Hello and welcome to Brooks’ Type 1 diabetic journey!

This fundraiser will mean the world to Brooks and his parents to be able to bring home a diabetic alert dog! First and foremost, a little backstory about our sweet boy and how we got here. At only 15 months old, we noticed he was not putting on weight, had no interest in food, and was always tired. Our boy wasn’t acting like his normal happy self. The words we kept hearing were, “Don’t worry, it’s probably a virus or another virus.” We were sick of hearing the same response when we were watching our child deteriorate. Our last appointment at urgent care didn’t sit well with us as they blew it off again like another virus. He was lethargic, stumbling when walking, not wanting to eat, and having excessive thirst. With our gut feeling, we knew our next step was to go to the emergency department, and they could tell us we were crazy. That is when we were told in triage that our son was in DKA (Diabetic Ketoacidosis). This meant he was in a life-threatening complication from being a type 1 diabetic, which we were unaware of. My husband and I will always remember the words from the ED physician that night telling us if we had never brought him in that evening, he would have probably not woken up the next morning. That statement will always haunt us to this day. Always go with your intuition and you know your child!

Ever since then, our lives have been flipped upside down. Being in the ICU for multiple days, all the learning and classes we had to do before being released from the hospital in such a short time to take care of our boy who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This was all new to us with no family history. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune condition where the body’s system attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. There are a lot of advances in technology with him wearing a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) and an insulin pump 24/7. This requires 24/7 care, non-stop finger pokes, carb counting, pump replacement every 72 hours if not sooner, CGM replacements, patches, nightly checks, low and high blood sugars, constant decisions, sickness, dehydration, insulin dosage, sleep deprivation, etc. Technology, just like everything else, is not always the best. This is where being able to provide a diabetic alert dog for Brooksy will help beat the timing of when potentially dangerous low glucose levels can be caught and even high blood glucose levels.

Having a diabetic alert dog with him every day will benefit him in so many ways! These dogs, of course, come at a price! With help from all of you, we hope we can make this happen for our boy Brooksy. This is a process and can take up to 18 months or longer/waitlist, so let’s get this going for him! We are very appreciative, and even if you are unable to help, just getting his story out and making others more aware or even saving another life is beyond appreciated! Here’s to Brooks and his next journey ahead with Type 1 diabetes meeting his best friend!