Opening New Doors...

In case you haven't heard, Animas (Johnson & Johnson based company) and the JDRF are teaming up to bring new, exciting, innovative technology to the treatment of diabetes!

You can follow this link to read more about this new development:

www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=2458B97B-1279-CFD5-A70D0580F67A16A9

You may have heard medical professionals refer to the "artifical pancreas" before, and this is exactly what this project entails. It would be the closest attempt at automating the way we can control a diabetic's blood sugars. Even though it might take up to 4 years of testing before the first model is released, this is still very promising. Although the "first generation" model will not be fully automated as of yet it sets the precedence for the further developments of what will hopefully be full automation in the future. At first, until further advancements are made the device will still have to be instructed manually to deliver meal-time boluses. But with this new technology, real-time adjustments would be made with the amount of insulin to be released from a device much like an insulin pump based on the continuous monitoring of the blood sugar. Most importantly, it would stop releasing insulin when the sugar became too low and adjust when it became too high all on its own. This could really help us out with those pesky 2 am finger pricks and worrying about nighttime hypoglycemia (lows). Do you realize this could possibly free our children!? It could potentially release them from over 2,000 shots and over 3,000 finger pricks per year!

I know this is just the beginning, but it still makes me very excited! I hope years from now I will still be blogging, and my post can be titled "It's all behind us!" While I pray for a cure, I also pray for new innovations that can make it easier on my child. And, this is great news!