Hi, my name is Nicole and I have Type 1 Diabetes. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on February 2, 2001, when I was 7 years old. I was losing weight, thirsty all the time, and not sleeping well, so my parents checked my blood sugar and it was so high it would not even read on the meter. They took me straight to the doctor's office and from there the doctor sent me straight to the hospital. When they checked me in the hospital my blood sugar was 803, can you believe that Eight Hundred and Three. That is really bad considering the normal should be between 70 and 120. I was very scared, I had never been to the hospital since the day I was born. They put me on something called an IV and started giving me insulin shots. Thank goodness they got my blood sugar down and I was able to go home after a couple of days.

Shots, shots, shots. Finger pokes, finger pokes. Well, that's my life every since I was diagnosed with Diabetes. I have to take between 3 and 5 shots per day and poke my finger to check my blood 5 to 8 times a day. That means in February 2006 I will have given my self approximately 7,310 shots and poked my finger approximately 11,863 times and I'll only be 12 years old. Lets see, that means by the time I'm 18 it will be around 16,060 shots and about 26,097 finger pokes. Oh yeah, and by the time I'm 30 it would be something like 33,280 shots and 54,567 finger pokes. You can just imagine what kind of pin cushion I'll be by the time I get to be 60 years old, about 77,380 shots and around 125,742 finger pokes.

That's why we work hard all year long to raise money to help find a cure. Please help us find a cure for diabetes by making a donation to the American Diabetes Association on our behalf or in honor or memory of someone else you know with Diabetes.