A Real Kindness

I am thrilled to be able to tell you that Arden will be receiving the remainder of her needed dental care soon and in the hospital under the care of an anesthesiologist.  Fantastic news!  

I want to thank everyone who tried so hard to help us with our recent insurance woes.  Our congressman’s office for contacting United Health Care on our behalf, Arden’s pediatrician for reaching out to people he knew in the industry, and the doctors who wrote letters begging UHC to help.  Sadly, none of these efforts ended up making the difference.

In the end United Health Care didn’t budge... Arden will be receiving the care she needs because Kelly’s employer stepped up in a huge way.  Her company, Novartis, agreed to pay for Arden’s care.  We are very grateful to Novartis and the people that work there for making such a kind and noble gesture!  

When Novartis found out about Arden’s situation they contacted UHC and told them that they would sign off on an exception for Arden’s procedure.  Then UHC called to say that they will be covering Arden’s needs 100%.  To be clear, UHC is only covering the procedure because they aren’t loosing a dime on it.  All they are doing is sending a bill to Novartis.  Novartis is the hero in this story!

This whole mess was quite an eye-opener for me.  In the past when I heard politicians talking about people going bankrupt paying for healthcare, I thought they were talking about someone else.  As it turns out we are all only one unfortunate moment away from being that person.   

I’m going to walk away from this experience having learned 

two very important lessons.  Healthcare is nothing to take for granted and being lucky enough to work for a company that cares is a Godsend.

Thank you once again to everyone that helped! 

Possible Cure Announced

JDRF Funded Research Shows Promise for Prevention, Reversal of Type 1 Diabetes

New York, NY, November 18, 2008 -- Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have reported that two common cancer drugs have been used to block and reverse type 1 diabetes in mice. The JDRF-funded study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., director of the Diabetes Center at UCSF and an expert in the field of autoimmunity.

"The findings suggest that kinase inhibitors -- successfully used in cancer -- may provide an important new therapeutic approach for treatment of new onset type 1 diabetes and potentially other autoimmune disorders," said JDRF Director of Immunology Teodora Staeva, Ph.D.

The drugs -- Imatinib and Sunitnib, sold as Gleevec and Sutent, respectively -- are used to treat cancer by blocking tyrosine kinases, an enzyme that modify cells' signaling proteins through a simple biochemical change.  Kinases trigger cell growth, and it is widely believed that tyrosine kinases are a contributing factor to autoimmune diseases and cancer.  The researchers hypothesized that tyrosine kinases may also serve as a trigger to the body's attack on the immune system.

The researchers at the University of California, San Francisco treated non-diabetic mice prone to developing diabetes with imatinib or sunitinib, and found that the drugs prevented the onset of diabetes past the seven-week treatment.  Mice that already developed diabetes were treated with the drugs and results concluded that after two months of treatment, 80 percent no longer had diabetes.

The science was conducted as part of the Immune Tolerance Network, partially funded by JDRF.

Ardens Numbers

A few months ago I wrote, “Maybe this is the year that the words "Arden's Day" cease being a call for help and begin being a standard for helping”.  Today I think we may be well on our way to that goal!

If you watched our 2008 walk video you know that Arden has raised over $24,000 in the last three years for the JDRF.  We couldn’t more thrilled or more grateful to you for your support.  

Because of you our message has been transported all over the world.  We receive well wishes and encouragement from England, Australia, the United States and beyond.  One day a wonderful woman named Brooke sent me an email.  Brooke works at the Alberta Diabetes Foundation.  She was putting together a new fundraising campaign when she saw Arden on the internet.  

Brooke, motivated by our video Six Month’s Worth of Used Needles began to design a mailer called Arden’s Numbers.  Meanwhile, I worked on a 30 second video that would compliment the mailer.  Month’s later, the ADF sent over 40,000 of these mailers to residents in and around Alberta, Canada.  The first group of donations came into their office last Friday... not even one week after they were mailed. 

