Lori Selsberg
by Emma Stiner
When Lori (then Kaplan) embarked on her study abroad experience her junior year
of college, she did not know that she would have to leave early due to a near-death
experience.
A junior at Union College, Lori was excited to study abroad in Florence, Italy in the
fall of 1987. She started her study abroad experience in August, when her and her Sigma
Delta Tau sorority sister, Alana, travelled around Europe before settling down and officially
starting their semester at Eurocentre. Alana and Lori lived together with a host family in
Florence.
The middle of October was the turning point for Lori and her study abroad
experience in Italy. While abroad, Lori would walk to the Florence post office every Sunday
to talk to her parents via collect call and in October, she found out that her maternal
grandmother was not doing well. The news saddened Lori, but she tried to remain positive
and enjoy her time in Italy.
A couple days after talking to her parents, Lori knew that something was wrong –
but she didn’t know what. Lori had a high fever and pain in her abdomen – the possibilities
for the problem were endless.
It was the middle of the week and she knew she wouldn’t be talking to her parents
again until Sunday, so Lori went to a doctor to see what was going on. The doctor did not
speak much English and diagnosed her with a kidney infection. The doctor prescribed
antibiotics and Lori was sent for a blood test.
Lori and her parents talked as usual on Sunday and that is when Lori found out that
her grandmother had passed away. As one could imagine, this was tough for Lori, especially
with everything going on with her health. After she heard about her grandmother’s passing,
Lori told her parents what was going on with her in Italy, holding back some details. “I was
so upset,” Lori said, “and I was crying, telling my parents finally that I was so sick and I
wanted to come home.”
All of this was overwhelming for her. Lori’s parents then told her that it would be
best for her to finish out her semester in Florence, as it was what she was meant to do. Lori
stayed, the antibiotics started to work, and the fever and the pain began to subside.
By mid-November, about a month after Lori first didn’t feel well, she began to feel
worse and worse. She was exhausted. New symptoms began to pop up every day. Lori
didn’t know what was going on. She was very thirsty and had trouble seeing and breathing
– something was wrong, but what?
“My roommate and I would sit up night guessing what I had. There was no internet
to just pop my symptoms into. Diabetes was on the list, but we just were not sure. I
thought maybe Aids. I was sure I was dying,” Lori said.
Finally, Lori was done feeling this way and went back to the doctor she saw a month
prior.
When Lori walked into the doctor’s office, the doctor was freaking out – he had been
calling Lori’s homestay for the past month. The blood test revealed she had Type 1 diabetes
and was very ill. Lori had no idea. Her host family did not tell her anything.
Lori immediately left the doctor’s office and went to the post office to call her
parents. Within minutes, Nancy, Lori’s mom, called her back with her flight information for
the next morning.
Extremely ill, Lori took a midnight train to Milan from Florence and got dropped off
at the wrong Milan airport by her cab driver at 4 a.m. Nothing was going well. She finally
got to the proper airport in Milan and got on her plane to Boston.
On the 10 plus hour flight home, the pilot constantly communicated back home to
Lori’s mom in Boston regarding her status. Once she landed in Boston, Lori was escorted off
the plane in a wheel chair and once she saw her family, she collapsed. She surpassed
customs altogether and was rushed to the hospital, where she stayed for eight days until
she got better.
Despite all she went through, she navigated through her medical problems
and got back to the United States from Italy while on her death bed in a time when
communication was sparse, and information was not readily accessible.
Once Lori got better after coming back from Italy, she didn’t let the Type 1 diabetes
diagnosis get the best of her. Rather, Lori took the lessons she learned from this whirlwind
experience and continues to apply them to her life today. She learned how to be diligent,
how to problem solve and most importantly, how to navigate life when things were not
going her way. To this day, Lori continues to learn about the advancements in Type 1
diabetes research, participates in studies and is always up to date with the technology
surrounding Type 1 diabetes.
