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Dr. Bob Moffett goes through the same routine most every night.

The Little Rock plastic surgeon and father of three wakes up around two o'clock in the morning to check on his oldest daughter, Jillian, a 17-year-old junior at Pulaski Academy.

Most fathers worry about their teenaged daughters, but for Moffett, it is a little different.

"I get up in the middle of the night and check her sugar nightly," Moffett explained.

You see, his daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 18 months old. So, almost every night for the last 15 years, Moffett has gotten up.

This is partly because of his daughter's decision to go off an insulin pump.
"Jillian's a cheerleader, so she was having a lot of trouble with the pump," Moffett said. "So she gives herself shots after every meal and she's trying to get a tighter control, and by tighter control I mean she's trying to get her blood sugars closer to 100."

But that does lead to some problems, "so occasionally she does go low at night," Moffett said. "So when I get up and check her and if she is low, I give her a little something to eat."

Not that his daughter knows it.

"She doesn't wake up," Moffett said. "She could even eat a granola bar and not wake up. She's a pretty good sleeper and it has worked out for the both of us."
As for Moffett, he goes back to sleep before waking up in the morning to go to his clinic in midtown Little Rock.

And as a result of his daughter's diabetes, he and his wife, Cathy, have both become involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

"That's really more my wife," Moffett pointed out. "She has the time during the day now that the girls are all at school."

Support From JDRF
Renay Dean has served as the executive director of the Arkansas chapter of JDRF for one year. The Arkansas chapter is based in Little Rock and also has a branch in Fayetteville.

"Once I got my girls out of high school and off to college," Dean explained about the timing of taking the position, "I was wanting to get involved on a day-to-day basis with some of the groups that I had been doing volunteer work for and JDRF was the best fit."

Mary Helen Peeples serves as special events coordinator and her role at JDRF is more personal.

"When my brother Will was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, it came as a big shock to my whole family," Peeples said. "My brother was by far the most healthy in my family, and he was the person you would have least suspected."

Will was an all-state basketball player in high school after he had been diagnosed and is now playing Division I basketball at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. He also wears an insulin pump.

"Yeah, it causes him some trouble when he flies with the team," Peeples said. "It will set off the alarms and he has to show them what it is and why he can't take it off, since, you know, it's attached to his body."
Dean explained JDRF's program.

"We have 24 enrolled in our program," Dean said. "And not all of those can come every time, but we average somewhere between 12 to 15, and that's for our juveniles. You also have some parents, and those meetings are almost as important for them. They can talk and tell each other what is going on."
JDRF doesn't stop at kids. They recently started an adult supper club.

The goal of JDRF is simple, to "find a cure," Dean said. "We believe that when we find a cure for type 1 diabetes, we will also find a cure for type 2. They are so similar, but they are also different."

To help fund the research, JDRF is putting on its seventh-annual gala on April 21 at the Peabody in downtown Little Rock.

"That's the thing with JDRF, every dollar we raise goes back into research," Dean said. "We have corporate sponsors that help with the expenses that go into putting on the gala."

Last year, the gala raised $237,000 and the goal for this year is $270,000. Part of the gala includes a charity auction, and one of the items up for bid is a car donated by the Landers Auto Group. Steve Landers, president of the auto group, and Sandy Landers are serving as the event's co-chairs and Alltel is presenting the event.

For more information on the gala call JDRF at 501-217-0321.


April 2007

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