Wednesday, October 28, 2009

In the Face

Well, I am sort of out there in the "face" world now.  I asked Matt to link this page to his Facebook page so I am curious how many people will see it.  I have been sort of wondering how many people are seeing it anyway.  There is probably some way of putting a counter on the page, but I'd rather see donations as a way of counting visitors :)  Including donations by check, I am up to 1% of the way to my goal.  It is a little intimidating to imagine reaching all the way to $30,000.  I think the loftiness of the goal hit me when I read that Christopher Reeves' son is trying to raise $26,000 for his charity.  Of course on the other side of that is reading an article about a country singer who was given a $50,000 car as a birthday gift from his buddy.  I know.  It is all relative, it just makes one wonder.
I've been working out all these different possibilities for achieving the goal.  Only 300 people/businesses at $100 each; 600 people at $50 and so on.  Sometimes I really don't like focusing on this aspect of the whole thing and then I think, this is why I'm doing it in the first place.  I need to keep sight of the fact that I am trying to make a difference in the lives of people whose lives have been impacted by this terrible disease.  11 million people in the United States have been diagnosed.  Another 6 million people are believed to be living undiagnosed.  Diabetes kills through heart disease, stroke, and kidney disease.  20,00 cases of blindness result from diabetic retinopathy and 60% of all non-traumatic amputations are the result of diabetes.  Think about the impact on those lives.  I know I think about them a lot because of the possibilities that they will affect my wife, Molly.  My niece was diagnosed at a very young age - she is almost 8 now.  The results of her diabetes will be even greater because of the changes her body will experience as she grows.  It can be depressing, but I do believe what I can do and you can do does help.
I think about the daily hassles of finger pricks to check blood sugar (4 or more times a day), insulin injections (4 more sticks a day), or problems with insulin pump sites.  Even the hassle of where to put the insulin pump when dressing up is a  real pain.  Sometimes it is the little things that send folks over the top.
I've got no other way to say it, please help.  We can't all do big things, but we can all do a little.

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