I'm 21 years old and I have had diabetes for 8 years. My mom diagnosed me when I was in 7th grade. She is an EMT and I started drinking a lot more water than usual. I was at school and I felt like I wasn't completely all there, she came and picked me up from school and took my sugar and it was 564. She immediately rushed me to the children's hospital and they diagnosed me as a Type 1 Diabetic.

I was on the shots for 2 years until I went on the pump and it was the best possible thing for me. I have gone through 2 pumps because one was discontinued and now I have a new one. Now that I have grown up with diabetes, I have learned to live with it. I always tell people I have diabetes as soon as I meet them, it is hard to hide my tattoo on my wrist that says it. I'm happy that I haven't had any major eye, kidney or foot problems and I'm very thankful to my family and friends who have stood by me through everything and nothing has changed. I can't wait until there is a cure for type 1 diabetes. sometimes I wish for a normal life.

I just want to reach out to all diabetics out there. I was diagnosed in 1991 when I was 10 years old because it runs in my family, but since my diagnosis no one in my family has been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. My father has it and has had it since he was 4 years old. I am now 32 years old and fight every day with my diabetes. I take care of myself as best as I can but as the years go one with this disease I am now starting to deal with some of the other effects diabetes causes. My eye sight is now suffering, my kidneys are becoming a worry to my doctor and now I feel the diabetic nerve pain in my feet and legs and deal with the constant ugly dry skin on my lower legs. I have noticed no matter how hard you do everything the doctor says something else arises with this disease. I eat as I am supposed to, check my sugar levels 6 plus times a day and take my insulin when I am supposed to, exercise. I do everything the doctor tells me to but like I said I always have something new to deal with because of this disease. I hope a cure is coming soon. I would be so happy and so would a lot of Type 1 Diabetics!

I was only five years old when i became diabetic. I didn't know what was going on when i was rushed into the hospital. I just knew there was a lot of people there who looked really sad for a long time, i spent weeks in a hospital with people pricking my fingers and doing lot of new things but know one really looked at me and told me i was a diabetic until the day i left to go home where they told me i couldn't eat and drink all the stuff that i use to. As i got older my parents told me i was the type of diabetic where my body doesn't produce insulin and that i'm gonna be a little different from every one else. At first i didn't like it at all but as i got older i realized that diabetes taught me responsibility and that life can be really short if you don't take care of your self. so for the past 11 years I've been taking care of my self like crazy trying to make sure i'm healthy. Now i'm in high school and i'm on the school wrestling team and tennis team and i have done so good with my self that a lot of my close friends don't even know i have diabetes. So i think of my diabetes as more of a lesson or a challenge then a curse cause i wouldn't be the same person i am today with out it.

Dayne is a very..very, active 12 yr old, he is an aspiring dancer who currently practices 4-5 days a week after school at the academy in Traverse City. he was diagnosed with type 1 a liitle less than a year ago. He is the most amazing kid (person) I know, he never missed a "beat" when we found out..and was giving himself shots in a couple days and has dedicated himself to not letting this hinder his desire to dance, and do so competitively. hes been to NY and Chicago and next year L.A. He performs locally at several events to earn money so he can follow his dreams, which also includes more practicing after regular practice and homework.. His drive and desire are so admirable to me even tho I'm his dad, anytime I feel tired and run down I just look to him for my own Inspiration. I know in my heart theres no way he wont succeed in his life dream... you cannot be gifted with that kind of drive and talent and not have good things happen for you.. He is my "dancer" boy

I was first diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2005. I convinced my doctor and myself that I could control it with exercise and diet. I refused to go on any medication. For a short period of time I was successful. Losing some weight, etc.

Well, I got complacent and backslid.

On 12/12/12 I had a stroke. It was a shock to say the least. Being 52 y.o., overweight and out of shape I had expected a heart attack (kinda morbid I guess, yet true). The lack of control during the event was extremely scary. Fortunately it was a mild stroke, as far as traumatic brain injuries go. No long term effects. Facial droop and speech issues are 99% gone. My glucose was 319 upon admittance to the ER. My A1C at 13.

Well, being "scared straight", I began taking care of my situation. Now being put on multiple meds to address my physical issues. Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Adhering to a proper diet for diabetes and heart smart. And exercising, I joined the YMCA (cardio & weight machines).

At the beginning of the transformation I weighed 268 pounds, wearing XXL shirts (some stuff at XXXL), and 40" waist. Today, I wear large shirts an 34" waist pants. I weight 203 pounds with a BMI of 30. My diabetes is being managed with diet, exercise, one medication and a strong desire to live. At my endocrinologist appointment on 4/15/13 my A1C was 5.0!

The abusing my body has given me heart disease and almost cost me my life. The stroke caused by damage to my heart from a blocked artery on my heart causing scaring which is where the blood clot came. This has also been fixed via installation of a stent. At least we found the culprit.

