Jeniffer Mathews: Dawn Porter vividly remembers the day Caitlin was diagnosed with diabetes.
Dawn Porter: All you can think about is this precious child of yours and how you have to help them.
Jeniffer Mathews: Desperate, she scoured the internet for information.
Dawn Porter: Anything and everything that I thought might be an avenue to help her.
Jeniffer Mathews: She found Doctor Staley Brod and a study to see if alpha interferon can keep diabetes in its honeymoon phase.
Staley Brod: At the end of that honeymoon, the individual with the disease has lost the ability to make insulin and therefore needs to inject total replacement of insulin.
Jeniffer Mathews: Prolonging the honeymoon has numerous benefits.
Staley Brod: Some residual beta cell function is critical in avoiding a lot of the long-term complications of diabetes.
Jeniffer Mathews: For Caitlin, diabetes management has meant not only blood sugar checks but a daily drink, too. And while she doesn't know if it's the drug or a placebo, something seems to be working.
Caitlin Porter: I talked to friends, and they're using 40 to 60 units a day as their average amount of insulin, and I'm only using maybe 20, 19 or 20 units.
Jeniffer Mathews: And as for the honeymoon phase that usually lasts around four months. Caitlin is going on three years.
Dawn Porter: Maybe it is helping her, and maybe it will in turn help many others.
Jeniffer Mathews: This is Jeniffer Mathews reporting.
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