DAYTON, Ohio — Between multiple daily insulin injections, fingerstick monitoring and a constant burden on every day life, for millions of people with diabetes, life can be difficult and a draining routine.

However, thanks to advancements in technology, people are able to have the quality of life they deserve.

Milli Jefferson has Type 2 diabetes.

These days, when she wants to have some popcorn, it’s no big deal.

“Right now, my blood sugar is 138. That’s in my norms,” she said as she checked her phone app.

She’s 64 years young, a grandma of six and wears an insulin delivery system called an "Omnipod" to keep her in check.

“Then I say ‘use sensor’ and it uses my sensor and then it calculates how much insulin to give me and I just hit confirm and it gives it,” Jefferson said.

It’s tubeless and automatically gives her what she needs.

“I can just punch it in, and we can have popcorn,” she said.

Jefferson’s daughter, Tiffanie Jones, has watched her mom devote her life’s work to nursing and the last 25 years to her diabetes management.

“It’s just hard. I wouldn’t have my meter with me or I wouldn’t have insulin and you had to keep the insulin with an ice pack, you had to have syringes,” Jefferson said.

Even with five injections a day and multiple finger sticks, her glucose levels were still too hard to control.

“Best question to ever the doctor I said, ‘which one would you choose for your mother?’ And she pointed to the Omnipod and I said that’s what I’ll try. So I started using the Omnipod in January of 2023, and the rest is history. My sugars are great,” Jefferson said.

Her A1C dropped from 8.4 to 5.6.

“The benefit of just knowing. It just knows. It’s not going to give me insulin when I’m low,” she said.

“To have this is nice, that she can feel well all the time and we only have those big highs and big lows occasionally,” Jones added.

Jefferson’s journey with her device has opened doors and taken her places.

Recently the makers of the device asked her to share her story.

Soon she found herself starring in a commercials and traveling to New York City to help ring the Nasdaq closing bell in honor of National Diabetes Awareness Month.

“I just assumed she’d be like ‘oh I’m so sorry but I’ll have stand over here.' I didn’t think she’d actually get up on the stage and do it. So it was really really neat,” Jones said.

Jefferson never thought she’d become such an advocate.

“My dad also didn’t take good care of himself and his blood sugars were horrible and in his 30s, he had his first heart attack and had open heart surgery,” she explained.

Knowing what diabetes can do and how she’s thriving now, makes a difference.

“They were about to amputate that second leg and then he passed. So I watched him struggle,” she said.

Jefferson is always open to sharing her story and loves showing how managing diabetes doesn’t have to feel so daunting.

“Oh we gotta bling it, I love blinging it,” she said as her daughter helped place a "Grinch" sticker around the Omnipod. 

Even in the thick of the holiday season, she can feel confident about her food choices and living her life.

“Absolutely changed my life and it’s mainly because I feel better. I don’t have the highs and lows. I’m not sleeping in the chair all the time. I have consistency,” she said.

Correction: This story has been edited to clarify a quote. (Dec. 3, 2024)