I was diagnosed in 1972 at the age of 12. I've been using a pump for the last ten years and a CGM for the past couple of weeks. Like others here, early control was terrible - finding myself unconscious or near-unconscious on a regular basis from low BGs. Single shot of insulin a day, which peaked during late morning, forcing me to stuff myself full of carbs to prevent a plummeting BG. No BG tests, just urine tests. Then the insulin would run out in late evening meaning sky high BGs overnight.
In my late teens I worked out that running in the evenings stopped the jump in BGs overnight (still no BG tests available), and so have kept up running (and other activities) ever since. Then around 1980, after knocking myself out on a skating rink (as you do) and winding up in hospital, I was kept there also to stabilise my BGs. Switched over to MDI. I was so impressed by how much better I felt when using the hospital's BG measuring device (a big machine) I begged and pleaded if there was any sort of device I could borrow or rent to do this at home. Doctors looked at each other, disappeared for a while, and came back with one of the first home BG meters ever invented - the size of a house brick! I believe it was originally designed by some Melbourne engineer for his T1 daughter, then developed by Ames, but the details escape me now.
Anyhow, no complications, highly fit and waiting for another 7 years to get that medal
.
If someone were to ask me what the secret is to surviving T1, I'd say (apart from picking the right genes and controlling BGs), high amounts of exercise. Live like an athlete (but no doping!
).
Cheers,
Nicholas