Last night I became aware of a little boy named Jesse who passed away recently from complications of his type I diabetes.  I learned today about Jesse and that he and his family were ardent supports of type I research and political issues and that he passed away a few days before the tenth anniversary of his diagnosis.  I think we should all take a moment to reflect on this little boy, his struggle and the need to find a cure as soon as possible.  Never forget that even a diligent, well maintained diabetic is at constant, serious risk. What happened to Jesse is but one of the thousands of disastrous outcomes that people burdened with type I guard against every second of the day. 

 

Most days I’m all about being positive and hoping that the steps we take are the right ones, the ones that will let Arden live far into old age.  But today, in honor of Jesse, in honor of his struggle and his life that was taken much too soon, I am going to reflect on what can go wrong and use what comes from that reflection to help me stay focused on Arden’s care. I invite you to do the same. Jesse’s fate can and should be a lesson to all of us that cut corners with our health, don’t exercise as much as we should or eat right.

 

The effort that it took for this little boy to live is enormous, trust me I know. We could all pay tribute to him and every child like him by taking full advantage of our great luck, the luck that didn’t saddle us with his burden.  We can all put at least the effort forth to maintain our health that a child with type I does, if not for us then out of respect to them. 

 

Everyone here at Arden’s Day hopes that Jesse’s family finds peace in the wake of their tragedy.

 

The following is a quote from the blog Jesse and his parents kept about their lives with type I.

 

 

“Tonight as I write I am sad. A month ago tonight, my life was "right". Great job, great people, loving family. I had just had dinner with Jesse and had just snuggled in to watch Kindergarten Cop. We sent Joey off to bed and finished the movie. I shewed him off to bed because he had school in the morning.

 

The next day he was gone.”

 

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