I just came across the entry I sent in for the Children's Congress 2009, but unfortunately wasn't chosen.
My name is Shelby Sharp and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age six, and have lived with it for ten years. There isn't a time when I don't remember having Diabetes, and having it affect my everyday life in some way. The day I was diagnosed with this disease was one that will be embedded in mymind for the rest of my life.
On the fateful day of March 6, 1999. I was just six years old attending a cheerleading camp, when my mom recieved a call from my pediatrician telling us to immediately meet him at the hospital. My mom had an idea for some time what was happening to me, but hoped that it wouldn't come to what she thought. But it had. I remember lying in that hospital bed; my mom crying, family and doctors surrounding me, and thinking to myself, "Am I going to die?" After a long week of intense training, my family and I were getting the hang of it and went home. As the years went on I lived my life normally with good control and the usual ups and downs. During my diabetes journey I have tried many different methods of giving insulin. First being traditional shots, and then I participated in the study of inhaled insulin, and now I have a pump. A little over two years ago I had my first experience with DKA (Diabetic Keto-Acidosis), and that experience almost took my life. I would go through anything if I never had to relive that one night again. The year progressing after my hospitalization from DKA was one of my worst years yet. I was in and out of the hospital for eight monthes, while the doctors and specialists couldn't figure out what was causing me to have the odd complications. Doctors were presuming I was non-compliant before believing I was already developing some complications. My family looks at Diabetes as a game; you have to take it one day at a time, and be on top of your game if you want to be in control. I was always on top of my game until two years ago when everything started falling out from under me. Until I was diagnosed myself, I hadn't realized how important a cure was not only to me, but to everyone who has to live this kind of lifestyle.
When I envision a cure for my Diabetes I think of being up in heaven with God and living peacefully. It is so difficult to try and imagine my life without this shadow following me around constantly, but to have it cured from my life would be truly heaven on earth. I sometimes take it for granted; whenever I go to a doctor appointment and see all those little kids and babies with their medical alert bracelets on and their parents making sure they are constantly okay with blood sugar checks and insulin dosages, I think of what's going on in their minds and it breaks my heart. I was too diagnosed at a young age, but it just brings that reality clearer in my mind when I think about what my family and all those other families out there have to go through just watching and helping us along each day. I was recently introduced to a passage that completely sums up my feelings on Diabetes and everythingthat flashes through a Diabetic's mind as they get diagnosed, poke their finger to check and fix a blood sugar, take another shot, count another carbohydrate, and everything else that comes with the not so lovely word of "Diabetes". It comes from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 and says, "Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down;what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didnt think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, andthen He told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comesinto its own in your weaknss. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size - abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks, [Diabetes]. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become." On average, every diabeteic checks his/her blood sugar five times a day, so every year a diabetic puts a new hole in their finger around 1,825 times. It doesn't matter if they are six or sixty, a good or bad person, nobody deserves to be put through that and it is our job to fight for a cure.
