Who doesn't love a great gift? Most women would love to rip the paper off a little blue box emblazoned "Tiffany." For many men, a massive flat-screen TV to catch the upcoming football season would be a dream come true.
But what about the plaster-cast handprint your kindergartener gave you for Mother's Day? Or the family portrait your First-Grader produced for a class project? Or the hand-crocheted afghan your grandmother shipped across the country just in time for Christmas?
Which gift will be locked away in your memories forever? My guess is the handprint, portrait and afghan will be lovingly stored in a hope chest someplace as a keepsake for years to come, while the Tiffany box will eventually be recycled and the TV dumped for the next 'great' thing.
It's the small, sincere jestures that are the most heartfelt and have the greatest impact.
That's why we've always advocated $20 donations for Team Shelby. Of sure, we welcome the $100 gifts, and surely won't turn away even more. But it's those $20 gifts that represent a real sacrifice or purposeful action that really make us stop and thank God for our family and friends.
If you do the math, $20 is pretty easy for most of us to budget on payday. How many $5 lattes a week do you really need, anyway? Maybe you could do without four this month and donate the 20 bucks. If five people donate just $20 each, suddenly we have $100 going to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. It adds up in a hurry!
We certainly understand the financial stress many of us are under these days. And we wouldn't ask anyone to blow out their budget (Dave Ramsey would kill us; or at least revoke our FPU Coordinator status!).
But consider putting a little aside regularly for Team Shelby, and join dozens of others in making real strides toward a cure!
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Isn't It Ironic?
Since we launched the "Team Shelby Snack Bar" at Scott's work last week, he's had two experiences that bring home the fact that we've done a poor job of educating people about Type I Diabetes and autoimmune diseases, in general.
"Isn't it ironic," the conversations with two different colleagues at different times began, "that you're selling chocolate and snack food to fight diabetes? I mean, is that really a good message?"
These are earnest, educated people offering textbook wisdom about diabetes: You can't eat sugar, and eating Snickers bars gives you diabetes.
Let's just say, right off, that it's not really their fault. That's what we hear all the time about Diabetes. But that advice and regimen applies mostly to Type 2 Diabetes - the relatively kinder, gentler version that is impacting tens of millions of Americans annually and becoming an alarming epidemic particularly among teens and children as obesity has become a real national health problem in our country.
But for people with Type 1 Diabetes - the version Shelby has had since she was 2 and the type Scott was diagnosed with just last year - sugar and snacks didn't cause their disease, and doesn't significantly worsen their prognosis if they are managing things correctly. Type 1 is growing annually at a worldwide clip of about 6%, which has the doctors pretty concerned because they can't tell you why this happening or really what to do about it.
THE DIFFERENCE
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means that for unknown reasons the body kills the insulin-producing beta cells located in the pancreas. The result is an inability to produce any insulin, a hormone that moves sugar from the blood stream into all the cells of the body where it is used for energy. Without insulin, blood sugars rise resulting in a whole list of really bad health impacts on nearly every part of the body.
When we eat, the carbohydrates in food break down as the sugar we need to power our bodies. Whether those carbs come from a Snickers bar or a carrot, people with Type 1 Diabetes have to calculate their carbohydrate intake and provide enough insulin to allow the resulting sugar to be absorbed from the blood stream.
That doesn't mean Type 1 Diabetes patients can go nuts! Nobody should have excess sugar or loads of carbs in their diets! It's just not good for any of us.
In Type 2 Diabetes, the pancreas is either beginning to produce less insulin because the patient is older, or the pancreas can't produce enough insulin because the patient is overweight. In those cases, doctors try to help patients achieve a balance of food intake, exercise and insulin production. Restricted diets, workouts and medications that enhance the absorption of insulin are usually part of the regimen.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Shelby and Scott love their snacks! They know that two cookies containing 20 grams of carb means they have to take one unit of insulin. (And, really, who needs more than one serving of cookies at a time!) They'll be that way for the rest of their lives with everything they eat, unless we can find a cure.
The real irony here is that people more easily donate to the JDRF and Type 1 Diabetes research if they are getting something in return. In the case of the Team Shelby Snack Bar, their $1 donation gets them a snack - and hopefully a little awareness.
"Isn't it ironic," the conversations with two different colleagues at different times began, "that you're selling chocolate and snack food to fight diabetes? I mean, is that really a good message?"
These are earnest, educated people offering textbook wisdom about diabetes: You can't eat sugar, and eating Snickers bars gives you diabetes.
Let's just say, right off, that it's not really their fault. That's what we hear all the time about Diabetes. But that advice and regimen applies mostly to Type 2 Diabetes - the relatively kinder, gentler version that is impacting tens of millions of Americans annually and becoming an alarming epidemic particularly among teens and children as obesity has become a real national health problem in our country.
But for people with Type 1 Diabetes - the version Shelby has had since she was 2 and the type Scott was diagnosed with just last year - sugar and snacks didn't cause their disease, and doesn't significantly worsen their prognosis if they are managing things correctly. Type 1 is growing annually at a worldwide clip of about 6%, which has the doctors pretty concerned because they can't tell you why this happening or really what to do about it.
THE DIFFERENCE
Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means that for unknown reasons the body kills the insulin-producing beta cells located in the pancreas. The result is an inability to produce any insulin, a hormone that moves sugar from the blood stream into all the cells of the body where it is used for energy. Without insulin, blood sugars rise resulting in a whole list of really bad health impacts on nearly every part of the body.
When we eat, the carbohydrates in food break down as the sugar we need to power our bodies. Whether those carbs come from a Snickers bar or a carrot, people with Type 1 Diabetes have to calculate their carbohydrate intake and provide enough insulin to allow the resulting sugar to be absorbed from the blood stream.
That doesn't mean Type 1 Diabetes patients can go nuts! Nobody should have excess sugar or loads of carbs in their diets! It's just not good for any of us.
In Type 2 Diabetes, the pancreas is either beginning to produce less insulin because the patient is older, or the pancreas can't produce enough insulin because the patient is overweight. In those cases, doctors try to help patients achieve a balance of food intake, exercise and insulin production. Restricted diets, workouts and medications that enhance the absorption of insulin are usually part of the regimen.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Shelby and Scott love their snacks! They know that two cookies containing 20 grams of carb means they have to take one unit of insulin. (And, really, who needs more than one serving of cookies at a time!) They'll be that way for the rest of their lives with everything they eat, unless we can find a cure.
The real irony here is that people more easily donate to the JDRF and Type 1 Diabetes research if they are getting something in return. In the case of the Team Shelby Snack Bar, their $1 donation gets them a snack - and hopefully a little awareness.
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