Spotlight: Maureen Mould

Spotlight: Maureen Mould

SPOTLIGHT:
MAUREEN MOULD

Maureen Mould has broken the rules. Somebody

said "you can't do that, because you're diabetic!" She

wasn't listening.

Now 45 years old, she was born into a family

"pretty much inundated with the disease." Her father,

sister, brother, both grandfathers, and some aunts and uncles had

diabetes, and she was diagnosed with the condition at age five.

"It didn't stop me from doing much of

anything," reports Maureen. "I was a tomboy, very

involved in sports. I wasn't prone to a lot of insulin reactions.

Could be my blood sugar was a lot higher than it should have

been."

Until her daughter, now 19, was a year old,

Maureen tested her own urine ("those little clinitest

tablets"), and gave herself insulin injections with a

reusable glass syringe. "I didn't know any better--I had

never gone to a diabetes education class to be educated on the

new things," she relates.

The stresses of pregnancy and delivery caused

high blood pressure, and many of the capillaries in Maureen's

eyes broke. One day, she dropped her glass syringe. "I had

lost some of my vision at that time...but I was trying to feel

around for the broken pieces on the floor... I was wearing

slippers with an open toe, and as I bent over to try and find it,

a piece went right into my toe. Bleeding profusely, I ended up

having a friend take me to the hospital for stitches. Yeah, that

was the last of my glass syringe..."

As her sight was failing, a friend of Maureen's

husband (a graduate student at Washington State University) found

her an eye specialist in San Francisco. The Moulds were students,

and poor, but people in their community (Pullman, Washington)

raised money for them to go see this doctor, and he operated on

the worst eye first -- "which happens to be the eye I'm now

seeing out of," says Maureen.

"It was a horrendous

year-and-a-half," she continues, "because I had five

different eye surgeries done, on five different occasions, in

that time. Sometimes my vision got better; sometimes it got

worse; then it got better; then it got worse; then it actually

stabilized. After my first eye surgery I was declared legally

blind, and then the state was able to help with paying the

medical bills... My husband's department collected money again,

and paid up all our medical bills."

Once he finished his doctorate, Maureen's

husband got lucky, finding a job right away, in South Bend,

Indiana.

They were there for four years when, as Maureen

relates:

"My husband was getting restless, and

wanted to leave his teaching job there. He was a bicyclist, and

he really wanted to bike across the country and take his family

with him. I thought it was crazy! My daughter was five years

old...

"We decided to do it for a cause. I came

up with the name BETA (Bicycle Every Town Across) based on the

beta cells. Ames Diagnostics [now a division of Bayer] underwrote

our trip. They gave us all the blood testing supplies, and also

$5000 to purchase our bicycle, custom built for three. My husband

sat in front, our daughter in the middle, and I was in back. It

even had a little trailer...

"Joslin Diabetes Center also helped

underwrite our trip... Turtle Top Recreational Vehicle Company

lent us a motor home; that was our support vehicle. A nurse I had

met when I was selling "World Book Encyclopedias," a

single lady with a five-year-old daughter like mine, agreed to

drive the support vehicle..."

Everything fell into place for the Moulds. In

1984 they rode about 3000 miles, from South Bend, Indiana, to

Seattle, Washington, and on the way gave more than 50 talks about

diabetes, and about the need to be aware and educated. They

sought donations for diabetes research, and raised about $13,000

on the trip. Half that figure they donated to Joslin Diabetes

Center, and the other half to "Project Freedom," a

local program in St. Joseph County, Indiana, to purchase glucose

monitors, testing supplies, and pay for diabetes education, all

in the local high schools.

"I kind of feel the money was put to good

use," adds Maureen.

But the adventures were far from over. The

Moulds took the motor home back from Seattle to Indiana, but

before, Maureen's husband had found a job advertisement in

Yakima, Washington, the town he'd grown up in. On the way home,

they stopped for an interview. By the time they reached South

Bend, he had the job!

"When we got to Yakima, my husband started

his job right away," relates Maureen. "His brother and

family were living in Spokane... My sister-in-law told me she

knew of a job in Yakima for me -- only three days after we got

there. I said: `I'm not working. You must think I'm crazy!' But

she persuaded me to call..."

