Well my older son has been involved with them for years. Now that he is in college, M has begun to take an interest. She started this year with FLL, also known as First Lego League.
Now, M has hit the stage of diabetes where it is really no longer a novelty. She gets annoyed, rolls her eyes, and gets royally peeved when her father or I mention something that has to do with her diabetes.
"M, put on your shoes," for example, earns an eyeroll.
"M, did you bolus for that?" earns a sigh, and an annoyed "YES".
"M, please check your blood sugar," generally escalates into a glare and a whiny "I know. I am fine."
But at school, it's different. M is a teacher at heart, and she wants people to leave behind any of their misconceptions about diabetes.
When FIRST announced the theme of its FLL competition this year, she felt like she had something to say. The competition theme was "Body Forward", which focused on biotechnology. Each team had to focus on a body part, research problems that the body part might have, and invent new ways of solving one of the problems with that body part.
M immediately hijacked this part of the competition.
"I think we should do the pancreas, unless someone else has a better idea."
No one did. They were all focused on building the robot and programming it. M focused on the research project with a couple of younger recruits from her team. They came back with a report.
"The pancreas basically has two problems: diabetes and cancer. I want to try to solve the diabetes problem, unless someone has a better idea."
No one did. The small team of researchers now became a small team of inventors, inventing a patch to administer Lantus to the body, much like a nicotine patch administers nicotine. They drew a picture of a prototype, they created fliers to explain how it work and what problems it would solve for diabetics.
Then they created a skit explaining the problem (diabetes) and the solution (the "Lantapatch") to present to a panel of judges.
I had not seen the skit. I tried to get a look at it, but received one (or more) of the aforementioned glares. During the competition, however, I was permitted to watch alongside the judges.
Opening scene: girl in class talking to friend. Girls feels woozy and passes out. Girl goes to hospital and learns that she has diabetes. Girl is told to measure food and inject herself several times per day. But wait! There is a new prototype of an experimental treatment called the "Lantapatch". It could save girl at least one injection per day. Does Girl want to try it?
One of the judges started tearing up. She knew that M had diabetes, and was moved that the team would work on solving this problem.
Then something happened that I didn't expect. M acted as the spokesperson for the group, explaining where the team got the idea, and that she, the spokesperson, had Type 1 diabetes. She explained how she treats it. She explained more about diabetes than about the project itself. In a strong, clear voice.
She was beautiful. And I was proud.
"...and then we learned that Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, invented the insulin pump, so we decided that we had to study the pancreas after all."
Her team was a rookie team, and didn't win any part of the competition, but I heard from reliable sources that they made a strong showing. M's influence was the judge's topic of choice at lunch.
Would it have been, if M hadn't actually had diabetes? Would the judges have paid any attention to the idea that the team proposed? I don't know. But if she can act as an advocate for herself and her diabetes, I don't care.
By the way, the Lantapatch hasn't been invented yet. But who knows? Maybe it will be soon.
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| "Do I share this information? It depends on my mood." - M |
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