About Us
We are a mother-daughter team that is determined to help you and your family transition into this new life with Type 1 Diabetes. With our help, you will have helpful links, specific instructions, awesome tips, and printable PDFs to make this lifestyle easier for you!
Here's the short version...
I got diagnosed with type one diabetes and my mom and I wanted to make this journey easier for you because for us, it was super stressful.
Here's the long version...
In October of 2017, when I was 13 years old, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes. It didn't seem like it was just me with diabetes, however. Since I had it, my whole family had to deal with it too. My whole family of five adapted to this new lifestyle and it was a big struggle for us because not only did we have to manage my diabetes now, but we also had to take care of the complications we had been dealing with before my diagnosis. My dad, Scott, was in an accident in 2009 which left him paralyzed and in a wheelchair. I was four years old at the time, and my mom became his full-time caregiver. Samuel, my little brother, was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2014. My older sister and best friend, Avery, had psoriasis since she was 6 months old and my mom (and business partner), Rachelle, also had psoriasis since she was little.
I was at a church lock-in for a weekend and when I got home afterward, my mom and brother were gone. My dad told me that they had gone to the hospital because of his kidneys. A few days later, they were still in the hospital. One of my dad's helpers took us to go visit them and we were relieved to know that they were fine and they could come home in a few days. Later that day, my mom heard God say, "Don't lose Kara". (This is before I had diabetes) She didn't know what exactly it meant but she knew that when I had visited, I looked SUPER skinny to her. My arms and legs were tiny, and I guess I fit the term "bean pole" perfectly. ;)
After I had visited my mom and brother in the hospital, I had eaten a whole footlong sandwich. This might not seem weird or abnormal, but then I lost 1.5 pounds afterward. One of my mom's friends had seen me at the hospital and told her that the symptoms I was having (constant thirst, constant urination, mood changes, rapid weight loss, blurred vision, and others) were all symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes. My mom set up an appointment to "rule out" diabetes because she knew that no one in our family had it at all. When we got to our doctor, they did a few tests and told us that we needed to go to the emergency room immediately. As we drove to Cook Children's in Dallas, we talked about how we hoped that it would be Type 2 Diabetes because that kind can be reversed by diet. We arrived and they rushed me into the emergency room where I was quickly set up with three IVs and given a cup of ice to eat. I wasn't allowed to eat anything and I had to starve for about 33 hours. (It was actually like a fast, but it felt like starving... IT WAS TERRIBLE!!!) I think they didn't let me eat because my blood sugar was too high. :( I was rushed to ICU and taken care of for the night. I was in Diabetic Ketoacidosis. (Basically when my body doesn't make enough insulin to bring the sugar into my cells to make energy. My body then used fat instead of sugar and that's why I was losing weight).
We spent about a week in the hospital learning about type 1, getting trained, and watching all the movies they had there. By the time we got out of the hospital, we were exhausted. We had a new life and now I had to take care of my diabetes 24/7/365. I would never get a break. I would never be able to go a day without wondering what my blood sugar was, wondering if the insulin I took was the right amount, or thinking about anything that had to do with diabetes.
Our family went through a lot and had to learn a ton about this lifestyle and after about a year, I think we're now pretty familiar with it. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WASTE A YEAR THOUGH!!! With this helpful tool I have built with my mom, you can skip all the researching, waste of time, and wondering and get straight to the answers you need. We have created this as a special gift for type one families and we hope that you are tremendously helped and educated by what we have built.
-Kara :)
