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Diabetic child excels in sports, in life
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - April 02, 2008)
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Photos courtesy of John Bonkowski
As the 2008 season opened last weekend, Kevin Bonkowski of Westwood helped his baseball team get off to a good start, beating the
Monroe, N.Y. team 6-5, with Kevin pitching two innings and giving up just one run. The 11-year-old was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in 2006.
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The summer of 2006 started off much like any other for Kevin Bonkowski, holding promises of mornings spent sleeping in, afternoons playing outside with friends, a trip to Mexico and, best of all, soccer practice. The summer had potential, thought the 9-year-old Westwood resident.
But as the days dragged on, Kevin knew something wasn’t right. He was sleeping, sure, but 13 hours a day did seem a little excessive. He remembers losing 14.3 pounds over the course of just one month. In Mexico, he was too tired to play on the beach. And, maybe worst of all, everything he put in his mouth tasted sweet.
“I was like, ‘What’s wrong with this water?’” recalls Kevin, now 11, waving his hands to emphasize how grossed out he was. “I felt horrible.”
Unsurprisingly, he kept his feelings to himself like any 9-year-old boy would. But within weeks Kevin would know that he had diabetes and that he had had it for quite some time.
Diagnosis
Kevin’s parents, John and Karen, didn’t have any idea that something was wrong until he returned to soccer practice after the trip. Kevin had always been athletic, playing basketball every winter, baseball every spring and soccer in the fall. John was confident that he’d set the field on fire.
“He couldn’t run at all!” remembers John, who is the president of the Westwood Baseball Association and Kevin’s travel team manager. “With the weight loss, we thought it wouldn’t be a problem. The running – it automatically set me off. We knew we had to take him to the pediatrician.”
As their son described his symptoms – fatigue, stomachaches, excessive thirst and frequent urination – John and Karen realized they had been “clueless.”
When the doctor heard Kevin had been in Mexico, he made his diagnosis: a stomach virus. He wrote up a prescription for antibiotics and the Bonkowskis were out the door. The next morning, Kevin was checked into a
Westchester emergency room.
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Fast facts
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Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.
There are 20.8 million children and adults in the , or 7 percent of the population, who have diabetes.
Symptoms include frequent urination, excessive thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, increased fatigue, irritability, and/or blurry vision.
Source: American Diabetes Association
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“It was Aug. 17, 2006,” Kevin recalls precisely. “We waited 15 or 20 minutes. I went to the bathroom like three times.”
One of the ER doctors had been watching him, and before conducting any tests, the doctor walked over and told Kevin he had diabetes.
“Diabetes? I had no idea what it was,” says Kevin.
A urine test confirmed the doctor’s hunch; Kevin had Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes. He was now counted among the more than 20 million Americans whose bodies cannot properly convert sugar, starches and other food into energy.
Kevin was hospitalized for about five days, at first in the ICU, until his blood sugar was under control. When he was released, his first stop was soccer practice.
“No,” objects Kevin as his father tells the story. “I didn’t go until the next morning.”
But this is a time when John’s memory beats out his son’s.
“You were late to practice because we didn’t get out of the hospital until 4,” says John. “The coach said he’s never been so happy to see someone late for practice.”
Back and better than ever
Kevin jumped right back into his regular routine of school and sports, which he now had to juggle alongside doctor’s instructions to test his blood sugar 10 times a day and inject himself with insulin to regulate sugar conversion three times a day.
“It was kind of difficult,” he says, admitting that limiting foods that could wreak havoc on his blood sugar has been one of the hardest things to get used to. “It was more complicated to be at school. Every time someone brought in a treat or had a birthday, I’d have to say no or wait until I got home to eat it.”
But for the most part, Kevin has continued to do everything he loved before his diagnosis, including baseball, basketball and football, which recently replaced soccer as his autumn sport of choice, as well as alternative sports including surfing, scuba diving and deep sea fishing.
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Kevin stands proudly beside a 46-pound mahi mahi, also known as dorado, which he caught and reeled in himself while vacationing in
Maui in January.
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“They [the doctors] said, ‘Just keep doing all the stuff you like. You can do anything someone without diabetes can do,’” Kevin says. “Exercise controls blood sugar, so they said that was very important.”
Making it easier to enjoy his activities was the introduction of an insulin pump into his program about six months ago. The pump, a small, computerized device that Kevin can clip onto his belt or keep in his pocket, replaced the injections by using a reservoir that can hold a two- to three-day supply of insulin. Kevin programs the amount of insulin he’ll need on a given day and the insulin is pumped into his body through a thin, plastic tube that ends in a small tip inserted just below the skin of his abdomen.
Kevin returned to the baseball field in the spring of 2007. No one knew what to expect as he had played most of the 2006 season with undiagnosed diabetes, but it didn’t take long to see that he was in top form. He made the all star “A” team and finished the season as the team’s batting champion with a .625 batting average. As a pitcher, he had an earned run average of 1.24 with opposing hitters batting only .096 against him.
Kevin soon found that his sports prowess extended off the field and onto the basketball court; he was selected as one of two fifth graders to represent St. Andrew’s in an all star game last month. He scored seven points including a three-pointer.
And last weekend, the 2008 baseball season got off to an equally promising start as Westwood beat the
Monroe, N.Y. team 6-5, with Kevin pitching two innings and giving up just one run.
“I could do the same thing I did before,” says Kevin. “I’ve definitely felt like I’ve set goals to hit. I keep trying to add on to it.”
He says that his next goal is to hit a home run over the fence of Meadowbrook Field in Westwood. “I’ve come pretty close.”
“He wants to beat me,” his father interrupts with a chuckle. John was 12 years old, a year older than Kevin is now, when he got a ball over the very same fence.
It’s hard not to wonder how much Kevin would have accomplished if he had been diagnosed earlier, and Kevin admits he “probably” should have told his parents or coaches as soon as he felt something was wrong.
He adds that the most important thing to know about diabetes is “if you see someone who has been really good at something and they suddenly slow down, ask them what’s wrong.”
“And that someone with diabetes can do everything someone without diabetes can,” his father suggests, urging him to get this message across.
The otherwise shy boy becomes a typical pre-teen for a moment, shrugging and rolling his eyes as if though his father’s words are obvious.
“In the hospital, I was reading about people who are diabetic and their stories, and they said with diabetes it was harder to play sports,” says Kevin. “I wanted to prove them wrong. I guess I did.”
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
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