Diabetes Alert Dog Fund

As many people know, I've been a Type 1 Diabetic since the age of 3. I never really knew what it was like to be a "normal" kid, no matter how hard I fought... and believe me, I did. I fought with the doctors, nurses, dieticians, hospital staff, you name it. When I was younger, you couldn't tell me anything, and I paid for it in hospital trips, constantly high sugars, and insulin resistance like you wouldn't believe. Over the years I thought I could continue to do what I wanted, and that if something bad happened, so be it.

After I turned 30, I lived through a very tough life lesson. I had a series of 4 strokes, leaving my left side severely impaired. While they determined the strokes weren't caused by the diabetes, I took it as the sign I needed to make my life better. In the nearly ten years since then, I've reduced my average blood sugar from a 374 (or a 12.7 a1c) to a 143 (a 6.2). They say they want you around a 100 average, so I still have some work to do, but I'm getting there.

That comes with it's own set of challenges. With the lower numbers comes constant risk of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. The problem there is that I don't always feel the change until it's too late. A diabetes Alert Dog is trained to smell the changes in your body and tell you before you go either too low or too high, so you can react accordingly, often up to 20 minutes before your Continuous Glucose Monitor or insulin pump can notify you. This fundraiser will go directly into me getting the service animal I need so badly. Thank you in advance