Christian author, Bible teacher, and hip-hop artist Jackie Hill Perry has revealed that she was recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes following a health scare that began during a mission trip to Australia.
The 36-year-old wife and mother of four shared the news in a series of Instagram posts this week, telling her followers she first noticed the symptoms while teaching at a conference in Sydney in August.
She said her vision suddenly became blurry and she felt like her “whole body was on fire,” with severe dehydration and fatigue.
“In a way, I thought it was jet lag,” she wrote, adding that the changes in her vision and energy were initially due to the demands of traveling abroad.
When Perry returned home, he said his eye doctor recommended that he get his blood sugar levels tested. She said her mother told her she needed to go to the hospital after a home test showed her blood sugar level was 424. A second reading in the emergency room reached 514. Then the doctor diagnosed: “You have diabetes.”
“The shock was real, because in my mind I didn’t have the lifestyle or heritage to warrant a diagnosis,” Perry wrote.
Doctors later confirmed that she had type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas stops producing insulin. According to the CDC, 1.7 million adults age 20 and older, or 5.7% of all U.S. adults diagnosed with diabetes, report type 1 diabetes.
“For some reason, my body tried to attack itself,” she said, adding that the diagnosis was not caused by anything she did before the symptoms appeared.
Along with her post, Perry shared a series of photos, including several of herself in hospital, revealing that she had spent four days in an Australian hospital suffering from symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a serious complication that can be life-threatening if left untreated.
She said she was concerned that some of the medical staff she encountered lacked the knowledge to properly treat patients newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
“There were many situations where I and the people who love me had to fight for me to get the care I needed,” she said. She added that these included being almost discharged from the hospital without insulin and not being informed about the need for an endocrinologist.
Ms Perry credited nurses with special training in diabetes care for helping her understand how to manage the disease. Friends stayed with her overnight and monitored her blood sugar levels every 45 minutes.
“For me, they became a visible representation of God’s presence in the room,” she said.
She said the diagnosis also revealed a “new dimension” to her marriage to husband Preston Perry. Perry said her blood sugar levels dropped while attending the Dove Awards in Nashville, and her husband went to the lobby at 1 a.m. to get a candy bar to get her blood sugar levels back into a safe range.
“This new norm does not change Preston’s love for me,” she wrote. “A new dimension has been revealed.”
Perry is known for her best-selling books Gay Girl, Good God, and Holier than Thou, as well as her Bible education work, podcasts, and speaking engagements. He returned to music in 2024 with the album Blameless, his first full-length project in six years.
In an October interview with The Christian Post, Perry said that as his platform has grown, so has his spiritual warfare. The author and speaker revealed that in recent years he has experienced both “severe” suffering and God’s sweetness at the same time.
“It’s been very difficult in my personal life,” she said. “I’ve been communicating that a lot. If people would listen to me, I think I would talk about suffering more than I used to, because I’ve suffered. And I know that it’s spiritual warfare and God’s goodness.” For me, the Lord uses Satan, the Lord uses tribulations, the Lord uses thorns to keep us low, to keep us humble, to make us more like His Son. Every pain, every hardship is an opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ.”
“I know the Lord loves me for what He has allowed me to go through, even though it is difficult,” she added.
In her latest Instagram post, Perry said she delayed sharing her diagnosis publicly because it brought such drastic changes to her life.
“I’ve said a lot, but maybe that’s because I didn’t say anything. This diagnosis happened in the middle of everything and has changed the way I live my life forever, but I’m so grateful because God helped me and is still helping me,” she wrote. “Okay, let’s get your A1C checked.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. Contact her at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
