Inspiring Stories

From the age of four.

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of four in 1999.
I can't remember life before it, its always been a constant in my life and I've always found it difficult to control because I've felt excluded for having to eat differently than other children. However in 2002 I took a bad and had a sever hypo while in school, it was then that my friends started to realise how bad it could be.
Now that I'm almost I can say that not to much has changed, however I need to consider my future, I'm studying sports and need a healthy body, when I was first diagnosed I lost a lot of body weight at a young age and I have always found it hard to put any back on, I love nothing more than a good workout but due to my control there isn't much benefit.
I see what a lack of glucose control can do through my gran and I'm looking forward to getting everything back on track. A healthy lifestyle can help with the control I am finding so far, and i am starting to feel more of the benefits.

Peter Dymond
John O' Groats, United Kingdom

Proving Everyone Wrong!

Summer 2012, I was living on the island of Trinidad (Caribbean) - blogging (Learning Patience on FB), running and loving life. One day, I jumped in a pool and I accidentally sat on my right foot, big toe touching heel on the bottom of the pool. An aircast was slapped on for the next 8 weeks. While visiting my parents in the US, I was given the go ahead to finally start running again. I was happy but I felt horrible. My eyes were bone dry and I had severe heartburn. I just knew something was wrong. My family teased me for going to the ER the next morning. The nurse told me I had jetlag & to go home, but I refused. Minutes later, she returned saying she'd made a mistake. I had Type 2 diabetes. My BS was 945. She gave me Metformin, told me to eat better and sent me home. At 5'9, 130lbs and a vegetarian my whole life, I couldn't understand how I got Type2. I took the meds and the next morning went running at 5am. On my third step, I collapsed and I couldn't breathe. My dad found me, called the pharmacy was told I was given the wrong medicine. I wasn't a T2, I was a T1 and the Metformin was killing me. I made it to the ER, barely. Turns out, I should've never been released and now I was minutes from slipping into a coma. Every organ in my body was failing and my keytones were at 99. 7 days later, I was released with an A1C of 13.5. Three months later, my A1C was down to 6 and I was running again! Unfortunately, foot surgery was needed and 12 pieces of titanium later I was side-lined for 4mnths and was told I would never run again. 7mnths post cast, in Oct 2013, I finished my comeback half marathon with a PB time of 1:58. This week marked my 2yr diagnosis anniversary and I'm running faster than EVER before...
I REFUSE to let this horrible disease get in my way!

Corey melke Hinz
London, United Kingdom

Diabetes didn't win

I found out I had diabetes at the age of 13 and thought things would never be the same again. I started feeling sluggish and had lots of trips to the restroom. Oddly our family is no stranger to this disease, my older sister was diagnosed at the age of 13 as well. My mom knew from the signs something was wrong. She cried the day we found out, it was something she couldn't fix. I started out on the pills and within a week was on 4 insulin shots a day. People automatically put limits on you due to the disease. That is more frustrating than the disease. This isn't something that you can take a few pills and fix, there is no cure currently. Insulin keeps us alive to go another day. We have a different diet than most and do have our limits on certain things. Diabetes can be managed but does take discipline. I choose to live and not let this disease defeat me! My mom and dad both now have type 2 diabetes and have had uncles die from this disease. This makes me more determined to help those who need it. I started on an insulin pump 12 years ago and have found it to manage the diabetes better. There are others out there just like you, don't feel like you are alone to fight this. I have lived with the disease for 30 years and still going. I refuse to let Diabetes win.

