Monogenic Diabetes
In August 2003, Jackson was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 9 weeks. He required multiple insulin injections each day to control his diabetes. His treatment was going well, but we knew this lifestyle would be difficult for him as he got older. During one of our routine clinic visits to Dr. Latif, he provided us with some material to research regarding a study in England that looked at a specific gene mutation that had been discovered in only approx 30 people in the world. He felt Jackson fit the profile for this study since he was diagnosed at such a young age and we have no family history of Type 1 diabetes. We sent blood samples to London, England and Jackson tested positive for the mutation. We were told by the research team in England that Jackson was the first discovered diagnosis in the United States and the 35th in the world. A short time after this discovery, with the help of Dr. Latif and Children's Hospital, we transitioned Jackson off of insulin and onto oral medication. This transition took less than 1 week. He now has perfect and effortless control over his diabetes and hasn't had an insulin injection since the transition in Decemeber 2005. Jackson is now a very healthy 6 year old boy.
