Smart Driving for the Diabetic Teenager

<>Upon entering high school, I created a club called the Juvenile Diabetes Awareness Club (JDAC) to bring awareness of diabetes and to raise money for diabetes organizations. In three years, JDAC has raised over $35,000. This money is being used to send children to diabetes camp for 2 weeks of valuable education, not to mention fun! Many of these children may not have been able to monetarily afford this. I hope to share the success of this club with students around the country. In addition, I started a program in the spring of 2007 through a grant I obtained, called “Smart Driving for the Diabetic Teenager”. This is a program that I hope with empower the importance of safe, smart driving to all teenagers. Through my personal web site (www.sarahyourman.com), I try to motivate others to stay active and healthy while managing a chronic illness. By providing this program, Diabetics will receive the education necessary for safe driving, Statistically approximately 176,500 people aged 20 years or younger have diabetes representing 22 percent of this age group. <>One of the biggest moments in a teenager's life is to get their driver's license. While it gives the new driver a tremendous amount of freedom, it brings on a tremendous amount of responsibility. Driving is a very complex skill but with diabetes, they can be affected with changes to their physical, emotional, and mental condition. Some of this changes include symptoms such as, feeling sleepy or dizzy, feeling confused, having blurred vision or possibly lose consciousness or have a seizure while driving. Driving with a low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) is the equivalent of driving drunk! The goal for this grant is to provide the necessary education to teenagers with diabetes. There are diabetes camps around the country that employ diabetics as counselors. There is usually a “staff week” that trains them for the exciting summer of activities, but can also provide them with the necessary tools for their everyday life. The educational training session will address the following issues: --To avoid driving with low blood glucose, check your blood glucose level before getting behind the wheel. --If it's low, treat the hypoglycemia and wait until you're at a safer level before driving. ----Keep your glove compartment stocked with glucose tablets and snacks. --If you feel light-headed or low while driving, pull over immediately and check your glucose. Treat the hypoglycemia and don't start out again until your glucose rises again.