Fundraising For a Kid Just Diagnosed With Diabetes
My roommate has type 1 diabetes, and has for the last 15 years. He also has a seven-year-old daughter, whom long-time readers might recognize from my tags as āKiddoā. Her name is Emily, and she was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, herself.
(ID: a young girl in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and fidgeting with an empty water bottle. End ID.)
Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder, often kicked off by a flu or other common illness. If you have the genetic predisposition for type 1, youāre basically rolling the dice on whether or not your white blood cells will look at your pancreas and go āyou donāt belong hereā. And thatās exactly what happened to Emily. She got a flu over Christmas break, and started acting really puny and eating a lot. We assumed she was still fighting off the cold, or having a growth spurt (both very common misconceptions, apparently), but following a series of warning signs in one night we tested her sugar four times over 12 hours and it came back dangerously high each time. So as I type this sheās in a childrenās hospital with a saline drip to bring down her glucose, and being admitted for monitoring, getting her treatment plan in place, and a mandatory class her parents have to take about how to manage her illness.
The other thing diabetes is is expensive. Insulin is expensive. Glucose monitors are expensive. Endocrinologists are expensive. And those are just the costs weāre going to have to shoulder going forward, to say nothing of two different hospital bills, the ambulance ride from our local hospital to the childrenās one, general treatment, and the fact that both of her parents will be missing work while we deal with this major life change.Ā
(ID: the same young girl, sitting up in a different hospital bed, without an IV but getting her blood sugar checked by a nurse whose face is hidden for privacy reasons. The girl has a tablet propped up in front of her and a mabari plushie on the bed with her. End ID.)
This is a very big thing. Sheās young, so she might adapt a little quicker than she would have later in life, but that doesnāt make it not big. And listen: I love that kid with my entire being. If I could literally take out my pancreas and swap with her I would be walking to the hospital right now. But I canāt, and instead weāre looking at lifelong treatment and symptom management. And hospital bills.
If you can see your way towards helping us smooth this transition for her, and give us one less thing to worry about while we settle into a scary new routine, we would all be incredibly grateful. Including Emily. Sheās a little superhero who has been through a LOT in the last few months, all culminating in this one very big thing.
GoFundMe
PayPal.me (choose āfriends and familyā to avoid fees)
Ko-Fi
Amazon wishlist (some diabetes stuff, some just general make-a-little-kid-feel-better stuff)
Redbubble
Teepublic