Dear Friends and Family,
I have joined Team JDRF to raise funds for the millions of people just like myself living with and affected by type 1 diabetes (T1D). The money I raise will help JDRF fund critical research to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people's lives until no one has to fear developing the disease. Type 1 diabetes is a life-threatening autoimmune disease in which a person's pancreas stops producing insulin—a hormone essential to the ability to get energy from food. It strikes both children and adults suddenly and changes life as they know it forever. It cannot be prevented and there is no cure.
Having been through both stage four cancer and Type I diabetes, I am able to say what I am going to say: dealing with an autoimmune disease is way worse. When people hear the word “cancer” they flinch, they choke up, they freak out. But when one hears “type I diabetes” most sympathize, but very passively. The only reason why cancer is worse than Type I diabetes is the fact that it may spread quickly and one may not survive instantaneously; which is quite scary. However, during the months I was in the hospital with cancer, I didn't have to do anything. All of the protocols were in the hands of the doctors, and I was simply the patient that took it all in. There are no character qualities I needed to have in order to excell in my cancer survival capabilites. It was completely out of my hands. I would sit there, day-in and day-out, getting injections, going through operations, getting CAT scans, radiation, rounds of chemo, the whole gist. While this is seems like a lot, which it is, it was only a set time in my life. And hopefully if one survives, which I did, that is all. I was able to live the rest of my life, definitely taking precautions, definitely void of hair and the amount of energy I had before, but I continued.
For Type I Diabetes, however, there is a prerequisite. And even though it is mandatory, people have to take the job of functioning as their body’s organ regardless of whether they make a good candidate to take on this role. I joke with my friends and family saying I want to put on the top of my resume: "full time job as an organ for my body." Full time as in seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. NO BREAK, NO RETIREMENT, NO SALARY. I have to monitor my body’s blood sugar ALL the time. There is no rest day or weekend off. Every single time I eat food I have to check my blood sugar by pricking my finger with a needle. Then I have to count up all the carbohydrates I am about to consume and give myself an injection with the right amount. Every time I finish a meal I have to wait fifteen minutes and check my blood sugar again to make sure I did the calculations correctly (which often times the calculation is not correct since food contains protein, fat and fiber that also play a role in sugar levels). Every time I exercise I need to check my blood sugar. Before and after I wake up I need to check my blood sugar, and give myself another form of long-acting insulin. Can you see what I mean about what it takes to make a good Type I Diabetic? One needs to be responsible. One needs to love their body. One needs to be organized and disciplined and optimistic. Are all Type I Diabetics gifted with these prerequisites? Hell, no. And it is up to us to save our own body every single day for the rest of our own life.
What if you are a Type I Diabetic not gifted with these prerequisites? Two things can happen. You can potentially get low blood sugar meaning you over-shot insulin and need to eat sugar right away. If you don’t you will sweat, feel fatigue, light-headed, and in most serious cases you can have a seizure and die. And what if your blood sugar is too high? Say, you don’t shoot up insulin at all? You get very emotional, you get irritated with life, you are depressed, you are extremely thirsty... and if it stays high for a long period of time, years in fact, you may become blind, your nerves start failing, your kidneys start failing, your heart starts failing. You go into what is called diabetic ketoacidosis which leads to coma and death. And what is worse is that this is not just temporary. You are stuck with this disease forever. So you have to consistently perform the job of your organ every day and if you slip up, you’re just losing years of your own life. One in three type I diabetics don’t live past fifty years old. Not to mention, one in three Type I Diabetics develop eating disorders as we are the ones injecting ourselves with the fat-producing hormone (insulin) and are ALWAYS counting carbohydrates. What is even worse is you spend approximately twenty minutes minimum a day dealing with your blood sugar, that is over two hours a week, plus the constant doctor appointments every three months seeing the endocrinologist, the optimologist, the nutritionist and more. You are at risk for many more diseases like Crohn’s, Addison's, thyroid complications and more. You have to constantly check your body for cuts and open wounds because it takes a lot longer to heal than the normal person, and if one has a serious infection, amputation could be the future.
And here comes the part that is the most upsetting: while you are continuing to try and make your life smooth and healthy as possible, there are always slip-ups, and blood sugar always runs low or high naturally. So even the most competent ones lose years of life just having the disease.
Please take time to consider what the 5% of diabetics have to go through every day just to stay alive. Please support the Type I Diabetics that don't just do the 9-to-5 job, but the 12-to-12 job, not only five but seven days a week. Getting paid not minimum wage, not below minimum wage, but no wage (in fact with the amount of supplies we always have to utilize, we pay to have this disease!). Whether it is financial or emotional, please support my run to Type None!
JDRF is the largest nongovernmental funder of T1D research and the only global organization with a strategic research plan to fight T1D. This science is complex and costly, and every dollar JDRF is able to direct toward research comes from donors like you.
Thank you so much for your time!
Meredith Mae Frost
Conquered and conquering life one insulin injection at a time!