Cure-O-Matic

The headlines are hurling out of what seem to be a Dr. Seuss like machine. 

 

 

Words like "5-10 years" are being used systematically as if popping tic tacs into ones mouth.

Hope is being inflated like California gas prices.

And still, I sit here at my computer disappointed.

After 15 years of this I am a realist.  But you can't take away that part of me that instinctively hopes.

Hopers gotta hope, right?

Last week I attended a JDRF event and was given the news about Viasyte.  The woman I spoke to was beyond excited about the technology and explained that JDRF doesn't give millions of dollars to just anyone...they believe in this!  Very simply put, it is a packet put under the skin that would secrete insulin and that insulin would be protected from the immune system attack. 

So I say, "OK...I'll take 3.  And can I get a discount if I do the under the skin surgery myself?  I'm mean...I'm practically a doctor...I could totally do that."

Then she says, "And it will be available to the public in 5 to 10 years!"

And then my brain says, "DONG!  Did she really just say that to me?  She works for JDRF, please don't tell me she used the phrase '5 to 10 years.'  Please tell me she knows better than that."

But she kept insisting on the time line, and I kept covering my ears, "Lalalalalalala!"  I'm glad JDRF is sold on it...but don't tell me you've got something amazing until it's available to me...like "today" available to me. 

Seriously.  Don't.

And then yesterday, (oh, poor yesterday!) there was much hype about an announcement that would announce an advancement that would, more than anything, be a game changer.  (Which I get is a very poorly written sentence, but really...there was an announcement pre-announcing an announcement.)

The announcement stated that DRI (The Diabetes Research Institute,) had a breakthrough that "would change our life as we know it."  Real advances towards the cure we've been waiting for.

Last night when the site went live at midnight with the breaking news, I eagerly clicked over and watched this video:

And then I scanned down and saw this:

 

Really?  If you haven't figured out how to get this stuff working without anti rejection drugs...then you have no business touting this as THE advancement we've all been waiting for.

Now listen, lest you think I'm completely negative about all of this: Don't.

I am excited.  I'm excited to think that one day we won't have to count carbs, and bolus for meals.  I'll get in line for this BioHub thing.  That would be a dream come true for sure.  I'm all in.

But It's not changing our life as we know it today.  Or even next year.  Or even in 5 or 10 years.  So call me back when it is tomorrow. 

Or next week.  I'm flexible like that.

 

Look at the Omnipod debacle. They have been promising smaller pods for ages now, and people are seriously sweating bullets waiting for those suckers to come out. (And we are talking just months here, not years.) I hear it will be April now.  I pray for the podders sanity, it is so.

I don't care who we are...whether we say we believe there will never be a cure, or we are wide eyed looking at every advancement as THE answer to all our problems...either way, deep down...we have that small seed of hope. 

Watering that seed prematurely is just cruel.  It will grow and blossom before it's time...and then when it bears no fruit it will die, a slow painful death again and again until one day we won't believe anymore.

I truly believe that DRI is onto something big.  But don't puff it up and get families, and heaven help us, CHILDREN!? excited.  They need money to fund all of this, I get it.  I understand why it needed to be made into a big deal...I just think it could have been done more gently.  Like maybe, "We think we are on to something awesome, help us raise money for it!"  Not, "This is what we've been waiting for all our lives.  IT IS HERE!  IT IS HERE!  IT IS HERE!"

We are a fragile bunch, the DOC.  Sure we have strong cores, but our hearts bruise easily.

I hope that those with big things on the horizon handle us with a little more care in the future.  I've been in this game long enough not to get "too" excited about things.  But my heart aches for the newbies.  They are just beginning to strengthen their core.

Let's not break them before they have time to muscle up.