Being a kid with type 1 diabetes is a lot tougher than not having cake and ice cream whenever you want. Imagine not being able to spend the night at a friend’s house because an adult needs to monitor your glucose levels so that you won’t have major health complications. Imagine pricking your finger several times a day to check your blood sugar levels. Imagine wearing a pump and a glucose monitor all day every day. What you are imagining is a day in the life of seven-year-old Jillian Rater. The Council Bluffs, Iowa, native recently took a trip with other children from 50 states and 7 countries to rally congress into supporting research and funding to fight type 1 diabetes. About 3 million Americans are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which means the body doesn’t produce insulin, and it affects 3 million Americans and about 215,000 kids, according to the American Diabetes Association. As you may recall, the pancreas makes insulin, which regulates one’s blood sugar. If the ol’ panky’s not working, then insulin must be monitored and injected to keep blood sugar from getting too high or too low. That’s Jillian there with Crystal Bowersox, an American Idol finalist who also has type 1 diabetes, and Representative Steve King of Iowa. We love that Jillian included her favorite pancreas pal, named “Panky,” in her photos. We’re rooting for you, Jillian, and the hundreds of thousands of gutsy kids who are our heroes every day. Let’s hope the gut-wrenching tales from all these cute kids testifying at the Capitol will help sweeten the deal for projects in the works such as the artificial pancreas.
Archive for the ‘People With Guts’ Category
Sweet as Sugar
Posted: Wednesday, July 6th, 2011Brain Flavor
Posted: Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Ever trust your gut more than your brain? Turns out following your gut feelings might still actually be following what your brain tells you, albeit a different part of your brain. Dr. Virginia Utermohlen, who runs the Taste Science Laboratory at Cornell, studies the way flavor and smell receptors in the tongue interact with the brain, and even how they influence our food choices, decisions and even our personalities. Logical reasoning is handled by the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex, while our gut instincts are formed by the orbito-frontal cortex, all inside the brain. Interestingly, the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex gets no input from the body on matters of smell and taste, while the orbito-frontal cortex does. {via my new favorite book, Cooking For Geeks}
Hearts in the Right Place
Posted: Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Washington DC’s cherry blossom festival April 9 was epic in many ways, we had an impossibly great time meeting peeps and selling guts in the nation’s capitol! Lucky for me, my husband, Codi, was able to join me at the booth while my mom watched my 3.5-year-old son and my nearly-80-year-old dad took care of the baby — it was truly a family affair. We had a ball, people came out in droves despite mediocre weather and a possible government shutdown. We enjoyed watching people giggle over our “I’m a Liver Not a Fighter” shirts, thymus pins, plushie spleens and other silly goofy stuff. The street festival was also able to raise thousands for Japan tsunami relief, if you have still not donated, we have heard the Japanese Red Cross Society has been on the ground helping people since the earthquake struck, learn more about what the Japanese Red Cross is doing to help. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi at our first east coast show! Next up: Bust Craftacular in NYC May 21st, hope to see you in Manhattan.
Wonder in Our Hearts
Posted: Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Despite a handful of Charlie Brown moments, we had a delightful time at Wondercon in San Francisco, thanks to a little help from my friends. Special thanks to Aimee, Russ, Nancy, Katie, Tiffany and Robyn for jumping in to help me with booth and baby at the show. We got to meet tons of great people, including organ-loving chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto/Boccalone fame, he presented us with I <3 Offal stickers and told us all about the organ meat you can’t eat (apparently you cannot legally consume lungs and mammary glands because they cannot be properly inspected by the FDA). Author Michael Chabon stopped by the guts booth with his family, zombie expert and “World War Z” author Max Brooks gave our guts a shout-out from his panel, and Princess Leia liked our lungs. As usual, we heard inspiring tales from people — one woman who bought a plush ovary was going to get her tubes un-tied following the passing of one of her children (we wish you all the luck in the world, nice lady!). Another lady bought a Liver Not a Fighter shirt for her four year old son who’d had a liver transplant when he was just two years old (and he’s still going strong!). Wrenching and incredible. We have to apologize once more to Judith and Ashley, to whom we promised Wondercon passes after they won our Facebook contest encouraging people to share weird body part stories. We usually get 10 passes, but they cut that number down to 4 this year, so those passes evaporated on the spot and we still feel horrible about it! So sorry ladies, will you ever forgive us?
Our Daily Meds
Posted: Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Check out the daily doses of meds by a bunch of different post-op transplant recipients, who must take pills by the bucketload to keep their bodies from rejecting the donor organs. This here is Jaden with the medications he must take daily for the rest of this life (he had a liver transplant six months ago). Other absolutely fascinating photos posted on The Waiting List’s Facebook page.
Lovely Lungs
Posted: Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
My dear friend Shelayna has a great fashion blog, One Closet, One Year, where she has been wearing a new outfit every day for the past year based on only what she can find in her closet, i.e. no shopping! It is a testament to her creativity that she can make our Iron Lung shirt look like haute fashion.
In and Out
Posted: Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
My pal Marcus got up close and personal with intestines at the Grossology exhibition at the Saint Louis Science Center in Missouri. Here he is emerging from the rectum onto a vinyl poo pillow! Awesome!
More Than M*A*S*H
Posted: Monday, October 18th, 2010
Being an army medic must be like working in an emergency room on steroids. The chaotic lives of medics working in Iraq are brought into sharp relief by the photographs of James Natchwey, who began chronicling injuries from the war after he was injured there in 2003. This truly remarkable series of black and white pictures, called The Sacrifice, is on view at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles as part of an exhibit of incredible documentary photography called Engaged Observers. Natchwey’s photographs are striking in that they are gorgeous and utterly disturbing all at once. Shown together, they paint a devastating portrait of modern war injuries and the men and women who help heal them.
License to Ill
Posted: Thursday, October 14th, 2010
We had no idea that Beastie Boys’ member Adam Yauch aka MCA had parotid gland cancer, but we sure are glad to hear the news that his salivary glands are winning the battle against the disease. The cancer had spread to his lymph nodes, a scary progression for any cancer, but is in remission. {Consequence of Sound via Spinner.com}
Ovarian Psychos
Posted: Monday, October 11th, 2010
How badly do I want to ride with the Ovarian Cycles/Ovarian Psychos crew? Pretty badly, as it turns out. This women’s only bicycle ride in Los Angeles sounds like the place to be for any menstrual cycler. They wheel out first and third Fridays at Corazon Del Pueblo at 2003 East 1st Street. {LA Eastside via LA Weekly}
