(From the 2016 Tour de Cure Montana)
Her Campus: Tell us a bit about yourself:
Laurel Markert: I’m a physiology senior from Cody, Wyoming. I’m hoping to ultimately be a children’s emergency physician, but that’s still a ways off! I’m part of the women’s rugby team, Students with Diabetes, the Pre-Med Club, the Wesley Foundation, my church choir, and (off and on) roller derby! I work in a lab in the School of Pharmacy, looking into therapeutic effects of capsaicin (the chemical that makes peppers hot) on overweight/obese mice, which is pretty fabulous.
HC: What sparked your interest in medicine?
LM: I got interested in medicine after I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2003, when I was 8. Type 1 is autoimmune in origin, unrelated to diet or lifestyle choices. It means that my pancreas stopped working after my body decided to kill it, and I can no longer produce insulin, which is needed to let glucose into cells. I wear an insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) 24/7. The CGM tells me what my blood sugar every five minutes, and the pump delivers synthetic insulin through a small needle that I like to insert in my arms and legs.
My pediatrician, another Type 1, was the best doctor I could have ever met. Dr. Gunville understood how hard it was to control numbers and how draining it could be. One example of his awesomeness happened the year I was diagnosed, and still really stands out to me. I had been hospitalized (for a different problem), and my family was getting ready to fly to Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. Dr. Gunville was on vacation when we called him, but his office told us to hang on, they’d find him. A short while later, he called back from the middle of a golf course, where he’d been paged. While. On. Vacation. Dude! How cool is that?! He did things like that ALL the time! I want to pass that on, to be someone else’s Dr. G. That’s my whole story really; it’s why I want to go into medicine.
HC: Could you tell us more about being an EMT?
LM: This summer, I received my certification and license to practice as an EMT. It’s been a really incredible journey, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I wanted to be an EMT so I could do more for the kids at CAMP Montana, a week-long summer camp for children with Type 1 diabetes. (I can help more with a medical certification since so much of the camp is medically based.) Getting my EMT really refreshed my sense of purpose. It reminded me of why I want to go into medicine while I was getting bogged down with lecture-based class: it feels good to be able to help people, and it’s an incredible feeling to know that you can stay calm in an emergency. I think you can really shape someone’s experience with medicine just by the way you act and the things you say when they’re scared and upset. I’ve seen and experienced enough negativity from medical professionals about type 1 that I want to do something about it.
HC: You have diabetes, and you’re pretty open about it. How do you educate others about diabetes?
LM: It really sucks when you’ve been working really hard to control your blood sugars and your doctor looks at your logbook and says “Oh, well, could you just try a little harder to bring your blood glucose down in the morning?” It makes you feel like literal crap when you’re at the hospital, waiting for surgery, and your blood sugar is going up, and you say you need to correct that with insulin (something you’ve been doing by yourself for 13 years), and they say “We have to check with the doctor, we’ll be right back,” and “right back” ends up being an hour, and your blood sugar is four times the normal level by the time they let you correct. The worst thing is when a kid comes up to you and tells you her doctor implied she was a bad diabetic because her blood sugars weren’t just right, or that she thought getting diabetes was her fault, or people didn’t want to sit next to her at school because they thought they’d catch diabetes from her.
I think diabetes is why I started getting into social justice issues. It just frustrated me so much when I came to college and there were so many misconceptions about type 1. People didn’t know much about diabetes, and what they did know was often about type 2- the one that is much more widely known. I thought (and still think) education about type 1 was something that was desperately needed. When I was younger, I didn’t tell people I was diabetic. Most people didn’t understand it, and it felt shameful, like I had failed some sort of test that “normal people” passed. I actually had a lot of teachers and classmates who never knew I was diabetic. That slowly changed as I realized that I couldn’t change anything by doing nothing, and that the little girls I work with at CAMP Montana deserved someone who would stand up for them. I try to be really open about it now and tell people what I’m doing, how it works, and why I do it. I’ve gotten involved with Tour de Cure, a major fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, with funds going towards diabetes research and the kids’ camps. (That’s what my photo is from!)
HC: Tell us about having diabetes and playing rugby.
LM: I joined the women’s rugby team my sophomore year at UW and found a bunch of wonderful women who supported me and wanted to know what they could do for me in case I passed out on the field from a low blood sugar. It was wild! It was so cool to meet so many people who were so open and diverse and wonderful. I showed my teammates my insulin pump, my CGM, my emergency Glucagon kit (for low blood sugar), and taught the coaches how to use the Glucagon. Our coach carries my “betes kit” during games- a bag with a glucometer, the CGM, glucagon, and fruit snacks. During the games, I also keep fruit snacks in my pocket in case I feel a low coming on mid-match, and I wear my insulin pump in a Flip-belt under my jersey. This year, I had a low mid-game and had to cram a bunch of fruit snacks- my pocket ones and the betes bag ones- into my mouth between plays. The ref realized our team was one woman down as we set a scrum (the big mash-up where we push each other back and forth), as I was across the field treating my low, and our captain said “Sorry sir, our lock (my position) is diabetic, she’s coming over now.” Apparently he said something back like “That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard!”
HC: What advice do you have for college students with diabetes?
LM: People often don’t realize that diabetes isn’t going to stop us from accomplishing things. I play rugby with it. Zippora Karz was a soloist with the NYC ballet, Nicole Johnson was Miss America 1999, Sonia Sotomayor is a supreme court justice, Nick Jonas! That’s barely scratching the surface. We can do almost everything you can.
HC: What inspired you to want to go into the medical field?
LM: My friend Breanna Young and I (Bre did most of the work!) started a Students With Diabetes group at UW. We’re a small, but official RSO now. SWD is a national organization, and our chapter focuses on building the diabetic community in Laramie and raising awareness. When I traveled to the SwD conference last spring, I met a bunch of other diabetics from all walks of life, sexualities, gender preferences, and parts of the country. I’ve also found that my need- and the CAMP kids’ need- for health care has been a major factor in my political decisions, and due to that I’ve found other students here at UW with similar views who have opened my eyes to communities I’d never noticed before and problems I hadn’t seen because they weren’t something I was immediately concerned about. I realized that I can’t expect anyone to help my community without giving back to their communities. I think we, as humans, all deserve to be equal. I think we all need to support each other and hold each other up, especially when facing a storm, like we are now.
HC: What’s your favorite part of the University of Wyoming?
LM: I really, really love the people I’ve met here at UW. I’ve had two fabulous bosses; teachers that I can admire both in and out of their field; met dozens of strong, beautiful women who inspire me to try harder every day. . . I could go on for days about the lovely friends I have now. My rugby team holds a special place in my heart, though. They’re the ones who gave me confidence in my body and my strength, my ability and diabetes. If you want a physical place, I’d have to say the fourth floor lounge in the School of Pharmacy. Perfect for lunch and studying!
HC: What are your future plans after graduating in May?
LM: I’m planning to graduate in May. I’m applying to graduate programs in biomedical science now, as well as EMT positions. I don’t know what will happen, but my fingers are crossed for my (ongoing) application to Georgetown. They have a Biohazardous Threat & Infectious Disease program! I’m hoping to get into a Master’s program this coming year and work as an EMT through that and then continue until I get into medical school. That’s the ultimate goal. Kill time, save lives. Or at least make someone feel better.