Transcript – Morgan Patton
Morgan
I'm Morgan Patton. I'm 19 years old. I'm a college student at Florida State University majoring in history. My days are pretty busy, if I'm not studying I'm training or going to school. You wouldn't know to look at me but I have type one diabetes.
Debbie
We had just moved from Ohio. Morgan's behaviors were a little - little off, so I was first thinking maybe it was just the emotional changes that we were going through.
Morgan
When I got home from school I would sleep. I drank like a fish. I had to constantly go to the bathroom.
Debbie
She had lost quite a bit of weight. So I went to see the doctors cause something's not quite right. The doctor tested her blood and said, "Do you know how to drive to the hospital?"
Morgan
She looked at me and said, I think you have type one diabetes. My mom knew of it. So I remember her just crying and I didn't really know what was going on. I didn't realize how serious of a disease it is and how much impact it has on your life.
It is a family disease. Everything changes. We started doing more active things and my mom tried to get me to exercise.
I took up horseback riding when my cousin, she let me ride her horse and as soon as I got home, I told my parents I wanted to start riding lessons.
Debbie
And, from that moment on, she was hooked and she did Equestrian then she ended up being the youngest competitor at Red Hills Horse Trial. And it was pretty amazing.
Then she became a teenager and we had a time where she was rebelling.
Morgan
When I was 16, I quit riding horses, I wasn't really doing much. I kind of hated having diabetes cause when you're around your friends and you check your blood sugar, commonly the reaction is to be grossed out by the sight of blood so it makes you not want to do it.
And I started to hide it from people and that eventually led to me just not doing it at all.
Debbie
I realized that Morgan was not managing her diabetes but I would always say, let's you know, look at your food diary; let's look at your you know, your blood sugar.
Morgan
And I would lie and say, I checked, it was 121; give ‘em a perfect number and just not think twice about it.
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By the time I had turned 16, my A1C got to be at it's highest. My doctor really scared me by saying, you could be causing serious damage that, if not now, in your future it could affect you.
Debbie
Leaving, from the doctors office, she goes, am I gonna die from this? So it was very – it was a very, very hard dark time.
Morgan
February of 2006, my mom met Joanna Southerland and they both realized that they both had children with diabetes and I had recently started liking cycling and Phil was an accomplished cyclist.
Phil
It's a month before the Race across America in 2006, and my mom said, "We've got a neighbor, they've got a daughter with diabetes, and she's having a hard time right now. It'd be great for her to be on the crew."
Morgan
And the next thing I knew, I was out in San Diego as part of the crew for Team Type 1 in 2006.
It was, I mean, eye opening. I mean they check their blood sugars 20, 25 times a day. If I could check once a day, that was great.
Phil
For the first time in her life she saw other people with diabetes checking their blood sugar, you know, being very proactive about their control.
Morgan
The first time we all ate together, they all pulled out their blood testers and checked and I was like, wow, that's – that's kind of cool, you know, they all can relate to having type one diabetes and they all care about how one another's doing and they kind of showed me that I don't have to hide when my blood sugar happens to go down to a 40 or be ashamed when it's at 300. It was – it was definitely cool.
By the end of RAAM in 2006, I had decided that I wanted to be a bike racer and I pretty much did a whole lifestyle change after that. I started checking more, started paying a lot more attention to what my blood sugar did throughout the day; started eating healthier, started riding my bike every day.
I spoke to Phil and he mentioned that he is happy with Apidra and I spoke to my endocrinologist; he set me up with Apidra and I switched over. Of course I had to adjust my Basal Rates and it was a lot of trial and error but I switched and have been happy with it.
Debbie
When Morgan was first diagnosed with diabetes, one of the major issues was eating.
Morgan
College life puts a lot of stress on my body, especially with staying up late and irregular eating and the fact that I can take Apidra within 15 minutes before or within 20 minutes after starting my meal is, for me, personally, really great.
My attitude towards my diabetes has changed. I'm more positive towards it. I look at it more as an opportunity.
Debbie
We had no idea that she would be able to compete at this level, but she has worked very hard; it's changed her life, she loves sports and she's embraced it.
Morgan
The fact that I've come from being a crew member to a team member is pretty awesome. It was a lot of hard work and it's definitely well worth it now. I hope I can continue to make improvements and be a valuable team member.
