Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a three-part series on Iowa State students living with medical conditions. Today’s story examines diabetes and its effects on ISU students with the disease. Tuesday’s story analyzed asthma, and Thursday’s will discuss arthritis.

Jenna Casper wakes up to a needle every morning.

After pricking her finger for a drop of blood and running the sample through a computerized machine, she measures insulin into a needle and sticks it into her hip.

Casper, 23, senior in psychology, has diabetes. She been diabetic for two years.

Most of her relatives are diabetic, and doctors had always told her she was a “borderline diabetic” and should be cautious about what she ate.

She ignored the warnings, and after waitressing at the now defunct Garden Cafe in Ames and “living off” of sweets, Casper became diabetic.

“I would never wish this on anyone,” she said, “because it’s just a big pain in the ass.”

Richard Carano, an endocrinologist at McFarland Clinic, P.C., 1215 Duff Ave., agreed.

“It’s a difficult illness, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “It shouldn’t affect their lives as students, and if they do everything they’re supposed to do, they shouldn’t have any problems.”

Casper said now she has to monitor her diet closely.

“Sometimes I’m not in the mood to eat. I’m depressed, but I have to make sure I eat because if I don’t, I get sick,” she said.

Casper said she’s trying to maintain a normal lifestyle, but changing her diet has changed her life.

“I have to think of the consequences of eating that last bite of brownie; it could send me to the hospital,” she said.

According to the American Diabetes Association Web site, 15.7 million people in the United States have diabetes; 5.4 million are not aware that they have it; and the disease is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.

Carano said it is unusual for a college student to be diagnosed with the disease because the majority of Type 1 diabetics are diagnosed earlier in life.

Jonathan Crawford, sophomore in pre-medicine at the University of Iowa, has had diabetes since he was 6 years old.

Crawford’s father recognized the symptoms while the family was on vacation one summer. Crawford said he was drinking a lot of water, losing weight and going to the bathroom often.

“It was scary. I had no idea what was going on. I was only six,” said Crawford, who is now 21. “We were on vacation, and all of the sudden I’m in the hospital.”

Crawford said he was angry at first because he couldn’t eat birthday cake or candy anymore.

However, he said he was glad to get the disease early in life because it was easier to adjust to the lifestyle as a child.

Crawford is studying to be a “diabetes doctor.” He now is volunteering at the U of I hospital, talking to kids who have been diagnosed with the disease.

“I think it’s harder for teen-agers because they don’t want to face it. … It’s a bigger change,” Crawford said. “Talking to kids is easy. But when I talk to older kids, they don’t even want to look me in the eyes.”

Casper and Crawford agreed that being diabetic doesn’t affect their social lives, but they are forced to be more responsible when drinking alcohol.

“I can’t afford to kill myself; I have to be in control,” Crawford said. “And I made a promise to myself to check my blood sugar level once every hour when I’m drinking.”

Overall, Crawford said he doesn’t mind being diabetic.

“You just have to choose to deal with it, or you can face serious health complications later in life,” he said, “like blindness, kidney failure, poor circulation, etc.”

Casper said she doesn’t take diabetes as seriously as she probably should. She currently has an “easy-going” attitude about the disease, which she said may lead to serious problems later in life.

“If I don’t do everything right, I’ll die early. At the rate I’m going, I won’t live very long — I probably won’t live past 40,” she said.

“I eat all the time, and you can’t do that when you’re diabetic.”

Casper said the thought of dealing with her disease for the rest of her life is sometimes overwhelming.