DOGABETICS -Saving Lives-

Testimonials

Lisa Kelly

Follow-up: A few months later…

I wanted in writing to tell you again how much I appreciate all you have done for Liam and my entire family. You have been a blessing in our life and have continually used your gift of not only animal intelligence, but also caring for others. You are truly a faith filled man, who walks the walk.

Liam’s last check up with the endocrinologist was great and showed that Max has definitely benefited Liam’s health and diabetes control. In diabetes, the gold standard to check on your control is a test called the hemoglobin A1c.

Basically, this test measures what your average blood glucose level (bg) has been for the last few months. There’s some debate as to how far back in time it goes, but it’s about 2 or 3 months, with a bit more emphasis on the most recent month.

In you blood is something called a hemoglobin molecule it contains iron and carries oxygen around the body, delivering it to cells. The molecule is made in your bones, in the bone marrow, and lives for about 3 months. When it dies it is cleared from the blood stream by your spleen (a funny little organ which lives in the lower left rib cage). During it’s life, glucose molecules one by one "stick" to the hemoglobin molecules. The more glucose that’s in the bloodstream, the more sticks to the hemoglobin. If you remove the hemoglobin from the blood, and measure how much glucose is stuck to it, you can find out roughly how much glucose has been in the blood during the life of the molecule. In other words, an average for the last 2 or 3 months, but the most recent month has a stronger effect on the result than the other 2 months.

Liam’s last A1c was 6.3 which has gone down from 6.8 in the last 2.5 months. This is an awesome result given that control is hardest during adolescence and also given Liam’s ADD. A typical normal range for A1c is 4.3%-5.9%. For a diabetic (type 1) anything under 7% is considered excellent. In fact, the doctor said that he had no one else in his practice , of Liam’s age that had such great numbers…thank you Ron and Max ! Every test that we get like that is saying we are preserving his kidney function, eye and nerve health…giving him every possibility of having as healthy and normal a future as possible. I know that having Max has been so helpful for Liam, he hasn’t good awareness of his lows. This past week after football camp, some days Max was alerting 4-5 times, really surprising Liam because he thought he was fine, but the dog knew differently ! WE can’t thank you enough ,you and Max have literally saved Liam’s life and allowed him to feel he can participate in sports or anything he wants because Max will alert and give him that extra security if his blood sugars are out of range. We have had Max now for almost 5 months and it has been lots of work, but the benefits have been tremendous, it has been the best decision we could have made for Liam- so thanks for your expertise, patience and humor in making this happen for us.

Lisa Kelly
Gig Harbor, WA

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