
Colorado Springs family adapts to reality of Type 1 diabetes as, one after one, children are diagnosed
Colorado Springs family adapts to reality of Type 1 diabetes as, one after one, children are diagnosed
March 19, 2017 Updated: March 21, 2017 at 11:40 pm
Siblings Melanie, McGuire, Emily and Ashley, all of whom have type 1 diabetes, goof off as parents Julie and Bubba Hayes watch at their home on Wednesday, February 1, 2017. Julie and Bubba Hayes have four out of five children with type 1 diabetes. Photo by Stacie Scott, The Gazette
It was a cold, wet California winter and Julie Hayes, her husband, Bubba, and their five kids all were laid low by a nasty stomach virus. When a week went by and 3-year-old Ashley hadn't rallied like her twin sister and the rest of the family, Hayes started to worry. The toddler was wetting the bed, which she hadn't done in at least a year, and though she ate nonstop, never seemed to get full. She'd sleep half the day and wake exhausted.
Hayes explained the examples of uncharacteristic behavior to the emergency room doctor, who peered into Ashley's eyes, had her stick out her tongue, and asked if diabetes ran in the family.
"I looked at him and said, 'I don't even know what diabetes is," Hayes said.
That, and life as she knew it, was about to change.
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Over the following eight years, three more of her children would be diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a scenario that - even among families with a history of the disease - defies medical odds and, in many ways, illustrates the mysteries at the heart of genetic dynamics.
"I can tell you that the great majority of families ha
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