So I wonder if anyone still reads my blog..

.I have had type 1 diabetes since I was a little kid and for the last 39 years, 3 months, 14 days and 6 hours, I have been waiting....eagerly, sometimes not so patiently, but always hopefully, for my cure. For the day when I can wake up and NOT have the first thought in my head be, "I wonder what my blood sugar is?"  For the day when I can work out without having to stop in the middle to chew glucose tablets. The day when I can travel without getting groped by the TSA, and when I can eat, without doing MATH.   For the day I stop poking holes in my body and I stop worrying if my brothers kids will get this cruddy disease 

        Luckily for me, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation was there with support and education, and even more lucky for ALL of us, they decided to add that R to their Name. J D R F.  Because it is RESEARCH that has improved our lives SO much more than most of you know.  Research more than a hundred twenty years ago led to the discovery of beta cells and insulin!  By the time I was diagnosed in 1974, we no longer needed to boil our syringes 'cuz disposable one were finally available.  But we had SO many challenges. 

Gym before lunch? forget it. When I slept over, my friend's parents were terrified, and long bus rides for a little kid who had to pee all the time were no fun..  

        In fact, pee was our only tool.   I had to pee on this little stick, and then watch the end of it change colors.  [PICTURE OF SQUARES]. This first blue square says Negative - no sugar - I am a GOOD Diabetic.  The second one says 100...still good,
 but then getting darker, 250,

 then 500 and so on.... BAD DIABETIC...perhaps this explains my bizarre aversion to the color BROWN, but this was the stone age!   Our doctors had ALL the power. Our diets were restrictive, our insulin set by our doctors....we were just patients, and when I say life was not a piece of cake, I mean, we didn't get much cake!

        Lots has changed, just in my life, thanks to Research.  I got my first glucose monitor in college, but it was THIS big and it took more than 4 minutes to get a result.   Then, came human insulin and an insulin pen, and then my first pump in 1993. 
Actually, this is one that was developed in the 60s. How would you like to have to carry that puppy through the airport or around school? 

        I am on my 4th or 5th pump now, a Medtronic 512, and I am fond of saying "I will go back to shots when they peel this sucker out of my cold dead hands."   
   I use a CGM now too.  I love waking up to see nice flat lines like this..........and even more when the CGM matches the glucose monitor!

     So we have more freedom and control, we can enjoy the occasional piece of cake, but there are costs. When I was in college, diabetes cost me less than $50 a month.  $20 bucks for a box of syringes $12 for a bottle of NPH, another $12 for the regular, add in an occasional visit to the campus doctor and it was affordable.    NOW, I have a pump that uses designer insulin, and  glucometers with strips that cost $1 each. 

        And the CGM is not cheap.  These suckers cost $100 each so I like to bling 'em up a little. And instead of my campus doc, now I have an endo and a retina guy and a foot guy and god knows I need a psychologist, and the costs just go on and on, don't they?!   And while I still want my cure, what I really want is to just live my life.

        So, JDRF needs us to NOT lose our hope. I did my first bikeathon in the 70s, and I raised 38 dollars. I was so proud to have my mama write that check to JDF, hoping earnestly that just maybe it would be MY $38 that did the trick. And I still feel that way. Thanks to the "earnest hopefullness" of millions of people just like you and me, OVER one billion dollars has been raised for T1D research. One billion dollars....$38 at a time.  

        JDRF is THE leading global organization funding T1D research.  52 clinical trials and new technology,  including the Artificial Pancreas Project and Smart Insulin, are so close.   I was accepted into a clinical trial for the Artificial Pancreas  sometime in the next few months and to be able to go through the day without touching my pump or looking at my CGM really will be a dream come true, even if it is just for 48  hours....

        But what I am MOST excited about is Encapsulated Beta Cells.   I won't go into all the technology behind it, but I SAW it.  Our President, Jeffrey Brewer, held up a prototype of this amazing device which will allow us to live completely boring lives, for up to 24 months...which, as Jeff said, isn't exactly a CURE, but it IS a darn good thing. And it will be in clinical trials next year!  HERE IS A GREAT SHORT VIDEO THAT SUMS UP ENCAPSULATION

        All of these thing are making their way through the Pipeline, and JDRF is there, behind the research, lobbying our government for support.  And don't you think, for one SECOND, that just because they are working on all these technological advances, they've forgotten about a CURE. Last week, I attended the annual JDRF conference in Washington DC and had breakfast with the head of Research, and his eyes gleamed as he talked about the things that are coming down the pike...the potential for a vaccine, and regenerating damaged beta cells, and gene therapy. It is all THERE....and we just can't lose hope! NOW WATCH THIS VIDEO IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!

        And basically, that's why we raise money, isn't it?  We all still hope for our cure and we need JDRF to continue this research until we have a world without Type One Diabetes. JDRF's mission is to lessen our burden, lessen our struggle, lessen our pain and fear, and lessen that of our loved ones. JDRF has always been focused on  IMPROVING our lives and finding a CURE........ And they won't stop, until they turn Type One   into Type None.

        ONE LAST VIDEO, PLEASE WATCH   

 Now, if you are so inclined, I would love to have your support - CLICK HERE!