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Avery Klima's Journey: Navigating Type One Diabetes and Community Support · The Scene Projects

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  Out tonight.
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  We are so grateful.
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  It's it's not like a surface level thank you.
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  It's a it's a thank you from the bottom of our heart.
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  So Avery was you wanna say thank you?
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  So Avery was diagnosed type one diabetes just about three months ago.
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  And we didn't know she was sick.
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  It happened to be where she had got her two year old vaccines.
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  And after that, she was very sickly.
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  She was lethargic.
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  She wouldn't walk.
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  She wouldn't talk.
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  All she wanted to do is just sleep on the couch.
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  And it took three doctors to finally diagnose her type one diabetic.
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  Can you hold her?
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  Thank you.
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  So when we heard that she was type one, we didn't know anything about it.
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  In fact, when the doctors came in and told me, my first response was, oh my gosh, is she
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  eating too much sugar?
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  And that is such a common misconception.
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  But what it means to type one versus type two is type one, she was born with a pancreas that
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  just does not function.
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  So when she was born, basically, was born with a dead pancreas, a dead organ.
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  So it doesn't make insulin.
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  And so when she was first fresh out of the hospital, we spent four days in the intensive
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  care unit.
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  She was hours away from a diabetic coma.
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  And fresh out of the hospital, we learned that if she has any more than three carbs ever, she
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  needs insulin.
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  So her day today was eight to 10 manual shots of insulin.
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  And that's painful for anyone.
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  I'm sure adults don't like shots.
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  Imagine doing that to a two year old, eights ten times a day.
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  And so we were lucky enough to get her on the pump now.
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  So it's all manual, and we don't have to check her blood sugar around the clock because we can
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  just look at a phone, and that is such a blessing.
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  But that pump was $9,000 That's crazy.
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  But what price do you pay to keep your daughter alive?
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  Right?
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  Oh, she loves she loves the spotlight.
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  She is enjoying this a whole lot, ain't she?
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  This is all for you, sweetheart.
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  That's right.
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  Shake your booty.
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  So since being diagnosed, as you can see, she's she's so much better.
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  The insulin helps her to be a better a better baby.
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  And she's happier, and she's playful, and she takes it all in stride.
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  Her her medical care is 247.
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  Yeah.
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  Can you say thank you?
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  Nope.
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  Her medical care is 247 and so what what we hope to accomplish tonight is not only to help
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  Avery but to help other families in the Black Hills who have kids going through this disease.
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  We just granted a family a $400 check right before Christmas to help with Christmas.
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  They have two girls under the age of six with type one diabetes.
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  So their medical bills are double what ours are, and I I can't imagine how they get through
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  life.
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  And our our number one goal is to one day raise enough awareness and raise enough money to
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  where we can have a storage shed full of medical supplies that we can provide to people
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  for free.
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  Because you should never put a price tag on your baby's health.
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  And, so that's that's why we do what we do.
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  I I can't thank you enough and the sponsors enough for you guys coming out.
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  He came out from Sioux Falls.
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  So thank you so much guys, everybody that's here, everybody that's participating.
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  A million thank yous.
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  You wanna say something?
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  I don't have a lot to say, but you know, our family was perfect, I thought, and everything
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  was perfect.
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  And then you just never know when something like this is gonna happen.
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  We had really high deductible insurance because we thought, well, she's two.
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  She's healthy.
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  She's why why get pay all that money for insurance?
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  And then boom, two years old, the Haley was telling you about the doctors.
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  You know, we went into the first doctor because she was peeing a lot.
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  Big thing, people need to pay attention to the symptoms of type one diabetes.
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  She was peeing and peeing and drinking and drinking and peeing.
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  And we went into the first doctor and they said, well, stop giving her so much to drink.
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  And I said, well, when we do that, she starts crying and crying.
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  And they said, well, just let her cry it out and send us home.
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  And
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  and what you guys were already helping families.
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  You already had a foundation.
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  Already doing a lot of those things.
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  So I'm sure as Just like that.
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  Yeah.
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  So as you're going through all of this, I'm sure that your mind immediately went beyond
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  yourself and went, oh my god, all of these how many more families are there out there that are
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  dealing with all of these same struggles that we're dealing with, you know?
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  And it's not just the $9,000 pump.
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  It's all the extra medical supplies and things that, you know, you've mentioned to me that,
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  you know, sometimes because of human error, right, somebody forgets to order this or that,
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  and now you're going without or you're scrambling to find these supplies.
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  Those are the kind of things that we're trying to purchase and that, you know, filling the
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  storage shed with those machines so that nobody's ever having to scramble to try and
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  find the things that they need every day.
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  You're discovering more and more about the disease and about, you know, what it takes to
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  and what's necessary on a day to day basis.
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  We
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  were in a position where her doctors literally forgot to order her medical supplies.
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  She found that switch.
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  Hello?
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  So they forgot to order her medical supplies, and they were just like, you know, we dropped
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  the ball.
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  Like, sorry.
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  And it was an injection port, so instead of the needle going directly into her skin, it would
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  go into, like, a tube in her arm.
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  It took the pain away.
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  And they didn't order that.
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  Do you wanna hold her for a second?
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  Thank you.
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  They so they didn't order that.
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  And I mean, should have and they didn't and they're like, you know, sorry.
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  Sorry.
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  We dropped the ball.
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  So we had to get on Facebook and beg strangers and be like, does anybody have a type one
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  diabetic injection port?
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  And by the grace of God, we found one.
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  We found a guy who his daughter has had diabetes since she was 15 old.
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  And he was like, take them.
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  Take them.
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  We don't need them.
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  She's 18.
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  She just went off to college.
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  Like, you know, we're like, what do we owe you?
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  These are expensive.
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  And he's like, no.
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  You don't owe me anything.
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  And that's when we thought, you know what?
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  We wanna do this for other families in our position too.
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  We want to help more kids beyond Avery.
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  So this is much bigger than this.
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  Can we get a round of applause for Hailey and Avery, our star of the show.
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  Ryan's up here too.
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  The cleanup family.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Really?
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  So Gordie Pratt, our good friend, and he would have been here if not for being type one
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  diabetic as well and dying from the disease as So it affects us all.
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  It affects all of us here.
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  I'm sure if you go through your family and you go through your friends' contact list, you have
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  people in your close circle that are affected by this disease.
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  I didn't know a lot about it until kind of meeting Haley and starting to, put this whole
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  thing together.
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  But realizing how many people in our community are dealing with the same exact thing that
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  Haley and Ryan and Avery are going to go through.
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  This is her whole life now, right?
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  From two years old on, she's always going to have this disease that follows her, right?
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  So we want to bring, first of all, awareness, Just even a small room of people, look at all
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  these beautiful faces out here, Telling you all about this disease and what you can do, and
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  then being that light, that beacon, that people who are either suffering through this or want
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  to help, we are figuring out how we can help our community, right?
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  So we wanna just be to to be that light and to build that community around these families.
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  So thank you all so much for being here.
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  Thank you, Haley, for coming up and explaining what I couldn't.
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  Make sure you're checking out the silent auction.
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  We have a cash donation tip jar up here.
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  This is all for Avery and the family.
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  And and for all the good that we're gonna do past this, guys.
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  This is just the beginning, and, we hope to make this a lifelong pursuit of helping other
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  families.
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  So, once again, give a big hand for Avery and Haley and Ryan.