Walk for a cure

I've blogged about the challenges that my daughter has overcome with her living with Type 1 diabetes. This weekend, I was quickly reminded how important technology plays into her ability to live.

This weekend we were on our way to grandma and grandpa's house for Valentine's dinner. We had stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items on the way. My daughter Destin was "feeling low", meaning she felt as though her blood sugar was low, this is a common occurrence after a long day of dancing. She tested herself and the store and sure enough, she was low. I took her "PDM" case as her and my wife went to go find some quick carbs to bring up her blood sugar.

Her "PDM" is from a company called Insulet, it is her "Personal Diabetes Manager". It is about the size of a cell phone and has a built in blood glucose checker and also controls her Omnipod Insulin pump. This is what provides a continuous amount of insulin as well as additional insulin when she eats anything with carbohydrates.

When we got to grandma and grandpa's house, Destin asked me "Dad, where is my PDM?"

It was nowhere in the truck. My heart sank into my gut. Where did it go?

I immediately drove back to the grocery store and walked up to customer service. Asking if they had a lost and found, the lady at the store looked at me, saw my panic and said "little black pouch?" YES, they clearly had it!

She said they opened it, realized what it was and knew someone would be back soon for it. Talk about feeling like an awful father. Everyday we entrust our daughter to manager her diabetes care with this little black pouch, keeping track of it everywhere she goes. It has to be within quick reach every minute of every day. I had it in my possession for 5 minutes and lost it.

Driving back to grandma and grandpa's for dinner I quickly realized how much of a burden this is on our daughter. How responsible she must be at 8. She doesn't know or remember what it's like to be "a normal kid", this is her normal, her normal includes poking her fingers 10-12 times a day, getting woken up in the middle of the night to feed her juice, having to put new pumps on her at 3am when they fail, never being able to just have a snack, eat a candy bar, etc without first testing herself.

Destin dreams of a cure for diabetes and we have this same dream for her as well. Technology has allowed her to have as normal a life as possible, but the dream still exists for a cure. On February 27th, we'll be walking for the 4th year as Destin's Dream Team. Together with all of the walkers and donations by you, someday her dream will come true.

This is the one time of year that I do reach out to the community and ask for support. With the research that is taking place and the funds that JDRF raises, we do believe that sometime in Destin's lifetime, a cure will exist. To help us make this dream come true, please follow the link below and donate anything that you can. Every dollar helps as every dollar brings us closer to a cure for all of those living with this disease.

Thank you everyone.

Click Here to Donate

2009 - Walk to cure diabetes...

I normally don't post too many personal items, however as I mentioned in an earlier post regarding how technology should be advancing the betterment of the cause that it is working towards. We're at the time of year that the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation holds its Walk for a Cure at the Mall of America. As mentioned in my earlier post, my daughter Destin was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in October of 2006. We have been participating in the walk and fund-raising activites since her diagnosis. 

Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people--a large and growing percentage of them children. Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

The good news, though, is that a cure for type 1 diabetes is within reach. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity.

On a personal note, an update on Destin. We continue with our day to day challenges living with Type 1 Diabetes, but as of this past summer, life with Diabetes did change and did become quite a bit more manageable. As I previously posted Destin decided she was finally ready for the insulin pump, and we made the leap. Life has not been the same since. What amazing technology. She wears the OmniPod, which is a tubeless, wireless, remotely controlled disposable pump that she wears for 3 days at a time and changes. It's waterproof, and pretty much "kidproof", and has really freed her up to be a kid again in so many ways. Her numbers have been so much better as was her first A1C at her first quarterly checkup after starting the pump! The doctors couldn't have been happier with her progress! 

With your help, life changing technologies and cures CAN be a reality. That is why we ask all of you for your help in donations as well as participation at the walk! My wife Liana and I have made it our personal goal to do what we can to allow our daughter to have a normal life and just "be a kid".

Please visit Destin's Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close we are at reaching our goal:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87239062

Follow this link to make a donation:

http://walk.jdrf.org/support.cfm?id=87239062

Thank You Everyone