Type 1 Diabetes is not a direct sentence to eating only meat and veggies.

Luke can eat anything he wants, within reason, just like before his T1D diagnosis. If he wants five tacos for dinner, he eats five tacos for dinner. (He is a 12 1/2 year old growing boy, after all!) If he wants ice cream for dessert, he eats ice cream for dessert. Having T1D doesn’t mean he can’t eat what everyone else eats. It simply means he has to be his own pancreas. A person without T1D doesn’t have to think about how many carbs she eats at each meal. She just eats it. Because her pancreas will recognize the carbs and secrete enough insulin to stabilize her blood sugar. Luke has to “recognize” the carbs he eats (by counting them) and he has to “secrete” enough insulin by punching the number of carbs into his insulin pump. So that bowl of jambalaya he had for lunch? No problem! Luke’s a pretty good pseudo-pancreas!

Type 1 Diabetes is not easily controlled.

Sure, we have some really good days sometimes. A lot of the time, actually, thanks to his forever long honeymoon period. But some days we have no idea what’s going on. Luke could eat the same foods at the same times two days in a row and have completely different blood sugar levels. Once we think we have it figured out, good ol’ T1 changes things up again.

Type 1 Diabetes is not caused by something we did.

Luke does not have T1D because he had cereal as a baby or because he was given cow’s milk a month earlier than he was “supposed to.” He does not have T1D because he is fully vaccinated. He does not have T1D because he ate too many fruit snacks. (Shoot, he doesn’t really like fruit snacks!) Luke has T1D because his own body decided to attack the beta cells in his pancreas. Type 1 Diabetes is an auto-immune disease. Nothing we did caused it nor could have prevented him from getting T1D.

Type 1 Diabetes is not curable.

Many people who are not educated about T1D think all of our issues could be solved by cutting out candy and cake. Oh how I wish that was all it took! The truth is there isn’t a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. Not yet anyway. We could feed Luke only meat and veggies and he would still have Type 1 Diabetes. He could drink all of the miracle smoothies, be a faithful cinnamon oil user, and add cabbage water to his daily diet, but he would still have Type 1 Diabetes. Many researchers have come close to finding a cure, but we are not there yet.

Coming up in September, we will be joining people from all across Michiana in our 2nd JDRF One Walk. All of the money raised for the One Walk is to help JDRF fund their research projects. Projects that make living with Type 1 Diabetes much easier. Projects that will, hopefully, lead us towards a cure.

If you would like to help us find a cure, please join our team, Luke’s Lifesavers. We would love to have you walk with us! If you are unable to join us for the walk, you are more than welcome to make a donation on Luke’s behalf. I dream of the day when Luke can be needle-free and not have to worry about what he’s eating. We’re almost there!