What is blegging?  It’s a word I made up.  It is a blog beg.  Begging in a blog.  A blogging beg, if you will.  Here’s my story.

I have had Type I Diabetes for almost 20 years.  I was diagnosed in my early teens and was immediately put on insulin injections.  More concerned with pimples and boys – I didn’t focus on my diabetes.  Thank God that my mom did, or who knows where I would be today.

A few years ago when I went to visit my eye doctor, (annual visits required, because - did you know that diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in the US?!?) he asked how long I had been diabetic.  I told him seventeen years.  He said something that stuck with me at that time and to this day.  He said “You should be proud, because there are a lot of diabetics that have had the disease shorter than you and are already experiencing retinopathy.” (A disease in the retina most common in diabetics because of poor circulation.) I was floored when I realized that I had been a diabetic for half of my life.

This is a rough account, but here are my totals:

16,425 insulin injections

26,900 finger pricks to check blood sugars

600 insulin pump injection site changes (after getting the pump in 2002)

132 trips to my endocrinologist – for the sole purpose of a diabetic checkup

18 trips to the ophthalmologist

1000s upon 1000s of dollars in medical equipment

8 seizures caused by low blood sugars 

6 ambulance trips to the emergency room

I have always had good control of my diabetes.  You will rarely hear me complain about my disease.  It’s mine and I deal with it.  I’ve often said, if it was going to be me or my brother that is diabetic, I’m glad it was me.  (It used to be said that diabetes skips generations.  My grandfather has it, so my brother and I used to ‘bet’ about who would get it.)

All that buildup for this:

Every year, I participate in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk for the Cure.  JDRF was founded by parents of children with diabetes and it is the leading funder of research for Type I diabetes.  My team alone, over the past several years, has raised over $100,000!!

The stats listed above are not a pity party.  They are a reality for me, but more importantly, the are a reality for thousands of children.  Would I like to see myself come off of the insulin pump?  Absolutely.  Is that my biggest concern?  Far from it.  What I want to see is less of this. Or this.  This is the one you really need to click on.  Hundreds of kids from 18 months to 18 years that need daily insulin injections to stay alive.    Insulin is not a cure for diabetes it is required for survival.

So – here’s my bleg.  Will you support me this year on my walk?  Please visit this website  which will direct you to an easy online donation form.  My personal goal is $2500, which I hope to surpass.  You can keep watching my “thermometer” to see how close I come – hopefully I’ll bust right through it!   All donations are tax deductible.

Wanna do more than donate?   Come walk with me!  The walk this year is on April 19 at 9:00am.  It’s at Carowinds and it promises to be a fun time!  It is a family event, obviously, because it benefits children!  Free bagels from Panera for breakfast and free hamburgers from Wendy’s for lunch!  If you’re feeling extra adventurous – raise money with me!  If you raise $100 you get a free tshirt; $200 free pass to Carowinds for any 2008 operating day!  Loads of incentives – over and above the obvious one of helping the children!  Great way to get your kids involved in a charitable event that helps other children, too.

I truly could go on and on because this is a cause that is near and dear to me.  If you have any questions, please email me at kmiller59@carolina.rr.com.   I will probably re-post this a few times over the next few weeks in hopes of reaching as many people as possible.

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!