
“From his eyesight to watching his feet for wounds, knowing this disease will be hard on his liver, just everything about this will be hard on him for the rest of his life. I know the better we control (the diabetes) now, the better it is for his organs later,” McConnell said.
Breakthroughs in pharmaceutical development give McConnell hope.
“From testing to medication, the advancements in juvenile diabetes research is amazing. We are looking to be a part of a breakthrough in this disease,” she said.
The McConnell family is helping to organize a benefit pasta dinner Feb. 26 at St. Francis Cabrini church on Mill Street. The meal will be served from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will include a Chinese auction. All proceeds will benefit juvenile diabetes research.
McConnell said she encourages her family to raise money for juvenile diabetes research whenever possible. “Team Ian” raised more than $1,000 at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk for the Cure in Conneaut this year.
“I tell other moms to insist on blood work, get the tests. When I think of the things he didn’t have to go through, the tests the doctors should have run in the first place, it just makes me mad. He had all the symptoms, but I had to be his advocate — I had to insist,” she said. “The more people know about Type 1 diabetes the more children and families don’t have to go through what we went through.”
For tickets to the benefit pasta dinner, call Patt Carr at (593-5835), Jennifer McConnell at (536-1098) or Peggy Senskey at (812-8823).
To see more of the Star Beacon or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.starbeacon.com/.
Copyright © 2010, Star Beacon, Ashtabula, Ohio
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune
