Diabetes

Has anyone noticed the kid flipping you off on the side of my blog?  That is my nephew Joe.  Joe wasn't really flipping anyone off, he is a super sweet kid and would never do such a thing.  Here is the thing, that super sweet kid was showing his Dad (I think) a cut on his finger, a cut that took weeks and weeks to heal.  Why?  Joe has Type 1 Diabetes.  He was diagnosed around the age of 3 1/2.  I know a ton of my followers are moms, can you imagine telling your 3yr old, no snacks now you can't have more carbohydrates, can you imagine sticking your 3yr old 15-20 times a day (on a good day) to check his blood sugar, can you imagine holding him down to change the site where his insulin pump is connected to his booty every two days (as long as nothing goes wrong).  I can't.  I can't imagine.  I watch my sister take care of Joe and my heart breaks.  I watch Joe handle it all like he is an adult and it breaks my heart.  How is it that we have cures for so many things but no one knows why some kids pancreases go belly up.  WTF?  How do we not at least know how this organ stops working correctly.  My sister is now a human pancreas, I am not kidding, she plays the role of the organ that is effectively dead in her son in order to keep him alive.  There is no magic pill for Type 1 Diabetes.  There is no cure, there isn't even a closed loop system set up to take over for the pancreas. And there are tons of kids like Joe out there.  I want to do something.  I want to raise money for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and raise awareness.

Joe and Bridget heading to Walk for the Cure of Diabetes

 So folks, any thoughts on some sort of totally insane running thing I can do to raise money and awareness? I know with Chloe I can't do anything yet, like run across the US but what about attempting a marathon a day for a month?  Or something like that.  What ideas do you have?  Remember for over 50% of the time I am parenting solo.  I would like to find a way to both raise awareness for Type 1 specifically (it is very different from Type 2, why in the heck some moron named the same thing is beyond me) and raise money for research on what causes it and how to stop those beta cells from dying off.  I really have no idea if any of this could help my nephew but it could help some other kid.  It is a sucky disease and there will never be an end for him unless some smart dude (dudette) stuck in a lab somewhere can figure out either how to turn his pancreas back on (beta cells) or someone at least comes up with a closed loop system for management of the disease.  Come on runners what can I do?  Come up with something crazy.  I am game for trying almost anything. 

Chloe, Joe and Bridget being kids. 

Oh if you want more information or more accurate information on Diabetes and the care of a Type 1 kid, head over to my sisters blog.  She is the bomb.  Well she is after all, a wife, a supermom and the best damn pancreas around. 

Happy Running Everyone! Hope the weather holds for everyone.  Stay tuned for my post on socks, figured out which of my million running socks do best in the rain.  :).