Mary Cramer
BELLA VISTA, AR

Marisa - Pharm D

I'm Marisa's Mom..... Marisa was 7.... it was July 7th.. we just got a water cooler in our home and she was drinking like crazy.. I called my friend who worked at the local blood lab and ask "do me a favor" and just run a glucose test on Marisa.. of course he thought I was a crazy Mom.. but i Just knew.... with her Blood sugar over 700 off we were to a week in the hospital.. we were at a local hospital and many children there were being treated for cancer.. Marisa said to me.. Mommy these kids are sick.. we can do this. I knew then "we" could do this!.. we have had our ups and down.. but I've never seen a more positive person.. I was told by "nuns" in school.. Love her for who she is.. but with her "disability" she will be so limited. O. boy were they wrong................ Marisa is now 28...
A doctor of Pharmacy and lives a full life and diabetes is just a part of it.. she is my hero!!

sharon guarini
lindenhurst, NY

I Am Not Alone

My name is Joe Smeader. I am 22 years old and live in Ankeny, IA. My journey began at a young age and at a place where bad things should never happen; Disney World. I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes AT Disney World on January 4, 1994 at the age of two. The last thing I remember hearing is the song to 'It's A Small World After All' before waking up in a hospital and learning that I needed to take 5 shots everyday for the rest of my life. I remember promising to eat my vegetables, clean my room, work hard, anything to avoid getting those shots and then having them hold me down while they injected me. I know they didn't want to do it, but they had to. kindergarten was the first time where I was labeled. My teacher told the other kids to leave me alone because I was "different". That would start a label that followed me through my entire school life. Although, as the years went by, the labeling wasn't as bad, but most people still treated me like an outcast.

After high school, I attended a conference in Berkley, CA called 'DTreat'. An organization that puts type 1 diabetics in touch with other diabetics and teaches people how to handle themselves at college, help pay for supplies, etc. This was the first time I didn't feel alone. I was always known as 'the kid with diabetes' but here, I was Joe. I may have gotten a late start, but I since that point, I am not too worried about what other people think of me. I have a YouTube channel (It's not very good, but I have one), I am in college, and 'm an actor. I feel like for the first time, I am not alone. I may have diabetes, but diabetes does not have me. I now have a group of friends we call ourselves 'Diabesties' and I've attended a few more DTreats and now realize that we're all in this together and we'll find a cure.

Joe Smeader
Ankeny, IA

Perfectly Fine

Hi everyone. I have been reading a lot of stories recently about how some people found out they are diabetic. A lot of people get really sick and get put in the hospital. Well heres my story. I was 16 years old. It was in October. I was going to the Dr for a sports physical because i played basketball. I had been feeling fine! Not anymore thirsty then usual. I didn't lose any weight and i wasn't using the bathroom more then normal. So the doctor began the usual routine exam and then asked me to get a urine sample. She came back and told me my blood sugar was 330. She called my mom and told her that i needed to not eat after midnight and to check it in the morning. Fasting, it was 150. Too high for her liking, so she sent me to a hospital about an hour away to a specialist. Turns out i was very lucky. They caught it in the very early stages. I could have gotten really sick. But thank God i didn't. A week after all of this i was going on a cruise i am thankful it was found before i left or it could have been really bad for me!! Since then i have done pretty well with it. I have had a few bad lows, my lowest being 28 and highest over 600, went to the ER that night! Needles and sticking myself do not bother me, and i am not ashamed of my disease and i am the first to educate people about it. I was put on an insulin pump when i got pregnant and been on it since. Love it! I'm very thankful there was nothing wrong with my baby, he was just born a little too big and a little too early ! (6 weeks early and 8 lbs!) anyway, that's my diabetes story, God bless you all!

Ashley Forrest
Cobbs Creek, VA

Learning experience

I was diagnosed with type 1 in 1999. I was 11. I was in a coma for a week . When I was released from the hospital I knew nothing, and when I say nothing I mean the only thing I learned was I can't have sugar and how to draw insulin out of a bottle by watching the nurses. This is a very hard disease to deal with and contrôlée when you have no idea what you're doing. I spent a full year in and out of the hospital with DKA at least once a month.
Now after doing my own research and help from my husband I have not had to be in the hospital and we are getting ready to welcome our second child. You can overcome this disease as long as you want to and have good support. I'm lucky I didn't die from DKA but I have learned you have to pay attention to your body and asking about things you don't know

Dlynn McCutchen
Rochelle, TX

Diabetes "the game changer"

I was a long haul truck driver working 7 days a week, 14 to 16 hours a day, and just loving life and my job, being able to see the whole country and being paid to do it was great. I have always been a bit overweight but I was a healthy robust person. I was up in Washington state, doing a DOT physical to renew my health card for the a new job, the physician came in and asked me if I felt OK, to which I replied yes I think I feel pretty good. He noticed that I drank water continually throughout the entire appointment.

