Easy Money For JDRF

If you live in Illinois or Missouri, and you shop at Schnucks, they will donate up to 3% of your money to JDRF with a program called eScrip. THIS IS THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE MONEY FOR JDRF!!

When you sign up for this free program you will receive two cards - one you can keep in your wallet as well as one you can attach to your key chain. This is not a gift card or credit card, and it contains no value. But JDRF will receive money every time you use the eScrip card at Schnucks. The money raised will go for funding research for a cure for type 1 diabetes.

When you purchase anything at Schnucks markets, just have the cashier scan your eScrip card and a small percentage of your piurchase (up to 3%) is credited to JDRF. You will incur no additional charges, and your bill will not change. Just pay for your purchase as you normally do - cash, check, or charge. There are no fees, no membership charges, no costs to you, and no hassles.

These cards are available at any Schnucks markets, or I would be happy to get some for you. If you have any questions about the program, you can get more information here.

Baby Steps

We attended a JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) family retreat last weekend and came home with more information and ideas on treating Ross' diabetes. We were interested to learn of a company in Massachusetts that is working to create a new kind of insulin - SmartInsulin. It would help control his blood sugar with just one injection a day.

SmartInsulin is designed to be "glucose-regulated," meaning it can sense how high or low a person's blood sugar is and will only release insulin when it is needed, just like a healthy pancreas does. If the blood sugar level is high, SmartInsjulin will release insulin, but if the blood sugar is going low, it will stop releasing insulin - hopefully preventing a scary episode of low blood sugar. SmartInsulin would require only one shot daily and would also reduce the number of times Ross would have to test.

Since he is on a pump and no longer taking daily injections, I'm not sure how that would work for him. I don't know if he would stop using the pump and only have one injection daily or if he would take one injection of the SmartInsulin and still use the pump. Researchers still have lots of testing and clinical trials, but there is good reason to hope a new kind of insulin that makes diabetes management easier may be available in the years ahead.

We continue to be optimistic that this is one step closer to seeing a cure in Ross' lifetime.