"Dog"gonit Diabetes

Dear Diabetes,

I hate you.

You came into my life – completely uninvited and unexpected – when I was just three years old. You forced me to grow up too fast. You’ve been hanging around ever since then, and you stink at doing what you’re told, Diabetes. No matter how hard I try to control you, you’re always irritatingly unpredictable. No matter how hard I try to push you into the background, you manage to show up and make yourself the center of attention. You can see a memorable moment coming from a mile a way and you try to make it all about you instead. You’re so selfish.

Sometimes you turn me into someone who is short-tempered and angry. You make me say things I don’t mean to the people I love. You’re always interrupting me. Do you know how annoying that is? You rarely let me sleep through the night. What’s worse, you haven't let my Mom sleep through the night since I was diagnosed, and that’s just mean. I can never go to school, take a test, play sports, eat, sleep, or just go to a friend's house without tending to you first.

Sometimes, Diabetes, you really scare me, my friends, and my family. You are always trying to cause problems with my eyes, my kidneys, my heart – you just won’t stop, will you? This is when I hate you the most, when I think about you stealing my eyesight, my toes, or stealing years off of my life. You are despicable and you make me feel helpless. Sometimes I'm scared to go to sleep because I'm scared I'll go "low" in the middle of the night and I won't ever wake up...

One day I’ll tell my kids about you, Diabetes, and about how you are such a big part of my life. I'll hopefully share with them stories of how my diabetes alert dog helped me gain some freedom and some peace of mind by helping me maintain healthy blood sugar levels. I would cherish a diabetes alert dog and have an unconditinal love for the companionship and protection it will offer me and my family as we struggle with my hypo & hyperglycemia.  I would love to share my story of having T1 with people and how a diabetic alert dog helped make my life a little bit more peaceful and a lot safer.  I was always taught to hope for the best – you can do anything with diabetes! – but to have a plan for the worst, should it happen.

I'm trying everything I can to raise the $25,000 I need to get a Diabetic Service Dog through SDWR : www.sdwr.org.  If you would like to research this website or learn more about the Diabetic Alert Dog study with the University of Virginia, please see : http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/4/e47.full. These dogs are specifically trained to provide hope, quality of life, and independence to those of us who will forever ever have type 1 diabetes. Thanks for helping me get my dog.

Sincerely,
Noah