Thursday, September 27, 2007

I Need Your Help Again

First, I want to thank everyone who has sent me pictures and info for "Faces of Hope". I now have 22 hopeful faces. It's not too late to submit your picture and info if you haven't done it yet.

At my walk last year, in addition to Faces of Hope, I also did a presentation with some facts about Type 1 diabetes along with some facts about The Iacocca Foundation.

This year I wanted to do something different. But, I didn't know what. I thought about making it sort of a day-in-the-life-of-Riley thing. You know, take pictures of Riley checking his sugar, drinking a juice when he's low, that sort of thing. But, somehow it didn't seem quite right to me.

This morning on the way to work I was thinking about it again. You know how I feel about educating people about Type 1 diabetes.

I've posted before that it is hard for me to really educate people about this disease. I can tell them statistics, I can explain that it's an autoimmune disease, and I can tell someone how often Riley must check his sugar. But, somehow my words seem to ring hollow. I can't quite describe what it's really like.

Maybe it's because I don't have diabetes. I only have second-hand knowledge of the disease. I do know that it is so much more than insulin and finger sticks. But, I have trouble articulating exactly what it is other than that.

So, I have decided to do a presentation this year with Type 1 diabetes facts. You know, incidence of diabetes, that it's an autoimmune disease, the highs, the low, things like that.

But, in between those stats, I want to put some quotes by some of you.

What do you want people to know about Type 1 diabetes? What is important for them to know?

Just a few sentences will do. Along with that please include your name (just first name will be fine), age, and how long you have had diabetes.

The quote can be about a positive or a negative. Whatever it is that you want people to know about this disease.

This is not just for the adults. Parents please ask your kids what they want others to know about their disease.


Sorry this is so last minute. If you can help me out I would really appreciate it.

If you want to participate you can leave your answer in the comments section or you can email it to me at pennylane5001@mchsi.com

An example of how I'll present it is kind of like this: "Riley is just like you and me, he just wears his pancreas in his pocket."--Holden, big brother to Riley, age 5, living with diabetes for 2 years.

1 comment:

Bernard said...

Penny

I sent you a picture separately.

What do I think about diabetes? It's made me a better person and let me do thinks I wouldn't have done without it. It's also not stopped me from doing many 'normal' things. See my long post on TuDiabetes.com for more details.

This is such a hard disease to really understand if you don't have it. Thanks for trying to help people get some appreciation of what it's like to live with it.