Told "The job closed the other day. We had

very few applicants; we will interview you anyway," Maureen

went. Asked why she applied, she responded: "I really

didn't. My sister-in-law said I had to come in and talk to you

guys. But I really don't want to work."

By the time her bus reached home, the

interviewers had called to offer her the job!

It was with Head Start, and her educational

background in Special Education, plus her Masters in Recreation

for Special Populations, and post-graduate work in the Early

Childhood field stood her well. She kept the job for five years.

Feeling ready for a change, she applied for a

job directing a new childcare center. Her resume arrived at the

last minute, but again, she was interviewed and hired. She has

been there eight years.

But the adventures continued. As she relates:

"Six years ago, my vision had improved to about 20/60, with

all the eye surgeries I'd had. Then It started plummeting, and I

lost 200 feet of vision in a year. At that point, my husband left

me...

"I'd had cane travel training, but didn't

really like using it...one of the denial things... My daughter

made the rule that she would no longer go shopping with me if I

didn't have my cane. Then she really got on my case about going

for a guide dog...

"I had my dog for two years, then he was

diagnosed with lymphoma, with cancer... Everyone who knew me

thought I was going to die with my dog. Again the prayers went

out, and two weeks after he died, when I went to my

already-scheduled eye appointment, I was told I had a

cataract..."

The doctor didn't want to operate, but Maureen

got a second opinion. The second doctor told her it was a high

risk operation, and that he didn't know what to recommend. She

agreed she'd take the risk. Six weeks after her dog died, she had

her cataract removed, and overnight, she gained 700 feet of

vision.

"It was another miracle," she

relates. "Now, with my glasses, my vision is 20/50 or 20/60,

incredible compared to the 20/800! Although I have limited

peripheral vision, and don't see a full picture, when I went back

for a checkup a year after my cataract was discovered, the nurse

went berserk. I told her I believe in miracles..."

When Maureen had her guide dog, she received a

bi-monthly newsletter about "how other people were doing

with their lives and their dogs." In it, she heard of a

woman, also named Maureen, with a yellow Labrador dog like hers,

who had gone to clown class with her dog. She figured she could

do the same.

"I'd always wanted to be a clown. I called

the school and asked if they could get me in touch with the lady.

One person referred me to another, and I found out about a clown

school in Wisconsin. My daughter's godparents lived in Wisconsin.

I made arrangements to go to clown camp in La Crosse,

Wisconsin...

"Off I went with my dog, Clinton (like the

President), to learn about clown ministry. But folks often asked:

`Can you see? Are you training that dog?' When I told them I was

legally blind, they became confused. I started telling folks I

was illegally sighted..."

Maureen and her dog started doing clown

ministry. She worked for eight months, preparing a mime

representing the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ,

incorporating communion. Her first "clown communion,"

scheduled well in advance, happened the night after her dog died.

Since then, without any advertisement, she has

been asked to give services all over Washington, and in Oregon

and Idaho. She's done hospitals, birthday parties, and church

appearances, but wishes to expand into missionary work, like her

church's upcoming trip to Chiapas, Mexico. Money she makes

clowning goes toward this upcoming trip.

Maureen prizes her independence. "I bike

or walk to work... I can get anywhere I need to be. Yakima is the

perfect size... I can really maintain my independence, which is

really important to me. Co-workers and friends are very

supportive in giving me rides in bad weather."

Asked if she has any advice for diabetics,

Maureen responds: "When a person is newly diagnosed, it

seems the end of the world is here, because they hear all the

statistics: Your lifespan will be shorter, your body is going to

start falling apart, it is the silent killer... You read all that

stuff and it is not true...

"I think a positive attitude is the best

gift you can give yourself. The tools are out there. You test

your blood sugar... The lifestyle of the diabetic should be the

lifestyle for everybody. That's the way to go! Regular meals, on

schedule, exercise... Look at it as a positive. I've got this,

but I can rise above it. I can do whatever I want to do: It

really is manageable."