Not Yet

After 3 years of participating in the JDRF Walk for the Cure, I would have thought that I would be prepared for the question that Micheala asks Heather and I on the Sunday following the walk.

"Is there a cure for diabetes now?"

Not yet.

She doesn't seem to react too much to our answer, but I know it has to disappoint her, because it disappoints me.

She is too young to understand the process. A big walk turnout and lots of money raised, doesn't equal a cure on Sunday. I don't even try to explain this to her, because she can't quite put it together yet.

But I am old enough to understand.

So I question. How many Sundays after the JDRF walk am I going to answer Micheala's question with "Not Yet"?

For me, it's not about being a hero and telling my daughter that there is a cure. don't get me wrong, I dream of that day. It's more about not being able to answer the question with something other than "Not Yet". This is what motivates me. Someday being able to turn that "Not Yet" into a "Why Not".

When we started Pump Princess, I asked the question, "What About Now?" I get frustrated when I think about all of the advancements that this world has made in creating things to kill people, but yet this world lacks in advancements to save people. I am aware that the following statement is more complicated than the simplistic way that it was stated. But really....we have developed nuclear weapons that can wipe out entire cities, but haven't developed a way to save one diabetic child.

So what can little old Mike Schrock, from Urbana, Iowa do about this?

I choose to eliminate funding as an excuse for not having a cure. That's all I can do. I don't possess a medical degree, nor do I have the capacity to even formulate a good idea for a cure. So I choose to fund those that do. I choose to fund the great minds that can develop a cure.

I guess that I am just disgusted at the fact that I am sitting up tonight, monitoring Micheala as she sleeps because her bedtime blood sugar was 314. I will be checking her throughout the night until we get her blod sugars back to a normal level because I don't want her to start her day off tomorrow fighting high blood sugars. She is embarrassed at the fact that she has to wear a pull-up to bed on these nights, in fear that she will wet the bed.

I know one thing for sure, I will not quit until we have a cure.

With all of the money that was raised on Saturday, I was motivated to start raising money that following Sunday for 2013. Diabetes doesn't take a day off for Micheala...why should I.