Tim Johns' Blog

A little over a year ago, our daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes , a lifelong chronic condition that requires she receive four or more daily injections of insulin. Type 1 diabetes is distinct from the much more prevelant type 2 diabetes, in that with type 2 diabetes, the beta cells in the pancreas still produce insulin -- but the body is not efficient at using it. With type 1 diabetes, however, the pancreas no longer has working beta cells with which to produce insulin. And they're not coming back. People living with type 1 diabetes need injected insulin to survive, and there's currently just no getting around that fact. We've since joined a number of support networks, and two related topics come up over and over again: cost, and cure. The current state of affairs introduces some despair -- the costs are high and there is no cure. My family spends about $1500 per month to manage our daughter's care (including insurance premiums) - just to keep her alive. Th...

One year ago this morning, my daughter Darcie was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. She'd basically been hanging out on the floor in the living room for a few days, with nausea and a low fever, not really wanting to do much - just no energy.  I figured it was the flu. At one point, however, I looked up at her and was shocked at what I saw - it was clear she had very visibly lost a lot of weight, and she was a skinny mini to begin with. At that point I knew this wasn't just the flu, and we made a first-available Monday 9:00 a.m. appointment with her pediatrician. We talked to Dr. Shlafer, who looked her over, and just as I was starting to get worried he might tell us he couldn't find anything wrong, he looked me in the eyes, paused for a minute, and asked me "She really doesn't look good, does she?" I'm sure he could read the stress on my face as I replied "No, she does not." His next comment was something along the lines of "OK, well we...