FREE T-Shirts!

Thanks to the very generous support of Pat Maggard of Valley Dental of Napa and the personal donation of Jazzerciser Natalie Shugart, all Team Shelby walkers can get a FREE Team Shelby T-shirt this year!

Every walker who raises $100 will get a free shirt in the style of their choosing!

All T-shirt orders must be pre-paid this year by Oct. 1!

Click for details!

Our life with diabetes

It’s 3:15 a.m. More than an hour ago I woke up to check Shelby’s blood sugar, my daily 2 a.m. ritual. Her number was 359; way over the 150-200 we like her to be at during the night. I give her insulin and note the information in our logbook in the kitchen. She’s been running high a lot lately during these overnight checks. What did she have for dinner again? Did I miscalculate something? Did the restaurant do something different with the Mexican rice we always get? She had two pieces of quesadilla, not three, right? The past two days, she’s been back in range by breakfast. I head back to bed, stepping over Shelby who sometime between my bedtime and 2 a.m. encamped on our bedroom floor in her Barbie sleeping bag.

Lying in bed, the questions continue to swirl in my head. Why has she been so high at night? Do we need to correct her insulin rates again? They were working great two weeks ago. We just changed them radically to adjust for her new school activities, but that shouldn’t impact her during the night, right? She’s not dipping nearly as low after recess at school, now. Most days she’s even eating her whole snack and lunch before scampering off to play on the swings with her school friends. She said something about a different nurse at school yesterday; I should probably check on that tomorrow. I’m way behind on checking up on my diabetes research news: note to self – check that tomorrow afternoon and update Team Shelby website. Maybe I should have extended her dinner insulin dose; rice kicks in later sometimes. Second note to self – Mention nurse situation to Liz in the morning; have her ask about it if the school calls her at work after checking Shelby for snack. Liz should probably ask at the office after school. Third note to self – remember to take Team Shelby corporate sponsorship pack to the car dealer tomorrow. Maybe I should get caught up on my research reading now.

Our life with diabetes never stops. All parents worry. It’s just that most don’t worry about whether they used the right measuring cup when doling out Cheerios in the morning. Or what to do about a daughter who declares the school snack you packed “took too long to eat” so she didn’t finish it before hitting the playground. No wonder the school reports Shelby’s blood sugar was a perilous 42 before lunch; she blacks out at 35. Normal is 70-100. What snack can I pack that eats fast?

Shelby never complains about her disease. She’s never asked why she has it and other kids don’t. She doesn’t flinch at the shots or finger pricks anymore. She’s even gotten good at running her insulin pump herself. But is it any wonder that studies find parents of children with diabetes display high levels of anxiety, apprehension and worry. What if something I do jeopardizes her ability to have children someday, go off to college, limits her ability to become a veterinarian like she talks about, or causes blindness or organ failure. Dads protect their kids from this stuff, right? I don't want pity; I want a cure.

So one meal, one snack, one quarterly doctor’s visit, one step at a time we’ll just fight this disease and hope beyond all hope that the promise of a cure comes through in her lifetime.

Brand new research information

As we work hard this time of year to increase participation and support for Team Shelby, it is natural that people have more questions. Even long-time supporters wonder what's going on with all the research? And just what does the JDRF fund anyway?

In the latest edition of the JDRF Research Frontline, they carried three short items describing the breadth of the work being done in regard to Type I Diabetes. They include:

• FDA approval of an antibotic to fight the most common form of diabetes-related blindness,
  
• advancements toward a continual blood sugar monitoring system, and
  
• groundbreaking work in the use of adult stem cells.

I've posted the items in the Team Shelby Research Corner. Here's a link that should take you to a pdf of the newsletter, as well.

Printing out Frontline for distribution to potential donors is a great way to express clearly and authoritatively what the JDRF is doing daily to fight this disease.

New Corporate Sponsorship Program

Team Shelby is proud to announce the launch of our inaugural Corporate Sponsorship program. It is the first time we've offered local companies the opportunity to support the work of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

We have established three levels of support allowing participating companies and organizations to have their logos appear on the official Team Shelby T-Shirts, our website and all of our literature.

We're very excited that Team Superstores Chevrolet-Hyundai of Vallejo has stepped forward as our very first Silver Sponsor! The Team Chevrolet sponsorship came about because one of Liz's Jazzercise students who works there asked her boss to get involved. And he said, "Yes."

You may be wondering: Why would we seek corporate support given our three years of tremendous work and the successful donation of more than $25,000 through the extraordinary efforts by our friends, family and co-workers?

It's a fair question. The Answer is simple: We want to reach and exceed our $10,000 annual fund-raising goal, set a new goal, and continue to educate the community about Type I Diabetes and the amazing research going into finding a cure. We hope that because countless people just like you have joined Team Shelby through heart-felt donations ranging from $10 to hundreds of dollars, the business community will be inspired to join our efforts.

We are sending Corporate Sponsorship packets to local businesses we patronize. Please consider joining in.

If you represent a business and want to get involved, please download the information and consider the opportunity. We aren't hard-sell experts. We want individuals and businesses to act from their own sense of what is right. If you are an employee, use the information and our basic Team Shelby fund-raising letter to approach your boss. Remember, many companies also have matching donation programs; usually the HR folks know about those.

For any questions, email us at TeamShelby@yahoo.com.

We look forward to continuing to add the logos of our Inaugural Corporate Sponsors to our website and Team Shelby T-shirts.

As always, thank you all for your support and creative fund-raising ideas.