Help get Joey a Diabetic Alert Dog

First off I would like to thank you all for taking the time to read this. My name is Joey Loomis , I am 17 years old, and I have been living with Type One Diabetes for 6 years.

Type One diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, and isn’t caused by diet or lack of exercise. It has caused my body to attack itself, so my pancreas no longer produces any insulin. Insulin is a vital hormone. It’s needed to let glucose enter the body’s cells so it can be used for cellular metabolism.

As a diabetic, I experience hypoglycemic episodes meaning my blood sugar goes too low. These low episodes cause me to experience blurry vision, numbness in my face, confusion, dizziness, loss of consciousness, and seizures. If not treated quickly enough, it can be fatal.

I also experience episodes of hyperglycemia, high blood sugar. This causes exhaustion, trouble breathing, nausea, disorientation, and can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA means blood turns acidic from built-up ketones, which causes hospitalizations and in severe cases, sometimes even death. These effects from high and low glucose levels affect me for hours after the event occurs. It’s even caused me to be hospitalized.

I suffer from these high and low blood sugars, which I used to be able to feel 15-20 minutes before my blood sugar would actually read as low on my meter. Over the past few year’s of being diabetic, I have lost the ability to sense these episodes of hypoglycemia before the event happens or sometimes at all.

I am very fortunate to have a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor that reads my blood sugar and alarms if I go out of range. This device helps prevent and if not, catch these episodes before they are too late.

Recently, my blood sugars have been going extremely low and I have been unable to feel that I’m low and I have not woken up to my Dexcom alarms. This can be a life-threatening occurrence. I experience low blood sugar daily and by the time I notice, the symptoms are already very severe, and I’m left struggling to continue my day. Genuinely, I am scared. I am scared that one day I won’t wake up in time to correct my blood sugar or wake up at all.

For this reason, I am fundraising to get a Diabetic Alert Dog. This dog would be able to assist me with daily tasks such as alerting me to high and low blood sugars at least 15+ minutes before my meter does, in order to prevent the lows or highs from becoming life-threatening. They can even bring low snacks (such as juice) to help raise my blood sugar, a most importantly they can wake me up from hypo/hyperglycemic episodes, and bring help if I cannot do so myself. A diabetic alert dog would seriously improve my quality of life by making easier to manage this lifelong chronic illness.

I remember a year ago my mom had left for coffee. Only to to return to me having a hypoglycemic episode with a blood sugar so low it was not registering. This episode continued until I eventually had a seizure in my moms arms and when it was over I was unresponsive. The ambulance got me to the hospital. It was a lucky day for me. I survived. It hurts to think that diabetes could have caused me to lose my life while I was sleeping. Another time I had gone to my friends house in bend and had an emergency plan for hypoglycemia events . 3 am came and I was unable to wake myself up and my alarms were not waking myself or my friends up…. these are just two of many close calls I experience throughout every week of my life.

These traumatic events may not have happened if I had a Diabetic Alert Dog.

Diabetic Alert dogs take intensive training for life saving work. Because of this they are frightfully expensive. However I know my life will benefit from having a D.A.D. By my side.The process of obtaining and diabetic alert dog takes months.of fundraising, and rigorous specialized training with the right temperament of dog.

I will be sure to keep you all updated through my journey of meeting this goal. In the meantime Here is the website of the company we have chosen to work with and also the cost breakdown.

https://www.diabeticalertdogsofam

erica.com/

The cost breakdown;

$2,000 cost of puppy

$5,000 basic obedience training

$5,000 public access training

$5,000 scent training

Total: $15,000-$19,000

Please consider donating if you’re able to do so and also sharing my story with friends, family and on other social media. I would appreciate it more than you could possibly know.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

update: 2/11/24

Joeys Journey to making a medical alert dog a reality is well on its way because of the donations from all of you!

We had three private donors that contributed to our cause and allowing us to reduce our goal number on go fund me by 2000 dollars! We have been able to put our first large payment down and secure Joeys dog. We are so grateful to all of you and will continue to keep u all posted through this process!

Thank you!!