I've always felt as if I had a different type of Diabetes. For those of you who do not know, I got diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 19 after a mission trip to Mexico. I got very sick down there after drinking some of the water, and after coming back my vision got horrible very quickly. I was also waking up late at night to to go to the bathroom followed by drinking 1/2 - 1 gallon of water before I went back to sleep. My parents noticed something was not right when my dad and I were out to eat one day after work and I drank 4 large glasses of lemonade at Texas Roadhouse. After one of the half dozen nurses in the family suggested we go to the emergency room, I ended up on a table with a blood sugar of 740, fortunate to not be comatose.
I was initially diagnosed and treated as a Type 1 diabetic, later to attempt oral medication for Type 2 diabetes, which did not work, then resorted to just going to the family doctor and treating it as Type 1. I did that for 4-5 years until I moved to SC and saw a doctor at the Medical University of SC. During my first visit she brought up type MODY and suggested that it may be what I have. I had suggested this to doctors before, but they didn't have any knowledge of it. The new doctor said that there are multiple strands of type MODY, and although one or two of them have to be treated with injections, there are others that can be treated with oral medication.
She ordered a test to see if I was still producing antibodies that would show I was a type MODY candidate and the test came back positive. The next test I would have to take to determine how to treat my type of diabetes would have to be a genetic test. I had heard that the testing was very expensive, but as I was going through the process of determining how much it would cost, a nurse told me that I would most likely qualify for a patient assistance program that would cover all of the bill except for $500, so I told them I wanted to get the testing done. Well, it turns out I did not qualify for the program. I called the medical lab conducting the test and they told me I could cancel at any time before the tests were complete, but upon completion I was going to be billed $5000.
I was scared and immediately wanted to cancel the tests. I've been trying so hard to save amidst piles of student loan bills, and that was a large chunk of everything I had saved. The more I thought about it, I realized how awesome it would be to not have to take injections anymore, along with an opportunity at a longer lifetime and less medical cost down the road, so I decided to go through with it.
I'm still concerned about the cost, but I know that God will provide. I've been thinking about fundraising opportunities for it, and thought maybe it would be best to "ask a friend". I know that sometimes people will hold benefits to help pay for medical bills, and also that there are walks and runs for certain medical conditions where people just give blindly to help strangers going through medical trials. I thought maybe there could be an opportunity in this situation that I could use to raise awareness and, in turn, raise donations.
I was wondering if any of my readers have any ideas of how I could raise money to help fund medical research into my own condition? I've considered asking for a certain amount of money per mile I bike or run, but that's about all I can think of. Any ideas would be great. Maybe this is just a time in my life that God is calling me to trust Him financially and give it all over. If that's the case, I'm completely open to it, but I first thought I'd look into what other doors may open.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray about the testing and pray a prayer of healing over the disease that I have. Please pray that God would do financially what He chooses in this situation, and that my faith and trust would be wholly in Him.
Please pray as well for the future mission trip I am going on to Holland. Pray that God would provide the means to go, along with opportunities here and abroad to talk to others about Him during the training time and week long mission trip.
Love you all.
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