When my family and I left for vacation I was a healthy 10 yr old but by the time we returned home, I was a very sick little girl. I had all the symptoms: frequent urination, abundant thirst, blurred vision, and sluggishness. When I started having trouble breathing, my mother called the doctor in the middle of the night and he met us at the hospital. I had developed Keto Acidosis from being misdiagnosed earlier in the week and my sugar was so high they admitted me immediately. That night my life changed forever. Back then, they didn't have home glucometers to check your glucose. You had to use test tubes, a dropper and your urine and you dropped a pill into the tube with your urine that would bubble up and turn a color to tell you if it was within normal range. I've been a Type 1 diabetic now for 38 years and times have changed since that summer of 1976. The advances in medicine are amazing and make diabetes manageable. While hopeful for a cure in my lifetime, here's to another 38 yrs.

Karyl Riley
Kingsland, GA