ARTICLE-A-DAY™ Diseases and Disorders 6 Articles Check articles you have read: 'It's Just Part of Who I Am': A Teen Learns to Live With Chronic Illness 635 words Healing Power 356 words Alzheimer's Disease: The Mind Robber 1053 words Understanding Tourette's Syndrome 1169 words Why Am I So Tired? 915 words The Scoop On ADHD 789 words Page 1 of 19 ReadWorks.org · © 2016 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. 'It's Just Part of Who I Am': A Teen Learns to Live With Chronic Illness 'It's Just Part of Who I Am': A Teen Learns to Live With Chronic Illness Actress Halle Barry, musician Nick Jonas, and tennis legend Billie Jean King all have something Win common . They alil havee a dsisease caelled diabetes.ak lrye Rgeisatdeerred trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Diabetes (die-uh-BEE-teez) keeps the body's tissues from absorbing glucose, or sugar, from the bloodstream. The body uses glucose as a source of energy, and much of the body’s glucose comes from food. When food is digested, glucose goes into the bloodstream to be absorbed by the body’s tissues. For diabetic people, the glucose stays in the blood, causing high blood sugar levels. Some symptoms of high blood sugar levels include fatigue, hunger, a lot of thirst, and blurry vision. According to the American Diabetes Association, about two million Americans learn that they have diabetes each year. Jessica Pray became one of those people at age 13. At that time, Jessica was a typical teenager. Her life changed forever, though, when she found out about her disease. She made plans to go to college and study medical research. She wanted to help people with diabetes. There are several treatment options and lifestyle adjustments for people with diabetes. How did Jessica learn to cope with having diabetes? Here is the story in her own words. I was told I had diabetes when I was 13. It all began when I got the flu. It went on for weeks. I was still thirsty all of the time. I felt really tired. The symptoms were odd. My mom and I thought about going to the doctor, but then we'd put it off. We thought that I had some kind of virus, but I kept getting worse. We finally went to the doctor. I was told I had diabetes right before Halloween. I'll never forget it. I was told I would have to inject myself twice a day with a chemical called insulin. I would have to test my blood and watch my diet. Learning to Cope My doctor showed me how to inject the insulin. I also had to learn a lot about nutrition Page 2 of 19 © 2016 ReadWorks®, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. 'It's Just Part of Who I Am': A Teen Learns to Live With Chronic Illness because of my disease. There were lots of foods I could no longer eat. I was really unhappy. I knew the diabetes was going to be there forever. I learned to test my blood to see how much insulin I needed. I had to prick my finger with a needle and squeeze a drop of blood onto a strip of paper. Then I'd put the paper into a machine to get a reading. Soon, I got the hang of knowing how much insulin I needed. I had a lot of trouble adjusting to my diabetes the first year. I had to wake up by 9 o'clock every morning to inject myself. Slowly, my internal clock began to wake me in time for my injection. I didn't like this routine. But it was something I had to do. Living with Disease After I learned I had diabetes, I talked to my class about it. No one was upset or anything. I didn't want them to think I was contagious and be afraid to be around me. Diabetes can be overwhelming. Sometimes, I break down and cry. Sometimes, I take my anger out on my family, but I don't mean to. If I start dwelling on my illness, I get upset and have a hard time. “I've Adapted” In some ways, diabetes has made me a more responsible person. It keeps me in line. It teaches me about life. If a cure for diabetes is found, that would be great. But in the meantime, I'm doing OK. It's just part of who I am. I've adapted. What would I say to other people with chronic illnesses? Follow your treatment and stay positive. Having a chronic illness will just blend in, like learning to walk and everything else new in life. Page 3 of 19 © 2016 ReadWorks®, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Healing Power Healing Power Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) did not go to medical school. Yet Montagu has gone Wdown in his tory as ai heaeler. Sshe helpeed sla y the "sapkeckled monst elr." rye Rgeisatdeerred trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Investigation Montagu was a British noble. At age 26, she caught smallpox, a disease known as the speckled monster. Smallpox started with a high fever, chills, pain, nausea, and vomiting. After a few days, the fever went away. A rash appeared on the face and inside the eyelids. Three in 10 smallpox sufferers died. Montagu’s brother was among them. Those who survived carried reminders of the disease. Some lost their eyesight. Montagu was among those scarred with pockmarks. In 1717, Montagu traveled to Constantinople (now called Istanbul). That was the capital of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, to which her husband was an ambassador. There, she studied local culture. She witnessed healers battle smallpox with a method known as variolation. The healers rubbed smallpox scabs onto scratches on the skin of healthy persons. Sometimes they blew dried smallpox scabs up a person’s nose. Variolation had been performed for centuries. It was believed to have come from India and China. Montagu wondered: How did these practices work? Solution Montagu believed in the treatment enough to allow her son to be variolated. When she returned to England, Montagu publicized the method. During a smallpox outbreak in 1721, she had the treatment performed on her daughter in front of royal court doctors. Royal family members were convinced that variolation worked. The method then became fashionable in Europe. The practice was the basis for vaccinations. Dr. Edward Jenner performed the first vaccination in 1796. The injections, or shots, that patients get contain a mild form of the disease that the Page 4 of 19 © 2016 ReadWorks®, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Healing Power injections are meant to fight. In response, the body builds up a natural defense to the disease. Conclusion Montagu understood how dangerous smallpox could be. She trusted a new found treatment enough to allow her children to be treated. Her caring and experience helped save many lives in England during her lifetime. Once a universal killer, the last natural case of smallpox occurred in 1977 in Somalia, Africa. There is no more speckled monster. Page 5 of 19 © 2016 ReadWorks®, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Weekly Reader Corporation. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Weekly Reader is a registered trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. Alzheimer's Disease: The Mind Robber Alzheimer's Disease: The Mind Robber Conner stared at his grandmother. "Grandma, I'm not Patrick. My name is Conner." WConner's g randmoither eraisesd her eyeebrow s and saaidk, "I know my olwn chirlydren. You'ree P atrick.R" geisatdeerred trademark of Weekly Reader Corporation. "Okay, Grandma, I'm Patrick," he said. Conner turned away. Boy, was Grandma acting weird, he thought. Lately she kept calling him Patrick--that was his dad's name, not his. Why did she do that? It was as if she didn't know him at all. Tears welled up in his eyes. Yesterday he had told her several times that he wasn't Patrick. He had thought she was playing games with him. But she became angry and yelled at him after the fourth or fifth time that he insisted he was Conner. He cried yesterday too. Confusion Conner's grandmother wasn't playing games with Conner at all. She really did think he was his father, Patrick, when he was a boy. Grandma mixes things up in her mind. She can't help it. She has Alzheimer's (AHLZ-hi-merz) disease, or AD. If you have an elderly grandparent or friend, you have probably heard of this disease. Some call it the disease of forgetfulness. Everyone forgets something from time to time. That's pretty normal. You might forget to turn in your homework. Your father might not remember to buy milk and bread on his way home from work. And as people age, they may forget more things--like a birthday, or whether they took their medicine. The Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center (ADEAR) says that with Alzheimer's, the forgetting is about things that are part of everyday life. You might not notice the symptoms of AD at first. The early symptoms are mild and usually develop slowly. Only later, when a person starts saying and doing things that seem very different from before, are the symptoms noticeable.