Kylie

From Tyler, Kylie’s father:

On 2/8/2016 our daughter Kylie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. In her junior year of high school, shortly after submitting a project for her high school’s robotics team, Kylie became ill. Her mom and I initially thought it was simply exhaustion from many hours working on the robotics project. Kylie became very weak, had trouble walking on her own, wasn’t thinking or speaking clearly and seemed to be in a state of daze. Luckily we were able to get Kylie into her pediatrician and after seeing her , she advised us to get her to the ER asap. At our local ER, upon arriving and seeing Kylie, a nurse, who happened to be the mother of a fellow robotics team member, asked us if Kylie was diabetic. Kylie was given insulin through a IV and quickly transported from our home hospital of Lake Regional to the University of Missouri Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. After many tests, a high blood glucose level of 900, 5-day induced coma, a staph infection and a 13 day hospital stay later (10 days in the ICU), Kylie came home to a new normal of multiple daily injections, eating schedule and supplies.

Hind sight being 20/20, Kylie told us she had been very thirsty and had leg cramps leading up to her becoming sick, but attributed the symptoms to long hours and late nights of studying and working with the robotics team. Needless to say to say, we were very unaware of anything diabetes related.

After about a year of 70/30 insulin and a scheduled eating plan, she moved to a basal-bolus regimen. Almost 10 years later, graduating from high school with honors, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln with honors, being in the workforce for several years and traveling often, Kylie is using a Dexcom G7 system with an Omnipod pump and nothing slows her down!

(Photo is of Jackson and Kylie, engaged to be married in September 2025)