There was a time, back in 2012, when then eighth grade Bridgeport Middle School student Maggie Lohmann was performing in the school’s play Annie and things went from routine to scary fairly fast. It wasn’t that Lohmann was a bad performer, but what happened that day may have caused some students in a similar situation to tuck their tails between their legs and stay in the shadows for the rest of their educational career.

 

Lohmann was playing an orphan when she had a seizure on stage. Right there, in front of a packed house, with a whole bunch of Bridgeport High School seniors in the back helping with choreography, Lohmann began to seize.

 

“I don’t remember what happened. I was playing an orphan and was on a bed on stage and I couldn’t stop shaking,” said Lohmann. “I wasn’t coherent and I could sense something was coming on.”

 

Lohmann said she was well off the pace in the routine, “easily five seconds behind everyone else.” When others were finishing their choreography, she was still going.

 

“My parents knew something was up and it just happened,” said Lohmann. “The backstage crew was great. They got me and I got everything back in order and five minutes later I was back on stage.”

 

No medical review? No call to 911? Still a chance for a lawsuit against the school board?

 

There was no need. Lohmann, who is finishing up her senior year at Bridgeport High School, and her parents knew what happened. Her blood sugar level dropped while on stage and it led to the seizure. The procedure to get her oriented again was known and the return to the stage was both desired by Lohmann and safe.

 

Maggie Lohmann is a Type 1 Diabetic, often referred to as juvenile diabetes. Her great grandmother had it. Maggie has it. And most recently, her sister Claire found out that she, too, is a Type 1 diabetic.

 

What’s unique about the situation above is that it actually did define who Maggie Lohmann was and is in the most positive way possible. Instead of going into a shell, she sprang back up and not only faced the world that day and every day since her diagnosis, but she’s conquering it.

 

Need proof?

 

You can believe it in the fact that she was named Miss BHS earlier this month in a vote by faculty and staff and will address her senior class at graduation. You can believe it in the fact that she has thrived athletically and academically throughout her school career. And if anyone doubts that, all you have to do is talk to Cross Country Coach Jon Griffith or take a look at her transcript, which will reveal a 4.13 grade point average with a schedule littered with AP classes.

 

Lohmann, simply put, isn’t a run of the mill student – and more than for just standing out in the classroom and as a student-athlete. She knows that, although not unusual, having Type 1 Diabetes also makes her different – but she’s okay with it and so is everyone else.

 

With Type 1 diabetes, Lohmann said the pancreas shuts down and stops making insulin. To remedy that, she takes injections, she checks he blood sugar regularly and is on an insulin pump just about everywhere except when she’s in the water.

 

“The big thing is to manage you blood sugar and I do that by sticking my finger,” she said. “I do it daily and have done it for years. I have the pump too, which allows me more freedom as opposed to doing shots all the time … This is a lifetime thing that there’s no cure for so it’s part of who I am. Honestly, the routine I go through is almost like getting up in the morning. You don’t think about it after a while.”

 

It will be 12 years this November since she was diagnosed. Since then, she’s grown more comfortable in her skin to the point that, as she mentioned, she doesn’t think about it a whole lot.

 

“It was an adjustment, particularly so young. I can still remember the shots at Johnson Elementary School and all the girls crowding around to see what was going on,” said Lohmann. “What was really a comfort to me was that my mom (Amy, a teacher at BHS) was right across the street and my teacher that year, Mrs. Brown, would help me. That was a big deal then and I look back and realize just how crazy it was being that unsure of what was going on.”

 

Today, the uncertainty is replaced with confidence. Yet, she is still very much aware of her Diabetes – and that’s okay.

 

“I can’t tell you how glad I was to get involved in cross country because I love running, but it was a juggling act, particularly at first. I would be exercising, burning energy and my levels would drop so I ran with a fanny pack in practice,” she said. “It had fruit, Smarties and Gatorade in it and if I felt like it was dropping I had what I needed.”

 

While burning energy causes drops, she said nerves sometimes cause levels to spike. Lohmann said the first time she noticed that was as a sixth grade student at BMS while running for the Braves. She said it happened occasionally in her high school career where she had to continue modifying things – from law carbs the morning of race to perhaps insulin before a race – to see what worked best.

 

“Even then, it’s not always perfect. I remember my junior year at the Harrison County championship my blood sugar went up and it felt like was running through lead,” said Lohmann. “I managed to get through that, but after so many years you know when your body is dealing with it. Even with those issues, deciding to run was the best thing I’ve done. I’ll be running, not competitively like in college, for the rest of my life. It’s good for me.”

 

Running is in the future; as is a turn as a student at West Virginia Wesleyan. What she would like to see, however, is a cure for Type 1 Diabetes, but not for the reasons you might think.

 

“I have people ask me about a cure and that would be amazing, but I’ve done this for so long I can’t imagine what it would be like to have that freedom so in that sense it would be wonderful,” she said. “I’d really like it for my sister because my mother always checked her to the point she checked her so much that we finally felt she didn’t have it … Eventually  that wasn’t the case. She’ll be a diabetic for four years next March and I’d like to see a cure so she wouldn’t have to deal with what I deal with. I don’t want her to face it so long that it seems normal. Even though she can handle it, I’d like to see her path be easier.”

 

Of course, Maggie Lohmann has already made the path easier for her sister by being there to guide her on her journey.  And she’s made the path for those that have traveled with her on their way to graduation easier and more inspired as well.

 

She did it by being who she is, embracing it and thriving in spite of it. Thankfully and to the benefit of those who know her, Maggie Lohmann got back on the stage in eighth grade for an encore.

 

She’s been performing to rave reviews ever since.

 

Editor's Note: Top two photos show Maggie Lohmann, far left, with her mother Amy , father Mike and sister Claire. Despite her middle school play mishap, she was back o the stage again as Queen Aggravain in "Once Upon a Mattress. The two pictures after that shows Lohmann leading her group in this year St. Mary's Medical XC Festival at Cabell Midland High School and then a 9-year-old Lohmann at insulin pump training, which is the first time she had ever worn the pump. In the fifth photo, and you can make out who is who, Lohmann and her best friend McKenzi Barnett at Camp Kno-Koma's annual shaving cream battle. Bottom photo shows Lohmann and her younger sister Claire. Photos courtesy of Maggie Lohmann with the play photo by www.benqueenphotography.com.