Raising Ryker: Type 1 Strong

06/17/2026

What an awesome volunteer opportunity tonight! I moved mulch to fill the garden and when we were done, Miss Maria told me all about onions, tomatoes, and peas growing in the garden. I am looking forward to helping some more and learning more about the vegetables. Thank you Miss Maria!

06/15/2026

06/15/2026

Guess what? Tshirts are in!! My first batch is for 31 t-shirts. I am soo excited! We started delivering them today. The first delivery was to Uncle Bill at the VA. I brought him a shirt and he surprised me with a donation. 💕 Thank you Uncle Bill!!! We came back home, Mama helped Zadie fix Bubbie’s car. Then we got back on the shirt orders. We have everything sorted out and have started contacting everyone for deliveries. Don’t forget to wear your shirts and take pictures! I’d love to see them out and about. Oh, and Mama snuck in a few extra t-shirts, because who doesn’t love a diabetic humor shirt with me on it??

We have already started taking orders for round 2. Get your orders in.

Thank you for everyone’s support.

Thank you Jamie and Stephanie! The shirts are amazing!!!

06/11/2026

Today, I got a treat for dinner. Mama went to drink her soda and knew immediately it was not a diet soda. She grab the diet detector strips and put it in my drink - lo and behold, it was not a diet soda! I’m so thankful Mama caught this before I drank it and we were battling another night of unknown highs.

I spent the evening reading and am off to sleep so I can get some rest. 🥱

Oh, on another note - the first order of shirts were placed! They should be in soon and we will be getting them distributed. Thank you so much for supporting me and my diabetic alert dog. We sold 28 shirts total. Mama and I made a goal of 50, so we are hoping to get another order placed soon. If you didn’t get a shirt ordered for this first batch, let us know. I would love to see my support network, as I know so many of you are following my journey and have been helping my Mama and I in all different ways.

06/10/2026

This week has been hard on me. It is 1:30am, and I am still attempting to sleep. Mama is taking care of me for the third night in a row.

15 recalled insulin pumps… 3 additional failed pumps (so far)…

A routine pump change, which we do every 2-3 nights. Followed by two failed pumps from the same box. No insulin was being delivered. The canulas were not opened at the end, so no insulin was being delivered to me and I need insulin to live. Finally, a pump that partially seemed to work. I ran a little high, but was at least getting insulin again. I continued to have insulin on board, but never made it to a point where I had 0 insulin on board. Something still didn’t seem right. Finally I stayed level around my target for a few hours. I ate dinner, went to bed and we were once again woken by alarms. I wasn’t getting insulin again. Another failed pump from a different box.

People don’t see the behind the scenes struggles - the all night watching numbers, drinking water, exercising, changing pumps, beeping every 5 minutes… these times all because of issues with technology. It didn’t have anything to do with what I ate, exercising, swimming, or anything that was within my control. Diabetes is not something that can be dealt with later - it requires immediate attention when something goes wrong.

Hoping this new pump lets me continue to sleep and go back in range at a steady glucose.

06/06/2026

This week was so much fun at the diabetes camp ADA New Horizons. They had 20 kids that were all T1D, so it was a part of our lives and we did so much stuff: climbing a huge rock wall, building a bridge, water activities, archery, sling slots, STEM activities, and so much more. My favorite activity was climbing the rock wall. I also beat a camp record for building a bridge! It held 77 pennies. I wish more diabetes camps were available that are day camps or shorter overnight stays.

05/31/2026

Thank you for your support!!!!

05/26/2026

Hi everyone! Well it is time to kick off a fundraiser. As you know, we are saving for a diabetic alert dog. So, let’s kick this off and start with T-shirts! Let’s see how many t-shirts we can sell. I can’t wait to see everyone post a picture in them while supporting my journey! Take a picture in your shirt: make it crazy, make it fun, make it daring, take a picture in it on vacation and let’s see how far we go around the world! For those of you in Wylie: AHMO! Let’s do this!!!

T-shirt prices are as follows:
Infant/Toddler Sizes: $20
Youth Small - Adult XL: $20
2XL or Larger: $25

Payments can be accepted via Venmo, Zelle, or cash

They will be created in batches, so please be patient as we gather orders.

Thank you so much for your support and following my journey to getting a diabetic alert dog. I appreciate you more than you know! Help spread the word.

05/19/2026

London is a fellow type 1. I follow her on Facebook and this post has scared me senseless! Mama explained that this is a possibility and it is my reality also. Sensors fails. Technology fails. Missed alerts with a dog can happen. But with technology, an alert dog (not soon enough), and a Mama, hopefully we can continue to catch my lows. Please pray for my friend London and her family!

My hands are still shaking as I write this and it was the most terrifying night of my entire life. Last night at 1:30 am London had a seizure due to low blood sugar. I heard her low alarm going off and I had treated the low twice and went to sleep once I knew she was safe. A little while later I woke up to her screaming in her sleep. When I checked on her I couldn’t wake her up and she was shaking and screaming and was combative. We grabbed the test kit and tried to give her fast acting sugar but she wasn’t able to swallow. Finger prick showed “lo” on our meter so I grabbed the G-Voke immediately and gave it to her while my husband called 911. I think that was the longest 2 minutes of my life while we waited for the glucagon to save her life. She stopped seizing and started to wake up and then the paramedics arrived. Her blood sugar was up to 74 within 5 minutes but she was still very out of it and confused. After being assessed we decided not to go to the hospital because she was stable enough and we know what to do in this situation.

So how did this happen?! We are not new to T1D after 10 years but this is the first time we have used glucagon and her first seizure due to low blood sugar. I know we did nothing wrong or negligent and yet my this still happened. We are on a work trip/mini vacation and London swam all day at the pool. At dinner she had more carbs and insulin than she usually does and Dexcom randomly had a sensor error. When I tested she was higher than normal so I dosed her and she finished dinner. Dexcom came back on and I tested and it was accurate. There was no mistake, no warning, nothing unusual. Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t play nice or care if you do everything perfect. Maybe it was the prolonged activity from swimming all day combined with the correction and the Dexcom sensor error. The thing is that we did everything right. We are on top of it and I feel guilty and upset that this happened. I know it wasn’t anyone’s fault but it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

London is ok. She’s tired and the glucagon made her feel very nauseous and she threw up. Then she asked if the firemen were cute so I knew she was ok lol.
My husband and I are shaken up. Watching your child have a seizure due to low blood sugar is something that will stick with you. London’s older brother helped us when she was having the seizure too and he definitely felt how serious this was. It was traumatic watching her go through this and feeling so helpless.

Sharing this because it’s real and raw and a great reminder to always always always have your glucagon with you. You never know when you might need it and using glucagon doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. This disease is relentless and terrifying.