Sandi Hester

“Marmalade Morning”, 12×12 oil by Sandi Hester

Where to begin? I guess at the beginning of my diagnosis. Last June I was diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes. I didn’t think much of it because I was totally clueless about what our lives were about to look like and what we were about to be thrown into. I knew nothing about type 1 diabetes. You may not either so I’d like to give you a little glimpse. Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease – basically my body decided to attack itself, for no reason – it has nothing to do with lifestyle or diet, and kill my pancreas. So now I do the job of my pancreas and liver (I won’t go into the details of why I do the job of both organs, just know that it’s a lot of work to do the job of both). What that looks like is a 24 hour job – no days off – no nights off. It means giving myself shots all through the day, it means pricking my finger more times than I can count. EVERYTHING affects my blood sugar – everything – from vacuuming, to shopping, to a headache, to socializing. Having T1D means trying to keep myself alive 24/7. I must take insulin to stay alive but taking insulin also means that the insulin can kill me rather easily. I read a statistic recently that 1 in 20 T1D’s die in their sleep. They call it dead bed. Scary for sure! There’s much more I could share but that’s just a glimpse into what I deal with on a daily basis now. Shots are hard and painful. Low blood sugars are at best a pain in the rear and at worst quite scary. I’m doing good now and I’m managing my diabetes well, BUT it is constant work and hard work – but it’s also life now. Grady has been an AMAZING support! He basically does the math that my pancreas use to do :).

Now to the JDRF part of this blog. This is an amazing organization we’ve recently learned about. They are the leading global organization funding T1D research. JDRF’s goal is to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat T1D and its complications. They want to make Type One into Type None – and so do I! Grady and I have jumped head first into supporting this organization. The first thing we were able to do is donate a piece of my art for their upcoming gala in their silent auction, and the good part is that you don’t actually have to GO to the gala to bid on this painting at the silent auction. You can just click on silent auction to view the items in the silent auction or here to sign up to remote bid. Thank you for taking time to read this and be part of our lives.