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Do I have more than 30 Years?

Hi, Aurlito

If you follow kewgirl's advice you will not go far wrong. I developed type 1 diabetes, aged 25, when glass syringes and re-usable needles were the rule. Easy blood glucose testing was not available, unlike today, and I had to rely on urine glucose testing. HbA1c is a relatively addition to the armamentarium for checking control.
Despite this, I have survived without complications, if you discount hypos. Now aged nearly 68, I stll work out in the gym 3x/week. The outlook should not be as black as you have been led to believe!
 
My Aunt was a type 1 and had a long and relatively healthy life. She was diagnosed as a teenager in the 1920's when treatment with insulin was new. She lived until she was 83. The kind of back up and treatments available to you were not available for her. So if you look after yourself you have every chance of living to a ripe old age.
 
Absolutely. My diabetes control has been mediocre to poor over the 17 years I have had it and minor problems began to creep in. Now I have "woken up" from my denial and started looking after myself. Within a year the problems receding and if I keep it up, i'll be in full health.

I have a friend who is diabetic for over 30 years who is in good health.

Eat well, keep active and learn as much as you can. Most importantly, when you screw up (and you will) don't beat yourself up. Simply learn and move on. It's about learning new information and forming habits.

Diabetes care is improving all the time as well. Who knows where it will be in 30 years time. :wink:
 
Indeed you do as long as you take ownership and control of your own condition!

I am 56 years old and have been a Type 1 diabetic since the age of three, I am still standing, travelling the world, driving and have fulltime employement as a senior manager within the Civil Service.

Please, please, please do not let this condition stop you living; provided you test your blood sugars, adjust your insulin accordingly and never leave the house without your insulin, blood testing equipment and spare food, i.e. I never go anywhere without Lucozade you will be fine!

By the way I am planning to be the longest living Type 1 diabetic, so have no intention of letting this condition get the better of me!

The secret for me is to take ownership of the condition yourself, and not let "it" control you; it is not the doctor's responsibility to make sure you test, take your insulin when required and always have spare food with you - it is yours and the more control you take of the condition the happier and more confident you will become.

View it as an inconvenience, and not a life threatening disease - it will only become this if you fail to control your sugar levels, keep them in order and you might live as long as I plan to!

You are a young person, with your life ahead of you, so understand the condition and I promise it will not stand in your way!

With genuine good wishes for a healthy, long and action packed life!!!!!
 
Wow so many great supportive posts, nice to read! Please Aurlito read Carol's post, it is true you have to accept your body has let you down, but you CAN control your condition an be perfectly healthy, as lots of others have shown!

If I were sixteen when I was diagnosed I would be a) scared and b) angry. You are newly diagnosed let the shock die down a bit first then you will see it is not so terrible.

Also I really hope in a few years time technology will have moved on - there is already a synthetic kidney being developed, progress on bionic eyes and there is even a machine now that can scan your brain and read your thoughts! (a bit scary that one but shows you what science can do)

So youth is on your side - don't let your fantastic life be clouded by this condition, I'd LOVE to be 16 again, diabetic or not!!
 
Hello Aurlito

I am so sorry that you're frightened, and I hope the following will help you. I developed type 1 diabetes at the age of 3. I am now 52 years old. Next year I get my gold medal!! So far the only problem I've had was when I was pregnant 27 years ago. I have led a full life, had lots of lovely holidays abroad, been married for 30 years and have a wonderful son aged 27. I've worked all my adult life up until 6 months ago when I was made redundant. It hasn't always been easy, but you must be strong and get on with it. The treatment for type 1 is 100 times better now than it was when I was your age, and if you look after yourself you'll live to a ripe old age.

Good luck. Marina
 
Aurlito,

The advice you have been given is sound.

I am 56 and have had type 1 since I was 12. I remember when I was 22 and was in hospital for a short period of stabilisation, and a guy there was 37. I was amazed - 37 and still alive and standing! I was also convinced that I was going to die very early and that fate had given me a complete **** hand.

I should say that despite being a diabetic for 44 years, I have travelled extensively, been to University, had a good career, raised two sons (who are free from diabetes) and am still in good health. A little bit of neuropathy in the fingertips (which makes the guitar interesting) but nothing, and I say that again, nothing that prevents me from doing what I want or need to do. My eyesight is fine, I drive and ride my bicycle, kidney and liver function are OK - and yes, I still have sex.

Being diabetic is not easy - the worst part I have always found is the mental attitude, and it's something I would warn all new diabetics about. Let's be honest - I have suffered on and off from clinical depression for many years which I attribute partly, but not exclusively, to being a diabetic - and although I have had very good GPs, it never seemed to feature much with the diabetic medical community. It takes people in all sorts of ways and there are so many factors involved - let's face it, some of that is luck - but with proper attention and care you can go on for a long, long time.

The medical profession can only do so much - you have to look after yourself. But my advice is to try to achieve a balance of mind - which can be a hard trick to pull off - and the balance is this.

OK, you have a disease which if left untreated will kill you; there are of course the drugs and many, many self help measures which you can take to ensure that you live a long and happy life. You cannot escape this (not yet, anyway - advances are being made) - you need to accept it and take control of your own life - it's a common refrain, but keeping control of your blood levels is so, so important. BUT - and this is the difficult part - do not let being a diabetic define your life and who you are. You are Aurlito, not a diabetic who happens to be called Aurlito.

