Thursday, June 17, 1999
Local girls take message about diabetes to Washington
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's one thing to stand up in front of classmates and talk about life as a teen-ager with diabetes. It's another to do the same to an audience of Washington lawmakers.
But 14-year-old Lisa Zaring of Cincinnati and 11-year-old Marissa Hitchcock of West Chester are up to the challenge.
The two Tristate girls will travel to the nation's capital this week as part of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Children's Congress, a Sunday gathering that will use children's voices to ask legislators for research money to find a cure for diabetes.
“I've done a lot of school projects about diabetes,” says Lisa, who was first diagnosed at age 5. “My science project was about the effects of simple and complex carbohydrates on blood sugar. Once I gave myself a shot in front of the whole class.”
Marissa recently completed sixth grade at Heritage Elementary in the Lakota Local School District, while Lisa finished eighth grade at St. Ursula Villa School.
Actress Mary Tyler Moore, a diabetic for more than 30 years,will lead the gathering of 100 children representing all 50 states.
Diabetes is a disorder linked to the body's inability to produce or use the hormone insulin, which regulates sugar levels in the blood. Marissa wears a pager-sized insulin pump that automatically delivers a tiny dose of insulin into her bloodstream every three minutes. Lisa must give herself up to five insulin shots a day to keep her blood sugar levels stable.
Reactions to irregular sugar levels can cause diabetics to become shaky, confused, irritable, nauseated and ill, sometimes requiring emergency-room treatment or hospitalization. Their days are a constant routine of blood tests, injections, regularly eaten meals and snacks to keep blood sugars level.
Insulin, the girls point out, is a temporary treatment, not a cure.
“It's a really bad disease and a lot of people have it,” Marissa says (diabetes affects about 16 million Americans). “It's really important that we find a cure.”
Lisa is the daughter of Allen and Anne Zaring; Marissa is the daughter of Jeff and Brenda Hitchcock.
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