He asked if I was always thirsty like that, I told him that I guzzled water round the clock, even waking several times a night to try to ease my thirst. At that point he looked concerned, saying he was going to stick my finger instead of having me urinate in a cup to check my sugar levels. When he was done he picked up the phone and dialed 911, my sugar was 1300. I was scared at that point. I never knew that I was sick. I could have passed out and killed someone with sugar levels that high. The ambulance took me in and they put me in the hospital for two days.

Of course they pulled my medical card. I had to go home and get with my doctor to get it under control before I could go back to work. Today I check my blood sugar 4 times a day, (I no longer drive truck because it is against Federal law to carry syringes on a commercial vehicle) I am on insulin due to being resistant to the all the medicine. I am lucky though, something bad could have happened while driving, Empty my unit weighed approx 40,000 pounds and loaded up to 80,000 pounds.

Don't be afraid. Go see your Doctor. You can be diabetic and not know it.

Nancy
La Junta, CO

Blessed to be a Type 1 Diabetic

I get some pretty strange looks from people when I say I'm happy to be a T1 diabetic, but I feel truly blessed to have this disease. Starting with my first episode at the age of five, I spent over 20 years battling acute and chronic pancreatitis. For those who are unfamiliar with pancreatitis,it is a horribly painful condition that can take over your entire life. I spent more time in the hospital than I did out of it. By 2009, I was so frustrated with always being sick that I knew I had to do SOMETHING,because I was at the point of not caring if I lived or died. I went to see a specialist who told me there wasn't anything more that could be done unless I wanted to try an experimental surgery to remove my diseased pancreas and have an islet cell transplant. I had never even heard of such a thing. The doctor warned me that if my islet cells failed to produce insulin after being transplanted,I would become a diabetic, but that didn't matter to me. I was willing to do just about anything to escape the pain and illness that I was experiencing on a daily basis. After undergoing the surgery and being hospitalized for almost 3 months with complications, I was given the bad news that my transplant had failed. But by then,it didn't even phase me. Although I've had some issues with DKA and extreme lows,I'm so happy to no longer be in pain that even diabetes can't dim my outlook. So yes,I am absolutely thrilled to have this disease,because diabetes has given me a chance to have the life I was unable to live before.

Anonymous
Mount Pleasant, OH

Many Faces of Diabetes

My name is Lucy, and I am one of the many faces of diabetes.
Although many people may think of diabetes as only a human condition, animals can be diabetic too. The symptoms of diabetes in animals are much the same as for people. I was diagnosed 10 months ago. My people first noticed that I was losing weight and not eating well. I'm very old, about the same in age and mobility as a person over 80 years, so my people thought it was attributed to age. Then they saw that I was drinking a lot of water, and they knew it was more than just age. They took me to the doctor for tests, and with BG levels over 500, that confirmed I am diabetic.
Learning to manage my diabetes has not been easy, but we are all working on it. We take it slow, finding the correct daily dose of insulin, making adjustments as needed.
This may surprise you, but most cats manage better with the same kind of insulin that people use. Because we metabolize insulin quickly, so we need something long lasting and slow acting. I'm treated with insulin Glargine (Lantus). I don't enjoy my twice daily injections, but I wouldn't be here today without insulin. I also don't like having my ears stuck to take my BG levels. If I ate more wet food, less carbs, I might not need insulin, but at my age, I am reluctant to change my ways. However, we are all on a better diet now, to ensure the other cats here don't get diabetes too.
Diabetes affects everyone in our families, people and pets. With proper diet, feline diabetes can be prevented, and fewer kitties like me will be one of the faces of diabetes!

J.C.
Oklahoma City, OK