Drum Roll, Please!

This past week we spent the day at the University of Minnesota Discovery Clinic to meet with Kinsley's gastroenterologist.  Dr. Stumphy diagnosed Kinsley with Celiac Disease in late 2016 after we learned that her iGa and iGg numbers were higher than the highest detectable limits.  Shortly thereafter, Kinsley underwent an endoscopy where it was discovered that Kinsley had substantial damage to her small intestine due to the consumption of gluten.  She was just five years old!

So, yet another change for Kinsley as we embarked on a gluten free diet.  See, a gluten free diet for Kinsley is not a preference or even a sensitivity but a poison that will destroy her insides.  Consuming gluten is toxic to her body.  As we learned how dangerous gluten is to Kinsley's health, Andrew and I decided that our home would be gluten free.  We have maintained that stance, mostly, ever since.  The entire home is gluten free except a bread box in a separate location where Andrew's hot dog buns are stored!  Every meal made in our home is with gluten free ingredients.

Eliminating gluten and introducing insulin have been game changers for Kinsley's growth and development.  She is growing like a weed!  She is very tall for her age (nearly four feet and in the 50% percentile) and has gained 12 pounds (45 pounds and the 31st percentile) since diagnosis.  What a rockstar, right!

Our hard work has paid off though after receiving Kinsley's latest results.  Here we go:

Kinsley has finally rid her body of the antibodies activated when eating gluten.  I didn't know if we could EVER get it down this low, but we have!  There are so many to thank for these results.  We appreciate your care and concern for our daughter and her health.  It really means the world!

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PS:  You can visit our JDRF page to donate to the 2018 JDRF Walk.  Or, better yet, join our team!  We need more walkers.  😊

Insulin IS the Miracle......For Now!

So much for posting regularly, right!

I can't believe it has been six months since my last post.  Life has been extremely busy with homeschooling, a new job, and decorating the new home.  How fast life flies, for sure.

I was recently watching a great video on Slate about the discovery of insulin, and I was reminded how fortunate Kinsley is to be alive at this time in history.  It wasn't long ago, relatively speaking, that individuals diagnosed with type one diabetes had a sure death sentence.  As in, 100%!  But, due to the many incremental discoveries of people much brighter than me over the course of centuries, insulin was discovered and has been saving lives ever since.

I am forever grateful for insulin as it is what keeps my sugar baby going day in and day out!  After Kinsley was just diagnosed, however, I was desperate to somehow fix Kinsley's pancreas and just have our "normal" back.  Insulin just wasn't good enough.  So, naturally, I scoured the internet and sought out any possible remedy that eliminated the need for Kinsley to need insulin.

One of many "remedy" examples:

Yes, friends, I thought rocks might "cure" type one diabetes.  Here is the back story on my hunt for rocks.  My handyman overheard me giving Kinsley insulin one day while he was working on the house and told me that we needed to get chromium healing rocks as quickly as possible.  He said that these rocks have the power cure type one diabetes, or at the very least, manage blood sugar.  Guess what?  The rocks did nothing.  Surprise, surprise!

Shortly after the rock fail, my nail technician explained that she follows a Christian healer who travels the globe healing people of their infirmities.  Of course,  I learned everything I could about this "healer" and was ready to drive Kinsley to Missouri for one of his healing revivals.  I was convinced!  But, guess what?  After further research, I discovered that this "healer" isn't really a healer at all but a con artist.

I guess I share these ridiculous stories, that I have since repented to the Lord for, because there are a lot of people out there who just wait for desperate and highly unintelligent people like me to buy into some of these scams to get ahead. It is despicable!

And, if that isn't bad enough, there are the well-intentioned, sweet people who come across a diet fad, elimination diet, therapy modality, and even the latest chocolate shake craze that convince them that type one diabetes can be healed.  And, of course, I need to subject Kinsley to it!

But, the very painful and difficult truth is that there is no magic bullet that eliminates Kinsley's need for insulin multiple times each day.  Her pancreas does NOT produce insulin.  It just doesn't.  I can't just muscle test Kinsley into producing insulin again.  And even if Kinsley was on a protein only diet, she would still.....need.......insulin - if even to maintain homeostasis.

It is dangerous to suggest that type one diabetes can be cured.  Families have actually withheld insulin convinced that an alternate treatment plan is possible and let me tell you, it never turns out well.  I am hopeful that a cure will be found in our lifetime.  That is what the emergency room doctor said, after all, so it must be right!  But, until then, Kinsley and all type one diabetics in the world need insulin, in varying amounts, each day.

Let us always remember that and be content with the miracle insulin is, for now!