Thank you all for taking the time to read this. My name is Mikayla Faber, I am 19 (almost 20) years old, and I have been living with Type One Diabetes for 16 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 enters 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 several times and miss both school and work.

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 years 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, and an insulin pump to help me more easily take my insulin. These devices help prevent and if not, catch these episodes before they are too late.

Recently, I have been going extremely low being unable to feel that I’m low and have not woken up to my Dexcom alarms. This is a life-threatening occurrence that can cause seizures, comas, and even be fatal. I experience low blood sugar almost 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, wake me up from hypo/hyperglycemic episodes, and bring help if I cannot do so myself. A diabetic alert dog would seriously impact my daily function of life for the better and make everyday life easier to manage this lifelong chronic illness.

I remember being little when I had a hypoglycemic episode with a blood sugar of 16. This episode continued until I eventually had a seizure into a pool. It hurts to think that diabetes could have caused me to drown doing something I love. Another time I had gone into diabetic ketoacidosis and lost my ability to hear for a few minutes, everything was muffled, and it was one of the most frightening experiences. DKA has also caused me to lose my ability to talk briefly, had me admitted into the intensive care unit more than once, and has caused me to experience seizures. These traumatic events may not have happened if I had a Diabetic Alert Dog.

These dogs take intensive training and are frightfully expensive. Please consider donating if you’re able to do so. If you’re willing, please consider 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!