I am determined to continue to take every advantage of my opportunity of this "do over". My cardiologist said "fear is a great motivator".

I owe to my family, friends and myself to be around for many more years leading a healthy and happy life. Life truly is good!

June 30th 2011 is when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. It was the summer before senior year, I was only 17. It's been a long 2 years, I've had my ups and downs. in the beginning I was extreamly depressed, i felt like I had no control over my life. But thankfully I took control of my diabetes and I don't let it control me anymore I control my sickness! From the moment I was diagnost I worked hard to change my lifestyle and my eating habits to make sure I keep my sugars under control. I do extreamly well and am proud of how far I have come with it.

I was diagnosed in 1977 at age 3 1/2 with type I. Back then there weren't glucometers, only test tubes and pills to monitor your blood sugar. I was on 2 shots a day, and again, back then, it was only pork and beef insulin. I had allergic reactions to it constantly. Fast forward to the late 80's, cloned human insulin (which most use now) was created and made life easier!

At age 27, I got an insulin pump using humalog. I will never look back. It has allowed me to lose weight, and not be forced to "feed the insulin". I am 39 now and have 2 kids, aged 4 and 5. I am so blessed.

Hi

i was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11. i was struggling with it for 19 years didn't look after myself properly. had a needle phobia as a result i damaged my nerves in my feet. i had eye problems just last April i i got kidney failure. i was on dialysis for 8 months. so my kidney specialist put me on the waiting list for a kidney & pancreas transplant. i got a call on the 28/3/13 & they told me they found a match. it's been a month now that i have done the transplant. i have no more diabetes & kidney problems they are both working a 100%. i feel so blessed that i got this opportunity & i do still prey to god that they find a cure soon for this illness because i know how tough it is to live with i got it at a young age & if it wasn't for my kidney failure i would of never got this opportunity.

I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 20 years ago. In that time, I've had ups and downs - mostly high BG levels. Last year my family doctor sent me to an endocrinologist. That's when I decided I needed to acknowledge this disease. My endocrinologist surprised me - she wasn't judgmental at all. Instead, she told me to count my carbs - 45 per meal. It worked wonders! My numbers came down and my A1C was the best I've had.

But then the holidays came and I wasn't as careful about counting carbs. That's when my BG levels went haywire. I started being careful about what I ate and got back on the 45 carbs per meal, but it wasn't working as it had before. The curious thing was that three of my co-workers who have Type 2 diabetes were also getting high readings. I kept sending my logs to my endocrinologist and she changed my meds around, added new ones, removed old ones, but a strange thing happened; my fasting blood sugars in the morning were high, while my bedtime readings were drastically lower! More med adjustments followed.

I joined a blog online for Type 2 diabetics, but so many were striving for tight control, while I just wanted to get my FBG within my doctor's prescribed range. I had resisted any exercise in the past few years because of arthritis in my back and knees, but many of the people on that website spoke of how much they exercised, so I decided to I start moving more. Now I try to walk up and down a few flights of stairs at my job once or twice a day and I'm beginning to see lower numbers now.

What's important is not to give up!

During the fifties in a very small town called Port Clinton, Ohio, when I was small, I overheard my parents talking about a friend of theirs who had a strange disease called diabetes. I soaked up all the information and dwelled on it and feared it intensely every day. At six years old, 1951, I got Scarlet Fever -- and never got well. I was very ill for five years, missed a lot of school and fun. I thought my saliva was poison, so I spit a lot. I couldn't stay awake and was always thirsty and peeing. I wanted to eat weird food combinations and cravings. (Self prophesy?) In that little town, the one old doctor there never had any idea what was wrong with me, so I wasn't diagnosed until I was eleven, when we moved to Phoenix, AZ.

In early September, 1956 I had trudged my always tired body home from school with horrible pains in my back. My parents took me to St Joseph Hospital's ER in Phoenix. I had double pneumonia in the middle of a fall heat wave (Indian Summer). I was admitted, and of course they found I had Juvenile Diabetes -- big time. I was in that hospital for six weeks, again missing a lot of school. (Made me a math dummy! lol) Back then, it was glass syringes and thick, dull needles which had to be boiled on the stove to sterilize them, urine testing for blood sugar, which was totally inaccurate and calamity-causing. And there was very little understanding from others for a kid having insulin reactions, etc.

It's been quite a challenge for me to live on this blood-sugar roller-coaster, but now I've been a pumper for years, and at nearly 68, a retired office slave, I am going strong as a volunteer on two therapeutic riding ranches, helping mentally challenged kids and taking care of horses. (I had a horse named George when I was a kid in Phoenix.) And horses are great therapy for us volunteers, too. And I needed that. ("My therapist lives in a barn.")