My story starts as a young child. I was adopted as a newborn into the most loving family anyone could ever ask for. As a young child I watched my father battle his diabetes almost daily. I learned a great deal from my father! Sadly, due to a weak heart from his lifelong battle with diabetes, we lost him at the age of 56 in the summer of 2004 to a massive heart attack. Now skip ahead 6 years. I'm 32, overweight, and unhealthy at 5'6" and 250 pounds and as far as I know, no history of diabetes in my biological genes. On my 32nd birthday, I'm having issues with my eyes, everything is blurry, so I go get my eyes checked at a mall eye clinic. They just give me glasses and send me home. Throughout the course of the next six months, I'm constantly thirsty, urinating ALL the time, and I've lost 50 pounds. My wife (then my girlfriend) begs me to get checked out, however, I'm really enjoying the weight loss. I tell her nothing is wrong, but if I get below 160 pounds (thinking no way is that gonna happen) I'll go get checked out. Well, needless to say, 6 months later, I was at 155 pounds and in my doctors office with an A1C of over 11 and blood sugars over 560. Initially diagnosed as T2. On oral meds for 6 months and not really working. After changing docs and adding a diabetes specialist we found that I had latent onset adult diabetes or type 1.5 if you will. After making the switch to insulin things got a lot better. It's still an everyday battle to maintain healthy blood sugars but it's not a fight I'm gonna lose!! I really wish I had dad to help coach me along, but watching and living with him taught me so much. My friends and family have been super supportive. Thankfully The Lord blessed me through my father and familiarized myself with this disease. Without him, I would surely be lost. Adapt and overcome I always say

Tim Nickerson
Kearney, NE