I know it can be daunting, but do not let it ruin your life (however long it maybe).The things that being a diabetic means you can't do? Well, who cares about them anyway? There's still millions of things you can do, things that being a diabetic should not interfere with. I've given myself injections on Welsh mountain tops, on Russian Trains, in Sri Lankan jungles and by Canadian lakes.

Take control, look after yourself, and don't let the ba****d grind you down.

Kisacat
 
Kisacat said:
I've given myself injections on Welsh mountain tops, on Russian Trains, in Sri Lankan jungles and by Canadian lakes.
Click to expand...

Love it! I want to inject (or pump as I do now!) in a Sri Lankan jungle have done the Welsh mountains, various festivals across the US and UK, on horseback and hiking in the Chilterns but never in the jungle!
 
God this was a nice thread to read, I got diagnosed a month ago and slowly adapting to live as a type 1 diabetic. I thought oh my life is gonna end young etc etc all them worrying thoughts you hear about and read but after reading everyone's stories about living with type 1 diabetes for many decades it has given me the will to achieve good control of my diabetes and live a long healthy happy life!

 

Matthew, just goes to show you shouldn't always listen to all the scare stories in the tabloids and in the news, you as a newly diagnosed type 1 can have a long and fulfilling life provided you take good control of your diabetes.

Nigel
 

Matthew, I developed type 1 diabetes aged 26 and am still here to tell the tale having just passed my 68th birthday. Still active and work out in the gym for 1 hour+, three times a week. Look after your blood glucose and you will do well.
 
I have just been diagnosed Type 1 at the age of 49 and the diabetes nurse told me point blank that she intends to get me to a grand old age, thats good enough for me, so i would say to you, friend, relax, look after yourself, be positive and focused and you will have a long and happy retirement.
 

Sounds like you have a great nurse there!
 
My grandfather died in 1976 at the grand old age of 76, from a heart attack but had been t1 for 56yrs, and that was in them days, when we did'nt have the knowledge we have today, so don't worry , and you will get old ,,,,
 
I know this thread is quite old but for those who are worried shouldn't worry too much. My girlfriend read something like this at Uni and the information given is a shock tactic to make you take care of yourself more than anything else. The leaflets/info books say: "IF YOU DON'T do this then *insert certain bad thing* COULD happen." Obviously, I'm not saying eat choc all the time :lol: but just take care.

Sorry if I came across as a bit of a know it all there.

Also, I've met a few older gentlemen who have had diabetes for most of their lives and they haven't had too many issues other than the odd hyper/hypo.
 

She sure is, in fact the whole Diabetes team has been spot on. I admit i was terrified when first diagnosed, but now its no big deal really, i just made sure i read as much information i could, asked questions and most of all, look after myself, which you should do anyway, regardless of having diabetes.
 
At my last clinic I was sitting beside a guy and we were both getting our blood taken. next thing a couple nurses and doctors came in and started clapping. slightly confused the guy asked why they were clapping, and one doctor said 'you have been diabetic 50 years'. the guy looked healthier than i have ever been. he said he not only looked after himself but made a point of enjoying life. hope this helps
 
I know this is old, but thought I would say something. I am now 19 years old, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 2 1/2 years old and was one of the first people who had diabetes where I live. I have some retinopathy, and have not so good eye sight anymore due to constant unstable blood sugars. My last HbA1c test for example was 12.4. This is because although they have tried everything at my doctors, my blood sugars are and have always been very irregular and are never normal. They are frequently in the 30's and do not come down during excerise. They have told me that although I eat healthily and do everything I need to do as a diabetic they can't seem to figure out how to make my health any better. They have said If I every get pregnant, my baby would not be born as it would have very nasty health effects and serious illnesses, and if it would be born it would be too disformed and wouldn't live and would die at birth or during pregnancy. I have no hope for the future, as my condition seems to get worse. So I wanted to put my story on here just so that people were also aware that things do not always go well even if you are doing everything you can to stay in good health.
 
Hi Vickstar, hope you are well. Your reply makes me really sad as you are so young and are clearly struggling with being type 1. Might I suggest you speak to another Doctor? I don't know if that is possible in your area but sometimes GP's can be more or less helpful than a registrar at a diabetes clinic of hospital or vice versa, so it's worth 'shopping around' if you can. Having babies when you have type 1 can be tough and some babies can suffer from bad BG control but there are options available to help you. Are insulin pumps available in your area? do you carb count and use basal/bolus? Have you tried different types of insulin? Sorry, lots of questions you have probably already been asked but it's worth a go! not everything out there works for everyone and some people can just find it harder than others but there is always hope! FYI, if your BG isn't coming down during exercise that would suggest you are 'liver dumping' or that you don't have enough basal working in the background. it also depends on the intensity of the exercise you are doing!

Hope you manage to get some help on here

Take Care,

Deb
 
I'm type 1 diagnosed some 27 years ago your message began to worry me that I wouldn't be able to ride my horse, do track days on my motorbike, drive my lorry (when I get my licence back!) walk my dogs, or generally carry on as normal.

Diabetes is as hard as you want to make it, however, it is one of the medical conditions where you can carry on as normal with a little bit of positive thinking and education. Take advantage of this forum and pick everyone's brains if you are having problems or want to know anything.

Lastly don't write off your life before it has even had a chance to get going.
 
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