EileenWagner

I was diagnosed as a T1D at age 10, a few days before Christmas. I spent 5 days, including Christmas, in the hospital getting a crash-course on Diabetes. When I went to my doctor because I had lost a lot of weight in a very short time (almost 20 lbs in 2 weeks), he told me and my parents that I had diabetes and needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately. I was at the point that I was going blind for up to 5 minutes at a time because my brain wasn't able to use the sugar that was in my body, and it was therefore "starving". I was too weak to walk, and the doctors said that I would've been in a coma in another hour, and dead in three. When we were at the hospital they gave me a shot of insulin and told me I would have to do that for the rest of my life. The next morning, after receiving more insulin throughout the night, I felt so tremendously better that I thought, "If this is what I have to do to feel better, I will do it!" I grew up that day. I took matters into my own hands, and within 3 days I was giving myself my own injections, and I've never looked back. I cannot remember a time in my life where I could wake up in the morning, and NOT reach for my purse beside my bed and test myself and give myself the first shot of the day. I was the first person in British Columbia to be started on blood testing, as all testing before that had been using urine. When I was diagnosed, the doctors and all the other educators told me that a cure was "only 5 years away". I have been waiting for 33 years now, and they keep promising that the cure for diabetes is right around the corner, only 5 years or so away. I gave up hope years ago that there would be a cure, and instead devoted myself to keeping myself healthy and complication-free, and after 33 years, I am proud to say that I have ABSOLUTELY NO complications from T1D. I am determined to live long past the age of 60, which is what they told me my life expectancy would be. I refuse to let anyone tell me when I should die. I took it as a challenge when I was 10 years old; I will live a long, healthy life for as long as I possibly can, and will do so with grace and dignity, knowing that when I was a mere child, I made the right decision to take care of myself. And I've never regretted that fact.

But if they come up with a cure in the meantime, I'll be the first one in line.