Volume 124 Issue 35
kansan.com
Friday, October 7, 2011
HEALTH
Photo by Chris Neal
"When I later asked my mother why I got diabetes, she told me it was in my genes. My two-year-old self responded, 'Why do you make me wear these jeans? I don't want to wear those jeans anymore,'" Amy Cumbow, a junior from Boca Raton, Fla., says. Cumbow found out she was suffering from diabetes when she was two. She inherited it from both her mother and father's sides.
Some families relate through an outing to the movie theater or maybe by sitting down and eating a meal together, but more and more families are sharing similarities through something more serious than popcorn and green bean casserole. Some families are alike through illnesses that have been passed down genetically.
The breakdown of diabetes and the different kinds goes like this: Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are similar in that they both contain hereditary links. However, Type 1 diabetes is thought to be an autoimmune process that destroys the insulin producing cells in your Pancreas, according to registered nurse and diabetic educator, Catherine Parkhurst. Type 2 diabetes includes a lifestyle link meaning it can increase with age, high blood pressure, inactive lifestyle, and obesity. "Blood sugar goals and healthy lifestyle choices are a component of management in both types of diabetes," Parkhurst says.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Parkhurst says that monitoring your blood sugar can require up to 8 to 10 insulin injections daily. Type 1 diabetes requires insulin through a pump or injections, and Type 2 diabetes may need oral medications, injections or just diet and exercise to maintain blood sugar. Parkhurst notes that "the biggest risk, day to day, is preventing severe high or low blood sugar that not only will make someone with diabetes feel lousy, but can affect your ability to function normally.
"I usually drink diet sodas and try to avoid eating cake, but if I do decide to have them, I make sure I take insulin," says Alex
Dimas, a senior from Overland Park.
Of the 2.3 million freshmen that enrolled for college this fall, 7,700 suffer from Type 1 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. It can affect their diets. It can force them to inject themselves with insulin every few hours. It can potentially take them out of school.
Cumbow had to withdraw from the University her second semester of her sophomore year because of diabetes. She had been diagnosed with Neuropathy and had to fly back home to Florida to meet with doctors and have her parents look after her. Neuropathy is damage to a single nerve or group of nerves that can eventually lead to complete loss of movement. In Cumbow's case it was in her feet. It was brought on by her diabetes. "It wasn't until my feet swelled at a sorority retreat, stayed swollen and were excruciatingly painful that I allowed myself to stop," Cumbow says. Even after flying home and being put in the hospital, her feet were still swollen and painful. "I can't even begin to describe the pain. The only thing that relieved it was to sit in the hospital bathtub for six hours a day," says Cumbow. "I couldn't even have a sheet graze them without it feeling like my feet were being stabbed by needles."
While Cumbow was in a Florida hospital, her life fell apart. "I lost my college life, my school, my semester, my sorority and my friends," Cumbow says. Cumbow went through physical therapy to relearn how to walk, and after that time, Cumbow slowly got her life back on track. Cumbow's feet are still sensitive, but she is happy and back at KU.
Having the disease themselves isn't the only thing these college students worry about. What about their kids? They may pass it off to them and have to watch them experience what they went through. But Dimas isn't concerned that his kids may get Type 1 diabetes. "Type 1 diabetes usually skips generations, so I'm not worried that my kids might have it, but there is a risk that my grandchildren might have it," he says. His grandfather has Type 1 diabetes, and none of his children have it, but Dimas, his grandchild, does.
Having a disease that you had little or nothing to do with is hard to grasp, but these students are accustomed to the changes and restrictions. "I have learned to take diabetes day by day, hour by hour," Cumbow says.
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06
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Edited by Jason Bennett
Kirchhoff said many of the images from Spencer Museum of Art and Spencer Research Library can be found on Luna Insight, an online collection database found on the University's library website. Images from Spencer Museum of Art, like those of Spencer Research Library, can be reproduced for personal, academic and publication purposes, Kirchhoff said.
"They have a huge collection," Kilwin said. "They are not always able to show everything in the museum."
Torben Mothes, a banker from Eutin, spent Wednesday morning in Wescoe Hall speaking with students in German language classrooms about the growing number of summer job opportunities in and around Eutin.
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"I think it's great," Joe Cunning.
A request form must be filled out to reproduce images for display or publishing, but copyright restrictions are not normally a problem with images of campus, said Tara Wenger, head of reader services at Spencer Research Library.
and that ad-dence would the Univer-
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A current exhibit at the Spencer Museum of Art also uses images from Spencer Research Library. "Glorious to View: The KU Campus Heritage Project" is a collaboration between Spencer Museum of Art
The requests are used primarily to keep track of reproductions and their usage. Images from Spencer have been hung in restaurants, published in books and displayed in homes.
fer DiDonato
Spencer Museum of Art holds about 38,000 works, of which only about 1 percent are on display, said Jerrye Van Leer, Spencer Museum of Art coordinator of tours and visitor services.
Kenzie Tubbs, a senior from St. Louis, said she helped design a piece in the "Glorious to View" exhibit focused on Old North College. Old North College, originally North College Hall, was the campus' first building, built in 1866. The site is
Amanda Kilwin, a senior from St. Louis, said her work in the exhibit focuses on Potter Lake. She said she learned a lot about the history of campus and the number of images Spencer Research Library and Spencer Museum of Art hold.
staff and University graphic design students.
"It was so hard to pick the ones for 'Campus Heritage' because there are so many crazy pictures of campus," Kirchhoff said.
Chassica Kirchhoff, a curatorial intern at Spencer Museum of Art, said "Glorious to View" features archive images from both Spencer Museum of Art and Spencer Research Library.
es with Germany and Japan.
now occupied by GSP Corbin residence halls. She said her group was provided with several photos to work with by Spencer Museum of Art curators.
"It's fascinating to look at the photos," Tubbs said. "I didn't even know these old images existed."
VIN/KANSAN manic Lan-ogram's
Emissaries from the Lawrence sister cities of Eutin, Germany and Hiratsu ka, Japan, toured Lawrence and the campus in an effort to foster their exchange programs, which provide students with the opportunity to study, or intern in the emissaries' respective countries.
at working cent of Ger Literatures, exchange rns, it is a work with
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people in a professional context, which helps them to master that high level of language required."
Mothes also met with key faculty in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures to inform them of the success of the 2011 internships and to make plans for 2012.
According to Jim Morrison, lecturer on German business culture, the Eutin internship program with the University has increased significantly in the past three years. Only one or two students each year had participated in the exchange
SEE SISTER CITIES | 3
Hot dog! Chez Paul serves up franks on campus
CLASSIFIEDS 9
CROSSWORD 4
Index
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
SPORTS 10
SUDOKU 4
contents, unless stated otherwise. © 2011 The University Daily Kansan
otherwise, © 2011 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
Today is Lee National Denim Day. Show your support for breast cancer awareness by stopping by the booth between 1 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Wescoe
Today's
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Forecasts done by
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For a more detailed forecast,
see page 24.
1.
Let your hair down.