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.