The Closer story reveals that Ms. Tyler Moore has almost completely lost her sight and is struggling with what her friend Valerie Harper called in the story \u201cthe ravages of diabetes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her friend Betty White said, \u201c[Tyler Moore is now] almost beyond the point [of being able to see].” And in fact, Ms. Tyler Moore has not made public appearances, for the most part, for the past two years. Even her traditional appearance at JDRF\u2019s Children\u2019s Congress<\/a>\u00a0was cancelled last summer.<\/p>\n This has caused a stir in the diabetes community. \u00a0On Facebook, one mother of a child with diabetes said, \u201cWe need a cure for Type 1 diabetes. When someone who has advocated for those battling and living with this disease, someone who is well known and successful, isn’t immune to devastating affects, then you know a cure needs to be found. Best wishes to Mary for her health.\u201d<\/p>\n When I first met this dynamic team, I\u2019ll be honest: I was a bit nervous. It wasn\u2019t even so much that Ms. Tyler Moore was an icon. For me, the parent of a child with diabetes, it was the power the two brought as a team to diabetes advocacy, research and yes, progress.<\/p>\n One might even think of Ms. Tyler Moore as the most benevolent of leaders. She had to know that all her hard work might not positively impact her own future. Anyone with a knowledge of research\/advocacy knows these things take time, lots of time. And yet, through the decades, she never backed down. She used her icon power to land spots on shows like Larry King Live<\/a>\u00a0to speak honestly about her life with diabetes and the need for funding for better treatments and a cure. She showed up at JDRF events all the time; giving her time to motivate the team (while being swarmed by admirers). But carry on she did, as she would tell Congress often \u201cFor the kids. For the future.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I think it is important to not just feel sadness and frustration with the news of Ms. Tyler Moore\u2019s current state of health. We need to also take a moment to honor, cheer and celebrate all she has done for us.<\/p>\n Because the reality is this: Very much thanks to the decades of leadership advocacy by Ms. Tyler Moore and Dr. Levine, our loved ones most likely will not face a future similar to the one she is facing.<\/p>\n When Ms. Tyler Moore was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes some 40 years ago, there were no meters on the market. The idea of insurance covering something like test strips to help a person monitor their blood sugar over the course of a day was almost like science fiction. Insulin choices were limited; most people took one shot a day and hoped for the best, trying to balance with food choices and exercise while that insulin peaked and plunged in their bodies with little the person could do about it.<\/p>\n Pumps were the dreams of mechanical engineers and scientists. CGMS? Unheard of.<\/p>\n Back then; if diabetes messed with your extremities (like your eyes and your feet; usually the first to be impacted), doctors could do little more than suggest you try to take better care of your diabetes. Today, if and when there is any sign of even the possibility of such things, our medical teams know how to intervene (and have the tools to do so<\/a>) before any of it progresses to dire. \u00a0Should a person\u2019s eyes be impacted by diabetes (as Ms. Tyler Moore is experiencing), we now have treatments to offset long term damage<\/a>. Much of the research for those breakthroughs came under Ms. Tyler Moore\u2019s international leadership on the diabetes research front. I witnessed her husband pushing for more and more focus on funding breakthroughs for complications therapies many times.<\/p>\n While we have far to go with making insulin work even better in the body, we have a buffet of choices now, so medical teams and patients can custom-fit their insulin regime to their lifestyles, their needs and the way their bodies work. Researchers now are working on creating a \u201csmart insulin,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which would be administered once a day and then sit in the body, knowing when to release and when to hold back, based on the person\u2019s moment-to-moment needs. Even the idea of that didn\u2019t exist a few years back. And again, Ms. Tyler Moore\u2019s leadership helped raise the funds and support the experts working on it.<\/p>\n And while pumps can still be improved, now we have choices, models that do things like automatically shut off when blood sugars are dropping, look up the food you are eating, find the carb count and then do the math for your insulin bolus need at that moment without you even thinking much about it<\/em>, and they even come in cute colors for those who care about fashion while fighting diabetes. Pushing for better pump choices and smarter pumps is another thing Mary Tyler Moore did. She pushed Congress to fund the National Institute of Health for more studies and trials for the Artificial Pancreas Project<\/a>. While she did not wear a pump herself (she told Larry King once that her dancer\u2019s body was something she cherished, and she didn\u2019t want to impact those lines with a device. I remember thinking: more power to her. Life with diabetes is about personal choices), she understood deeply the need to push for better tools for all. And push she has.<\/p>\n Continuous glucose monitors might not be covered by insurance for almost all were it not for Mary Tyler Moore, who once again went before Congress to push for better FDA guidance for approval, and helped raise funds to work toward widespread approval of them. Today, people with diabetes can track their ups and downs nearly every minute of every day, thanks very much to Mary Tyler Moore.<\/p>\n![\"ary](\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Mary-Tyler-Moore-JDRF-Childrens-Congress1-300x276.jpeg\" "\\"Mary")
<\/a>I\u2019m lucky enough to know Ms. Tyler Moore and her amazing husband Dr. S. Robert Levine. Ms. Tyler Moore and I co-chaired JDRF\u2019s Children\u2019s Congress in 2005<\/a>, and her husband and I have worked together on more diabetes projects and committees than I could ever count. I\u2019ve witnessed first hand what Ms. Tyler Moore and Levine were doing for my dream of a cure for my child, and I\u2019ve long been humbled by it.<\/p>\n
![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Mary-Tyler-Moore-at-Song-Performance-CC-2007-.jpeg\" "\\"JDRF")
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