Before we left the hospital after Arden’s diagnosis the doctor told us that she expected type I to be cured in lab mice within a few years. That breakthrough, she said, would lead researchers to find a way to cure people with type 1 diabetes.
Every person that I’ve ever met who has type I has a similar story about doctors giving them sincere hope for a cure...
I'm not so sure the hope was ever sincere for me. Or maybe I'm just too cynical today, to the point where I cannot ever remember being sincere?
In any event I'm very glad that rather than just wait for the cure around the corner, instead I've been working hard to take care of my T1 diabetes for 31 years.
Actually, T1 can be cured in lab mice already. It's just that human pancreases are not as simple as mouse pancreases. And yeah... I got the same story when Eric was Dx'd. His endocrinologist, a very smart man, put the time frame at 10 years, 4 years of which have now passed. I have heard enough to know that there are amazing breakthroughs being made, but (and this is not cynicism, it's realism) I also know that there is no financial incentive on the part of the businesses who have the deep pockets to search for a cure. There is a story (which I'm unable to verify) that Denise Faustman of Harvard, the researcher who is working on restoring beta cell functionality using a vaccine originally developed for TB, brought her highly promising results to each of the major pharmaceutical companies in a quest for funding, and was told bluntly that they had no interest in it as it would not be profitable long term. And, from a business perspective, I can see the point. From a human perspective, it's atrocious.
Even if they found the cure tomorrow, there would be 5 years of testing to do before it could be approved for use in humans, and another 5 years of data collection before it could be approved in children. Eric will be an adult by the time it's available for kids his age. So I'm not holding my breath. Just trying to get through each day's challenges is enough.