A newly diagnosed diabetes patient at Wolfson Children's Hospital may well receive a visit from Jessy Plotts and her parents. Jessy, now a teen, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 5, and she and her family want to help others who also have the disease.

"I tell them that it is not as hard as it is at first, and it's going to get better," says Jessy. "It makes a huge difference, when you have a child who has just been diagnosed, to see a family that has survived and a child who is healthy and active," says her mother Holly Plotts.

Excessively constant thirst is what tipped Jessy's parents off that something was wrong with their daughter. A visit to the pediatrician confirmed diabetes, and Jessy was immediately sent to Wolfson Children's Hospital where she and her parents spent several days receiving diabetes education.

Her dad, Don Plotts, says "Wolfson Children's Hospital is just incredible. They make being in the hospital easy." The diabetes education from the Pediatric Diabetes Center provided the family with everything they needed to know about living with diabetes. "They didn't send us home until we were ready," recalls Plotts.

When Jessy switched from shots to an insulin pump, a device that makes diabetes management more manageable, the family received intensive pump education and follow-up support. "We are so thankful that we have a place like Wolfson Children's Hospital," says Jessy's mom.

The Plotts also commend pediatric endocrinologists like Larry Fox, MD, who is Jessy's doctor. Dr. Fox spends a week of his vacation every summer helping at Camp JADA, the American Diabetes Association's local day camp for kids with diabetes.

On her sixth birthday Jessy told her dad that her birthday wish was to go one day without having to prick her finger to check her blood sugar level or give herself shots.

"That's when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and my girl and we started doing what we could to help others," he remembers.