When junior and diabetic Alex Zerzan first came to the University, he had to call for prescriptions and figure out how to deal with severe low blood sugar levels all on his own. Students like Zerzan who have type 1 diabetes need to receive insulin injections, count carbohydrate intake and monitor blood glucose levels.
Zerzan and other diabetic students found comfort and connections to other students who suffered from the same disease in a University class offered for the first time last year for students with type 1 diabetes.
“You have that support,” Zerzan said. “You see these people on campus, and you know they’re dealing with the same thing.”
Course instructors Vickie SkellCerf and Mary Jean Jacobson, a University Health Center doctor and nurse, respectively, will be showcasing the class at the American College Health Association’s annual meeting from May 29 to June 2 in San Antonio, in hopes the class model spreads to other college health centers across the country.
The human physiology course is the only one of its kind on a college campus, said Tom Ryan, health center director. The course teaches students through hands-on exercises and with classroom lectures.
SkellCerf said the course, called “Diabetes Survival to Savvy,” helps diabetic students who face challenges when they transition from home to college. SkellCerf said she estimates more than 100 students on campus suffer from type 1 diabetes.
“Every one of these people has done a brilliant job of surviving with something that is a lethal illness if it’s not treated,” SkellCerf said. “If someone with type 1 diabetes elects to stop treating it and not do anything, they wouldn’t be alive for much longer than a week.”
SkellCerf said students check blood sugar levels at least 28 times each week and monitor eating habits and insulin intake.
Class topics include alcohol, sleep deprivation, stress, basic human physiology, blood sugar levels and male and female sexual health. Guest lecturers from the community talk about various topics, including eye diseases and kidney problems.
“Our goal is to help people who have this medical problem be able to become experts at managing it so that it has the least amount of impact on their life as possible,” SkellCerf said.
SkellCerf and Jacobson spearheaded the class two years ago when students with diabetes came to the health center with problems.
“We would see people where they were having enough trouble that it was getting in the way of school,” SkellCerf said, adding she has seen students who have to take time off school or return home because of diabetes.
During the next 30 years, the disease will lead to 35 million heart attacks, 13 million strokes, 6 million episodes of kidney failure, 8 million people needing eye surgery or going blind, 2 million amputations and 62 million early deaths, according to a recent study by the American Diabetes Association.
University senior and diabetic Joe Edwards said the class opened his eyes on how to take care of himself in a college atmosphere. He said partying and not sleeping affected his health when he lived in the residence halls.
“Having diabetes for the last 15 or 16 years, it gets to the point when I’m in college, I start to relax and start not taking care of myself as much as I should,” he said. Edwards added the class helped him keep track of his blood sugar levels.
Diabetes used to be considered a disease that severely impacted patients, but the medical community saw a shift in care with the invention of the home glucose monitor in the 1970s, SkellCerf said. Patients could check blood sugar levels on their own.
“It’s not the doctor saying, ‘You do this, you do that.’ It’s the person who has diabetes that has to make those decisions and pick up the responsibility,” SkellCerf said.
Edwards said he hopes the University continues to offer the course for diabetic students, and the University plans to offer the class again next year. Although the class is specifically for students with type 1 diabetes, health center officials are considering offering a different course in the future for the general public.
“We’re not a large population of the student body, but the University prides itself on taking care of its students,” Edwards said. “This is a necessary health class, and it’s necessary for people to have the opportunity to access help.”
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What is type 1 diabetes?
Previously known as juvenile or childhood onset diabetes, type 1 occurs when the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is needed to convert sugar, starches and other foods into energy.