About Tylor - Tylor's Team

Tylor is doing well. He turns 12 this April and is currently in the 6th grade. Tylor is an amaizing kid who doesn't let having diabetes get him down.

A few things about Tylor: He loves rodeos, swimming, and playing outside. He likes music, dinosaurs, transfomers, and he plays the clarinet and baseball. He's started middle school this year and although he was nervous at first, he's doing great, earning A's and B's. While at school, Tylor has taken on more responsibility this year in regards to his diabetes, by doing things like carrying his own supplies and checking his sugar and logging it himself at the nurses' office.

From Tylor's Mom:
Tylor is still just a kid and has a lot of responsibilities, and even more to come, especially as he gets older. We try not to let him having diabetes run his life. We try to fit diabetes into his life not fit his life around the disease, but it can be hard. Until you are the parent of a child with diabetes you will not and can not fully understand what it is like. Just as I will never fully understand what it is like for Tylor and the millions of other people with this terrible disease.

I just wish that I could take it all from him when he’s not feeling well from having a low or when he as to stop doing something to check his sugar, or has to sit and wait until his sugar level comes up, plus all the other stuff he has to go through. Tylor is the one who HAS to feel it and deal with it and the only thing my husband and I can do is be there for him and try to help him the best we can.
What we can do for Tylor is raise money and awareness about this disease so that a cure can be found soon or at least in his lifetime. We hope someday he will be able to know what it is like to just eat something and not have to do all the stuff that comes with having diabetes. Tylor shouldn’t have to worry about how it’s going to affect his blood sugar, his eyes, kidney, or other organs that could be damaged by this disease.
Please help us to help our son and all the other kids and people with diabetes. We can't make it all better for Tylor but we can make a difference by raising money each year to find a cure ... and so can you. Thank you.

In the begining- January 6, 2004, we got the news that our son, Tylor, has type 1 diabetes. It is a day we will never forget, yet still to this day sometimes have a hard time believing. Just to help you understand what it was like for Tylor and what we deal with everyday now. Imagine you're 5 year old asking, Mom am I going to die? Or both of you crying as you hold him tight while lying together in his hospital bed. Thank goodness we caught it early though and he didn't end up in a coma like a lot of people. There was so much to learn. We did a lot of reading and crying, I think we all did. We had to figure out a lot of things, like what would happen at school and what having diabetes really meant for his life. We learned a lot and are still learning. That was 6 years ago; we have come a long way.

Tylor & his diabetes- He runs and plays and forgets homework just like other kids. There are lots of other things that he does that are just part of his daily routine, even though I wish they weren't. Before he started using the insulin pump, he used to get 4-6 shots of insulin a day.
He is now on the Omni pod insulin pump. Even with the pump, Tylor still checks his blood sugar with a finger stick 7-10 times a day. Every three days we prefill with insulin a small all enclosed pump/pod that attaches to his belly or arms.

You can see the white port on Tylor's belly. That's where the hook up for his insulin pump, the Omni pod, is.

He wears his PDM (personal diabetes manager) on his pants like a cell phone. The PDM is where we input all of his info, carbs, blood sugars and everything. The PDM remotely tells the pod to insert its small cannula (catheter) under Tylor’s skin, as well as telling it when to deliver insulin. You can see the Omni pod on his belly in the photo above.

For the past 5 years we have attended a family diabetes camp. This summer will be the first year Tylor’s little brother, Kamden, will be going to family diabetes camp with us. He is so excited. Tylor will be staying for a week by himself again. He just loves camp and being with old friends and everyone who knows what life with diabetes is like. We all love it and have made some great friends who are going through exactly what we are. A lot of the staff have diabetes themselves. It is nice knowing that Tylor is in capable and knowledgeable hands.

Tylor at Diabetes Camp.

Unfortunately, Tylor doesn't ever get a break from diabetes. When his sugar goes low and he doesn’t feel good, he just has to deal with his belly hurting or being upset at not being able to participate in activities. Or when his sugar is running high Tylor doesn’t feel like checking to make sure he doesn’t have any ketones, but he knows it has to be done to make sure he stays well.

Find a cure: Even though I think Tylor does really well in dealing with his diabetes and the challenges that come with it, that doesn’t mean it’s just something he is able to live with so we shouldn’t worry about it and that it’s no big deal. There is and always will be in my mind, and probably Tylor’s once he is older, the worry of complications from this disease. Along with the worry of what will happen if his sugar goes too low, passing out, seizures, coma or worse.

Thank God in 6 years this has never happened but I feel that when and if it does happen I won’t be there and that scares me. When he’s older and maybe not taking as good of care of himself that, as his mom, I do, he might not stay on top of things and maybe let his sugars run too high and run the risk of going into a diabetic coma or worse.
We want a cure for diabetes. Plain and simple. More research needs to be done and money is needed to do that. So we try to raise money AND awareness by joining JDRF for their Walk to Cure Diabetes. Please donate all that you can, even if it’s only $5. I think that sometimes people think they can’t “just” donate $5 but every dollar counts.
As always, remember insulin is not a cure and until there is one Tylor’s Team will be charging towards it. We appreciate you taking the time to read this and are always grateful for your generous contributions. We thank you, from the bottom of our pancreas.