Dear Friends,
Greetings from Mark and Jade Matlock and Bart and Shannon Millard!
Sam Millard and Skye Matlock
We’d like you to join us again this year as we walk for the cure!
Before we get to those details we’d like to share just a little bit about what Sam and Skye face each day as a result of having this disease.
Type 1 Diabetes has received a lot of press this year, and we’re grateful, but it has also created some disconcerting untruths. For instance a major weekend spread in the Dallas Morning News said that diabetes was so manageable that it is almost hard to call it a disease! Tell that to Sam and Skye who prick their fingers a minimum of 6 times a day to draw blood for glucose tests and inject themselves with insulin 4 – 6 times a day. It ain’t no picnic!
What is more, we have recently learned that many Christian camps will not allow our kids to attend their programs because of the delicate balance and monitoring diabetes requires.
Yes we are grateful for insulin that helps us manage Sam and Skye’s daily living, but always remember, INSULIN IS NOT A CURE IT IS MERELY LIFE SUPPORT!
While the threat that Sam or Skye could go into diabetic shock or a coma on any given day is a very present reality, we know that with painstaking insulin treatment they are not likely to die in any given day (although they have come close).
Type 1 diabetes is a slow killer. Just having the disease means that you are expected to live 14 years shorter than average life expectancy. 14 YEARS!
Without meticulous attention to count every carb at every meal and do the math it takes to provide the proper amount insulin at the proper time after checking blood sugar levels, the risks of kidney failure (requiring lifetime dialysis), blindness, stokes, and amputation (and yes this can happen at any time as type 1 diabetics are more likely to experience these effects even with proper care). For Skye any inattention to her treatment could mean that she may never be able to bear children.
So it’s not the threat of death everyday that haunts each of us, it is the long term impact of not being disciplined day to day. And let’s never forget every ringing phone during the school day could be the school reporting that Sam and Skye have gone into shock which often leads to brain damage or death. Do we get calls from the school? Yes, at lease once a week when numbers are off.
Thankfully we have been blessed with hope that God offers us in the midst of difficult times and the benefit of friends and family like you that love us. This lifts the weight of the burden, but what if the burden could be lifted entirely?
Last year MercyMe launched the Imagine A Cure foundation on which Mark sits on the board of directors. Every month Mark and Bart receive updated information about the leaps researchers are making in finding a cure for type 1 diabetes. There is much reason for hope!
What is more, God is using our involvement in finding a cure for this disease as a way to minister to the hurts and suffering of other families with diabetes!
Scientists legitimately believe a cure is possible before Sam and Skye lose this life-long battle (Page 2 shows exciting new research). We ask you to help us find a cure by sponsoring or joining us on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 at Granite Park at 5800 Granite Parkway, Plano, TX 75024 at 8:45 am. The Sam and Skye Walkers has raised $27,600 including 110 walkers by there side last year! We need your help to make an even bigger impact this year. Your contribution might make the difference in the one research laboratory where “the cure” will be achieved!
Thank you!
Obesity is linked to type 2 diabetes. One of the problems we face everyday is people misunderstanding the differences between them. Type 2 diabetes means that your body is not producing enough insulin or the insulin is of poor quality and ineffective. Type 2 diabetes can be regulated with diet, exercise, and oral medications. While diet and exercise are also components of the Type 1 dietetics’ management, insulin cannot be produced and can only be given via injection.
Yes. Unlike Type 2 Diabetes where diet and exercise require careful control of sugar intake, this is not an absolute requirement for a Type 1 Diabetic. As long we measure the number of carbohydrates in any food (including high sugar foods), we can balance those carbohydrates with the appropriate amount of insulin required.
No. Sam and Skye will always have diabetes unless a cure is found. It is important to remember that insulin does not cure diabetes, it only keeps them alive by providing what the body cannot on it’s own. God made our bodies to be incredibly sophisticated. Our job as parents is to “think” like a pancreas and then “act” like one. It is truly amazing the amount of effort involved replicating this one function of one organ.
We must balance carbohydrates, insulin, and physical activity with uncontrollable variables such as illness, growth, exercise-level, excitement, and stress. Each day Sam and Skye are at risk of a drastic low blood sugar causing seizure or possibly death. It could only take one mistake on one morning or one afternoon or one night… or it might simply involve a random event in their bodies.
Pumps can be great because they potentially offer flexibility and allow for micro dosages to be administered in ways injections cannot. Pumps only change the way insulin is delivered, and have many disadvantages as well. The child must always be connected to the pump. Pumps require constant decision-making on part of the parent and/or child, increased number of blood checks, and the risk for diabetic shock increases. While some children do use the pump, our doctors have not recommended this as a suitable treatment at this time. I am sure in time we will be using a pump, but this only changes the method of delivering insulin, it is not a cure.
At the onset of diabetes glucose from carbohydrates (not just sugar) builds up in the blood. Insulin helps the body convert the glucose into energy. Since the insulin is not available to do this the glucose stays in the blood producing certain symptoms.
While scientists believe there is a genetic factor related to the onset of Type 1 diabetes, to our knowledge no parents, grandparents, or great grandparents in any family on either side have a Type 1 diagnosis.