It was 18 years ago today that I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

I was a senior in high school, had lots of friends, a steady girlfriend, was drum major of our band, and was always on the go. I had recently lost a bunch of weight which I attributed to my fast paced life of practices, dates, parties, and other stuff. I dropped 60 pounds with no effort at all. Since I had always been overweight I was pretty excited.

Night after night I would go to bed with a giant cup of water next to my bed that I would continue to drink all night as I woke up in between to go to the bathroom. I had to go to the bathroom all day long but that was only because I drank a lot. No biggie.

Well, now I can look back and see what my body was telling me.

One night at Drum rehearsal my band director asked me if I felt okay. I felt a little dizzy but had almost grown accustomed to it so I told him I felt fine. (READ MORE)

Charlie was diagnosed with diabetes four years ago today.

Charlie never was a good sleeper. So when his twenty-minute naps changed to two-hour naps in the late summer of 2003, we saw it as a godsend. By September and into early October, we had to wake him from naps approaching three hours.

Suddenly he lost interest in eating. Susanne thought he surely had some sort of stomach virus brewing. But he never got sick.

Soon after, his appetite for fluids increased greatly as he voraciously guzzled tall glasses of milk and clawed at the refrigerator for more. It was never enough. This was followed by Charlie often waking up in the middle of the night drenched in urine from neckline to toe. I can remember Susanne constantly changing the sheets in the crib. (READ MORE)