Susan Marie Fisher

Walk to Cure Diabetes

Hi Everyone,

This is the first of many spam letters, and I apologize in advance for that. If you are not interested in participating, or have others causes nearer and dearer to your heart, please just click delete.

I am writing you this letter on behalf of myself, my sister, and the 22 million other diabetics in the US.

I was diagnosed with diabetes approximately 23 years ago, back when home blood glucose testing didn't even exist! While vast improvements have been made in treating diabetes, there is still no cure. By the time I succumbed to a pancreas transplant on 2/9/07, I wore a 24 hour Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (Dexcom's CGMS), and an insulin pump. The CGMS measured my blood glucose level every 5 minutes. Every gram of sugar (or carbohydrate) I ingested raised my blood sugar 10 pts (mg/dl). I took a unit of insulin for every 8 gms of carbohydrates; this would still cause me to peak after a meal at 300 mg/dl, and would still cause me to crash about 4 hours after that insulin was given. I even took to using temporary basal rates of 0% for hours after an insulin dose (or bolus). I had all the book knowledge in the world, but still couldn't work my way around my inability to match my insulin absorption rate to the carbohydrates. I began to limit myself to never eat more than 20 g at a time in hopes of not peaking so high. A normal blood sugar is more like 75 mg/dl. If your eyes have glazed over by this point, good! That barely cracks the surface of what my hourly adjustments in order to survive were like! And there are millions of people out there doing the same things I did, including my older sister.

After many years of struggling with matching insulin to my carbohydrate intake, I discovered I had a complication of diabetes known as gastroparesis, or paralysis of the stomach. This condition caused my digestion to vary from 'instant' to taking over 9 hours for my stomach to empty. If matching insulin to food before was challenging, now it was impossible. By the way, I haven't felt hunger in a loooong time. When my absorption was 'instant', my carb ratio was more like 1 unit to cover 3 to 4 g of carbohydrate. That meant even a tictac required thought!

I did something rather drastic in response: I had a transplant. I have not taken insulin in over 7 weeks, and my average blood sugar is at about 100 mg/dl. Simply put, it's N O R M A L. I can't tell you what it feels like! Gone is the insatiable thirst, and worry. Now of course, I have 'other' worries about increased risks of infection and cancer due to the transplant. That's because no matter how much of an improvement my life seems to currently be, it's still not a cure to have a transplant.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is the #1 non-profit funder of diabetes research worldwide. One of JDRF's largest fundraising events is the "Walk to Cure Diabetes." This year I am doing the Walk to Cure Diabetes at Crissy Field on October 20, 2007. Please consider joining me in the walk, or throwing a few bucks my way.

You can donate to my walk at my personal walk page.

Sincerely,
Susan

Posted by sfisher at April 2, 2007 05:09 PM