That mailer, Arden’s Numbers, generated $23,000 in donations in less then a week, instantly making it the ADF’s most successful mail campaign.  Amazing!  To date, Arden’s Day has generated over $48,000 to help find a cure for type I diabetes. 

There is nothing for me to say but “thank you”!

Choose the links below to see the mailer.

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Today is World Diabetes Day

For many of you Arden may be the only child that you know that has type I diabetes but she’s not the only one.  Here are some facts about type I:

• Globally, there are close to 500,000 children under the age of 15 with type 1 diabetes. 

• Every day 200 children develop type 1 diabetes. 

• Every year, 70,000 children under the age of 15 develop type 1 diabetes. 

• Type 1 diabetes is increasing in children at a rate of 3% each year 

• Type 1 diabetes is increasing fastest in pre-school children, at rate of 5% per year. 

• Over half of children with diabetes develop complications within 15 years. 

Please take a moment to find out more

http://www.worlddiabetesday.org/

Not So United Health Care

Yesterday at 10 am Arden’s dentist began a procedure that normally starts with the child being put to sleep.  A procedure that because of Arden’s diabetes needed to be performed in a hospital.  But instead of a hospital we did it in the dentist office.  Instead of being asleep Arden was awake.  All because United Healthcare refused to cover an anesthesiologist and an outpatient visit.  

Arden (as you can see in the picture) was scared but she sat in the chair without incident.  She tried her best to be brave but she became upset when she received the injection in her jaw.  She pulled herself together as best she could but about 5 minutes into the work her fear got the best of her.  Later that night I told Arden that, “she was very brave today” and that, “she was toughest little girl I knew”.  Arden replied that, “I’m not tough - I couldn’t stop crying”.

Hopefully someone from United Health Care will read this next part... 

I began the procedure by holding Arden’s hand and rubbing her legs so she would know that I was right there.  After a few minutes I had to let go of her hand and take hold of her wrists to keep her still.  By the end I was laying across her legs, I had her arms pinned at her sides with my elbows and I was restraining her head with my hands.  All the while she screamed and begged to go home.  I hope sincerely that the few thousand dollars United saved yesterday makes that all worthwhile.

A side from the psychological trauma Arden endured yesterday her long-term health was also effected.  I began preparing Arden’s blood glucose the night before.  I sent her to bed with a little too much insulin so that she would wake up on the low side in the morning.  She woke up with a BG of 66.  I let her sip a tiny bit of juice to get her above 100 and  by 10am she was 120.  I withheld all of her insulin to avoid a dangerous low during the procedure.  

The stress of the dental work caused her blood glucose to rise to 220.  I gave her Levemir after the work was finished to try and hold it steady at 220 but I couldn’t risk trying to bring her level down because she was significantly distressed and unable to eat or drink.  By the time it was safe to begin the process of bringing Arden’s blood glucose down to a safe level she was 400.  I was finally able to get her corrected by 5:30 pm.  Arden spent the day feeling nausea, loosing minutes from the end of her life and frightened beyond description because United Health Care had a loophole at their disposal that let them ignore Arden’s basic needs.  A loophole that cost her in more then one horrible way.  United’s actions also provided me one of the worst days of my life as a parent - and if you read this blog, you know that says a lot.

The doctor was only able to repair the two worst teeth.  There are more but now we wait to see if our appeals reach a person at United whose conscious is stronger then their desire to effect the bottom line.  

I want to say that the dentist that did Arden’s work yesterday was fantastic, as was his entire staff.  I’m not sure if he wants his name on the blog so I’ll just say, thank you to Doctor G.  He bravely performed a procedure that for many reasons many doctors would have passed on, he did it because we couldn’t afford to do it another way.  If United Health Care had even 1% of his compassion for children this never would have happened.  They should be ashamed. 

There are many ways you can become an advocate for children with diabetes.  A great place to get started is here.

http://www.jdrf.org/index.cfm?page_id=100673

Read how it all ends here...