Olivia Luttrell looks like any normal 7 year old. She attends Heber Springs Elementary School in Mrs. Moore’s second grade class. She enjoys playing with friends, watching movies, riding her bike and playing dress up. She is also in the Girl Scouts as a Brownie.
One difference, Olivia is one of over three million Americans diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes. Diagnosed on July 4, 2007, Olivia has had to learn to live with the disease. “She spent a week in Children’s Hospital after being diagnosed,” Olivia’s mother, Karee Luttrell said.
“There are signs that you have diabetes, but if you’re like me, you’re too dumbfounded and don’t know what signs to look for. We were just shocked when we found out.”
Olivia and her parents, Tony and Karee Luttrell, have had to learn how to monitor blood sugar and administer insulin shots. “We check her blood sugar every morning after she wakes up, then every two hours after that,” Karee said. “She gets four insulin shots a day, one after every meal and one at bedtime.”
With this diagnosis, Olivia will have to learn to live with this disease for the rest of her life, which will require insulin shots from now on. “When we were told that her pancreas is no longer working and she would need insulin shots for the rest of her life, that just got me,” Karee said. “When you hear the doctor say ‘rest of your life’ then you know it’s serious.”
The hardest part for Olivia is to have to check her blood sugar before getting food. “Unlike other children, she can’t just go and get a snack whenever she wants one,” Karee said. “She has to check her blood sugar before she eats anything. During school, she has to go to the nurse’s station to check her blood sugar, which makes her miss about 20-30 minutes of school each day.”
And Karee can tell when Olivia’s blood sugar is out of whack. “If her blood sugar is low, she gets sleepy, lightheaded, and sweaty,” Karee said. “When it is too high she gets aggravated. It affects her school work either way.”
And how does Olivia feel about having to check her blood sugar all the time? “It makes her tired and frustrated to have to check it all the time, but she knows she has to do it to keep healthy,” Karee said.
In the last year, Olivia has had a couple of scares where her insulin levels have gotten too low or too high. “We’ve had a couple of scares, but luckily we haven’t had any major scares,” Karee said. “We are hoping to get an insulin pump to help monitor her blood sugar better.”
So what does Olivia want? “A cure,” she shyly whispered while sitting close to her mom. In fact, that is what Olivia asked for at Christmas time last year. “When asked what she wanted for Christmas, she said she wanted a cure for diabetes,” Karee said.
And that is something Olivia has been working on, trying to find a cure. “She wants more people to know what’s going on,” Karee said.
“Many people say, oh she just takes more insulin and she will be all right, but insulin is not a cure. We’d like to see more research done and more people take this seriously.”
In order to help fund research to look for a cure, Olivia and her family held fundraisers, such as a garage sale at church, which took in over $700. “We also did a Cruisin for the Cure, where we raised $350,” Karee said.
“And Olivia won an award for participating in Walk to Cure Diabetes, where she raised $1100 last year. Next year, she wants to run a lemonade stand to help raise money and we’d love to get a walk-a-thon here.
If you would like to help Olivia raise money for research to help find a cure, go to http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=87044533, a link on the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation website that lets you donate money in honor of Olivia. With everyone’s help, maybe a cure can be found in Olivia’s lifetime.