Living with juvenile diabetes, local youth looks to give back
“This is what makes my blood sugar go down,” said Maddox Guice as he held up and showed off a number of items following a special presentation at Aragon City Hall last week.
Maddox, a rising fourth grader at Eastside Elementary School, carries around these items in a bag with him everywhere: replacement pump parts for his insulin pump, an emergency shot used for if his blood sugar dips too low ready to go, and a blood testing machine that’s wirelessly connected to his insulin pump that remains on his side constantly.
He also carries around a stuffed bear, an educational tool that helps remind him where it’s safe to inject himself.
This array of medical equipment is what’s helping keep Maddox a happy, healthy child as he continues his daily struggle with Type 1 diabetes.
And it was for this reason that Maddox and his
mom Amy were up at city hall last Friday being given a proclamation from the city honoring him and others who suffer from what is also known as Juvenile diabetes.
City clerk Sandy Norman read the proclamation, which was in part also due to Maddox and his family’s work to raise money to help with research into Type 1 diabetes, which has no cure.
“We couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him at first, but I can remember the day that he was diagnosed,” she said.
He’s been treated for Type 1 diabetes since 2015, which typically develops early in life and remains throughout, caused by an autoimmune disease that affects the pancreas’ ability to produce insulin.
So what Maddox and thousands of others like him across the world do is regulate their sugar through insulin injections, which start as shots in the stomach but in Maddox’s case are regulated through a pump attached to his abdomen with a port.
Maddox and his family are also involved in raising money and taking part in the annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s walk in Atlanta, coming up this year on Oct. 21, 2017.
He’s set a goal to individually raise $1,000 for the walk, and has also designed a t-shirt he is entering into the contest this year in hopes to win.
Maddox and Baldwin traded tshirts during the ceremony, one for each to wear during upcoming special occasions. Maddox was given a Aragon BBQ t-shirt, while Baldwin received one that Maddox designed for this year’s walk.