Diabetes does not get better with age.

I was asked once, if over time, Diabetes becomes easier: yes and no.

Since 1999, the diabetes world has seen incredible technological advancements which have transformed the lives of those living with type 1 diabetes. This is what my first insulin pump in 2000 looked like versus what I wear today, along with the apple watch that pairs to my phone and then pairs to the continuous glucose monitor attached to my arm to read my blood glucose level every 5 minutes:

Minimed 508, 2000

t:slim, 2017

Apple Watch Paired to CGM

The Minimed was life changing, literally pumping life back into me. But it was not waterproof, it was bulky and loud and did not have automatic plungers to insert the tubing below my skin – it looked exactly like a beeper. My t:slim is waterproof, touchscreen, holds more insulin – yet slimmer and is prepped to one day communicate as part of an artificial pancreas. I have had several pumps in between these two, but to this day the t:slim has been my favorite.

To go back to that original question, you learn how to respond to different scenarios of lows and highs, you learn how much exercise is a factor in increasing and decreasing your blood sugars, you learn what foods hurt and help, you learn how to explain what diabetes is.

Yet unfortunately, diabetes does not play fair, you can apply the same set of facts but receive varying outcomes, every single time. However, those applications of logic are important, because they are the foundation to winning the marathon not the race. The marathon being a very long, happy and healthy life despite this life threatening disease – type 1 diabetes.

With every life event, diabetes is a factor in the development of that event. When I went from childhood to adolescence and then from high school to college and college to my first professional job, I had to learn how to live with T1D at each of those intervals and will for the many to come.  

When I first learned how to drive a car, I needed to factor in testing my blood sugar before driving and realizing if I was approaching a low, I needed to eat or drink something before driving. When I took the SATs, the exam proctor needed to know I had T1D in the event I needed to test my blood sugar so my test would not be disqualified. When I drank my first alcoholic drink, I needed to understand how that would affect my blood sugar. Jump ahead a few steps and I am now figuring out how T1D will factor into my wedding day which is 85 days away! I am thinking about where I will wear my pump, who will hold onto my phone to watch my blood sugars, what if I am low right before I walk down the aisle, what if I don’t eat enough because I am too busy visiting with family and friends? Diabetes will certainly be a part of my big day, because I don’t go a day without it, but I am thinking now how to let it sit in the backseat on such a special day.

So learning to live with diabetes is not a short term process, but one you stick with for as long as you are in the ring.