Christian author, Bible teacher and hip-hop artist Jackie Hill Perry has revealed she was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes following a health scare that began during a ministry trip to Australia.
The 36-year-old wife and mother of four shared the news in a series of Instagram posts this week, telling followers that she first noticed symptoms in August while teaching at a conference in Sydney.
She said her vision suddenly became blurry, accompanied by severe dehydration, lethargy and what she described as feeling like "an all around hot mess."
"At some level, I figured it was jet lag," she wrote, adding she first attributed the changes in her eyesight and energy to the demands of international travel.
After returning home, Perry said her eye doctor recommended she check her blood sugar. A home test showed a glucose reading of 424, she said, prompting her mother to tell her she needed to go to the hospital. At the emergency room, a second reading reached 514. A physician then delivered the diagnosis: "You have diabetes."
"The shock was real because in my mind, I didn't have the lifestyle or heritage that warranted the diagnosis," Perry wrote.
Doctors later confirmed she has Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas stops producing insulin. According to the CDC, 1.7 million adults aged 20 years or older, or 5.7% of all U.S. adults with diagnosed diabetes, reported having type 1 diabetes.
"For some reason, my body decided to attack itself," she said, adding that the diagnosis was not caused by anything she had done before her symptoms appeared.
Perry shared a series of photos along with the post, including several of her at the hospital, and revealed she spent four days in an Australian hospital experiencing symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis, or DKA, a serious complication that can be life-threatening if left untreated.
She described feeling alarmed that some of the medical staff she encountered lacked the knowledge to adequately treat a newly diagnosed patient with Type 1 diabetes.
"There were so many situations in which I and the people that love me had to fight for me to get the care I needed," she said. That included being nearly discharged without insulin and not being informed about the need for an endocrinologist, she added.
Perry credited a nurse specially trained in diabetic care with helping her understand how to manage the disease. Friends stayed with her overnight to monitor blood sugar checks every 45 minutes.
"They became for me a visible representation of God's presence in the room," she said.
The diagnosis, she said, has also revealed "new aspects" of her marriage to her husband, Preston Perry. While attending the Dove Awards in Nashville, Perry said her blood sugar dropped and her husband went to the lobby at 1 a.m. to get a candy bar to bring her levels back to a safe range.
"This new norm has not changed Preston's love for me," she wrote. "It's revealed new aspects."
Perry is known for her bestselling books Gay Girl, Good God and Holier Than Thou, her Bible teaching ministry, and her podcast and speaking engagements. Her return to music in 2024 with her album Blameless marked her first full-length project in six years.
In an October interview with The Christian Post, Perry shared that as her platform has grown, so has the spiritual warfare. The author and speaker revealed that in recent years, she has experienced both "profound" suffering and the sweetness of God simultaneously.
"It's been very hard privately," she shared. "I've communicated that a lot. I think if people listen to me, I talk about suffering way more than I used to, because I've suffered, and I know it is both spiritual warfare and God's goodness. To me, the Lord uses Satan, the Lord uses affliction, the Lord uses thorns to keep us low, to keep us humble, to look like His son. Any pain, any hardship, is also an opportunity to share in Christ's suffering.
"Even though it's hard, I know that the Lord loves me by allowing me to go through what I go through," she added.
In her latest Instagram post, Perry said she delayed publicly sharing the diagnosis because of the dramatic shift it brought to her life.
"I said a lot and maybe it's because I haven't said anything. This diagnosis came in the middle of everything, shifting so much of how I navigate life but I am sincerely grateful. Because God has and is still my help," she wrote. "So yea, get yalls A1C checked."