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Base Exchange rally kicks off campaign

  • Published
  • By Kandis West
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE --  Tinker Base Exchange employees hit the ground jumping as they kicked off the annual Combined Federal Campaign with a good ol' potato sack race.
   Col. Tracy Tynan, this year's Central Oklahoma Military lead for the campaign, and five Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees scooted, hopped and slid across the store in support of their favorite CFC charities.
   "CFC can improve lives in so many ways," Colonel Tynan said. "You can rest assured your dollars go to a good cause."
   Five-year-old Alexa Johnson, granddaughter of BX human resource manager Sherilyn Benjamin, is one of those lives touched by CFC supported charities.
This past March Alexa was medi-flighted from OU Medical Center to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa.
   "She was drinking gallons of milk and water and she was still dehydrated," Ms. Benjamin said, describing the symptoms that caused Alexa's emergency room visit.
   "I was so thirsty," little Alexa added.
   Her blood sugar had reached 1200 and they feared the kindergartner would drift off into a diabetic coma.
   After discovering Alexa had type I diabetes, when the body doesn't produce insulin needed to convert sugar into energy, Ms. Benjamin said her family was stunned.
   "No one in her (Alexa) immediate family has type I diabetes and we didn't know anything about it," Ms. Benjamin said.
   After two weeks in the hospital, three days of classes on diabetic care and months of practice, both Alexa and her grandma said they have adjusted.
   "I can eat pretty much anything I want, except for candy unless I'm low (blood sugar)," she said with a smile, as she checked her own blood sugar.
   "163....good," Alexa said, referring to her blood sugar, which should hover around 180, her grandmother said.
   Although the family has adjusted, Alexa's diagnosis was life changing. She has to check her blood sugar or "sweetness" as her family calls it before and after she eats, even at school. She gives herself two or three insulin shots a day; down from six or seven when she was initially diagnosed.
   "I have to count to 20 on my night shots, and 10 on my day shots," Alexa said, informing me of the difference in the amount of time she has to inject the insulin for her different shots.
   Limiting candy is tough, Ms. Benjamin said.
   "That's our challenge, finding substitutes for candy," Ms. Benjamin said.
   Little Alexa doesn't plan on skipping out on Halloween, though.
   "I will be a cheerleader," she said.
   Her grandma said she collects different prizes instead of candy when she trick-or-treats at her church.
   Alexa can only have candy when her sugar is low.
   "When I'm low, I have a headache, my stomach hurts and I feel dizzy," Alexa said.
   If she wants to eat a high carbohydrate or high sugar treat like ice cream, she has to make a conscious decision to take an extra insulin shot.
   "We leave the decision up to her," her grandmother said. "But she deals with it much better than I do. She is my hero,"
   BX General Manager Bettye Golson said events like these let you put a face with the organization.
   "It's an opportunity to see how different employees have utilized CFC organizations throughout their lives," Ms. Golson said.