I was on 8 - 12 a day.


I was dx'd September 17th, '99 at the age of 13. My father was a T2 on Insulin and pills two weeks after I was born in '86. I had lost about 30 - 40 pounds and my blood sugar was 984 with an A1C of 21% . I was walking and talking in the ER and they wondered why I wasn't in a coma. I went to a rich yuppie school and so my mum thought that I was becoming Anorexic so that I could fit in, I was constantly cold even in the summer months. Between May - August I had lost about 25 - 30 pounds and things weren't adding up. My mum had my brother and I checked every year after my father's diagnoses to be on the safe side and every year it came back normal. What really upset my mum is that there was a doctor filling in for my actual doctor and he was looking at test results from 1997 instead of the most recent that my mum had them take. I was having a series of blurry vision, morning sickness, afternoon sickness, evening, you guess it. I would sleep 18 hours a day, get up eat and throw up. A lot of the time I would fall asleep in the bathtub and my mum would have to wake me up and tell me to go to my room to sleep. Which I did. We didn't know why I couldn't keep anything down and I would stay home from school. I would sleep in class and teachers thought I had Mono or something. I remember to this day my English teacher had said "I don't want to hurt you or anything, but if your sick please stay at home, don't come to class." and I didn't show up the next day she felt horrible!

I missed in total a month of school because my bgs were super high and would continued to go higher and higher and then I would be walking around the school grounds with 30's and 40's and not know why I had just been at 700 prior to the hour and I was completely behind. My mum was at work when she got the call from the doctor who was my doctor about my blood sugar and she raced home, got pulled over by the cops who were going to ticket her, once she had told them that I had just been dx'd with D and my blood sugar was as high as it was they offered to call the paramedics to my house. My mum refused and my grandmother had been trying to wake me up to go to the hospital. Because I wasn't going to listen my mum threatened to get my uncle to come over and put me in the car, I had weight at about 130 at the time so he could have easily picked me up. I spent 8 days, 4 in ICU and 4 in a regular room.

I actually diagnosed myself in '99 as a T1, but my Endo didn't listen to me and I was on a combination of 1000mg of Glucophage, 25mg of Avandia with a sliding scale of 1 - 15 carbs 10 units of Humilog, and the sliding scale was for the Humilin. I took anywhere from 8 - 12 shots a day. I would have one at midnight, 4am, breakfast, after gym class with snack, lunch, before I went home, dinner, bed and start it all over again. Because when I was dx'd I went higher then lower it took a lot longer to get down to 5 - 6 shots a day. I gave myself my first shot in the hospital and then for a year and a half I ran away from my mum when she had to give them to me. My brother and my mum had to hold me down only because I WASN'T going to take Insulin and I was just going to take the pills. Nothing worked. In 2000 I went on Lantus. The Ped Endo at Texas Children's Hospital wouldn't listen to me and she didn't understand me, she always told me I was a horrible D and that I should have lower numbers. My CDE was a sweetheart and later years became a T1 herself, she always helped me no matter what.

2005 new Endo, I went to the one who was my father's and she asked me why I wasn't on the pump. I told her because my Ped Endo said I was a T2 because my father was a T2 so I was one she wouldn't let me have the pump. New Endo looked at me and told me that I was a T1 because of the symptoms I was having and told me to go home and research a MM pump because I was going on it. Two weeks later from that visit I had my pump. I've been a pumper for 4 years now and I love it. I honestly know that growing up in middle school/high school I was lost without it because in high school ALL the D's had pumps and I would be too interested in taking my shots/pens because I hated it and I would always go low or something.. I moved so I changed Endo's and the one I'm at now there's a lot of medical jargon going on which I hate and have been pulled at both strings from an Endo who doesn't care, to a WODNERFUL MM team who I'm going to be writing a letter to the CEO of MM and let them know how helpful this team has been for me.

I just upgraded from 715 model with MiniMed to 722 and I will be getting my sensors in the beginning of next year because if I were to get them now it would cost 900 dollars, but come January it will only be 200 dollars and I will hopefully be able to pay for them myself instead of having my mum pay for them. I'm losing weight by running/ walking/ jogging and my mum thinks that if I lose the weight I will get off the pump, but I don't think that's true. I wouldn't mind if my 24 hour basal was decreased though! Anyways I've been horrible with everything and so now I'm just trying to get back to testing and actually caring for once.

Yes! Go to CWD it's an amazing site I'm on there, and if you do go be sure to talk to Judith, Ellen, Beth, Marcia, and a few others! They're all worth the help.

I was dxd back in 1974. Back then there were no meters to test your sugar. You had to put a tablet in a test tube and drop some urine in it and watch it turn colors. I am sure glad things have changed.

1981, I was nine years old. I didnt know anyone who had diabetes. My family did not know anyone or anything about diabetes. It was a hard time for me and my family. I was in a coma for 9 days. My parents said they had to restart my heart twice. I feel really lucky to be here.

But now, I have two beautiful children. Minimal complications while I was pregnant. My kids area healthy and growing up strong.

I belive that being a diabetic has only made me stronger. Stronger willpower, better attitude and loving life.