- Messages
- 52
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
I’m 22 years old. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when I was only 15 months old. I never experienced life without diabetes. As one would imagine, my parents basically managed my diabetes (for the most part) until I was old enough to do it myself. However, I wasn’t wanting to except this illness. I fell into a Diabetes Burnout by the age of 11. For roughly 8 or so years I only took insulin when absolutely necessary and literally checked my blood sugar maybe 20 times in the span of those 9 years. My A1C never fell below 10% until last year when I dropped it down to 8.5%!!!! My sugars had gotten so bad that the onset of puberty for me was delayed by 4 or so years and I didn’t hit it until sophomore or junior year. My fingers are now swollen at the knuckles and crooked/bent. Growing up, I had heard my older brother and my endocrinologist (pretty sure he told me too) telling me how at the rate I was going with my sugars, I wasn’t going to live past 21 years old. Well, come April 18th of last year; I’m sitting in my dorm room at the University of Kansas and I texted my brother with genuine sincerity “You were f***ing wrong.” I made it to 21 and I’m still kicking a year later. Alongside that I’ll-fated childhood being proven wrong, I now am noticing my fingers straightening out! Only took 21 years but I did it.
