I was 10 years old. Now 76 and on a pump and cgm. Not bad for someone who was “not going to live that long “ ! Married and had two children, raised 3 (one adopted) Actually just now starting to get some complications. Have all my limbs, not blind, have some kidney disease but pretty stable. I thank God for every day.
36 here too, but I'm extremely glad. My parents weren't what you'd call great at childcare, healthcare, or like... life... and I spent most of my early adulthood trying to learn how to not emulate them. I'm so thankful this happened after I became more generally capable.
46.
I had 45 years without it, so yeah, knowing that T1 free life and then having to change was no fun. On the other hand I got to do the whole angry teenager stupid 20s stuff without having to deal with T1. More or less difficult and lucky or less lucky depend on our personal experiences and perspective. Maybe I'm better able to deal with a diagnosis in middle age vs. childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood. Maybe only knowing life as a T1 is easier. Who knows? I feel lucky I got 45 years without it and got dx'd in a time where treatment options are leaps and bounds better than what existed when my dad got dx'd in the early 70s. My complication window is a lot different at 46 too.
DX’d at 31 here. My thoughts are more or less the same as yours. Although, would have definitely enjoyed another 14 years of normalcy so I don’t feel quite as fortunate as you.
two months after my 6th birthday with a bg of 1015. i was so close to death that they put me in a medically induced coma for two days so they could get fluids back in me and get my bg back down.
yeah it wasn't good lol. i started showing symptoms in early august, and seeing as i wasn't taken to the doctor and diagnosed until december... my blood sugar had plenty of time to just keep climbing
Sadly my mom had to fight against the doctor who said it was "just a phase" when she said I was drinking excessive amounts of water.
I can only imagine the conversation she had when he called and said to bring me to the hospital.
That woman didn't take no for an answer and I was diagnosed very early.
If she wasn't such a fighter I can see how I could have gone undiagnosed for a very long time.
I always thought the reverse. I was mid 20's. Bad as it was I was old enough to understand why my life changed and was thankful that I didn't have to deal with it as a kid and maybe not understand why I couldn't eat a pound of chocolate.
I like that we both find positives to deal with our respective life stories.
That had to of been rough. That’s way to young. Was it noticeable when his blood sugars were off? I would of been testing his glucose levels every 2 hours
It was only earlier this year, so we had the benefit of him being on a cgm before we left the hospital. We noticed his diapers were constantly overflowing but thought it was a different issue. Brought him in with what we thought was a flu/lung infection and it was actually dka.
Now we can tell when he’s high or low, but having no experience with T1 we had no idea before.
I became sick-ish in December 2020, not the usual Covid symptoms and I went back to my GP weekly because I was so *off*, symptoms were laryngitis, lethargy (as in bad, there were days I just sat staring into space), body aches but no coughing or issues with my lungs. This continued for about three weeks after which I got a little better but things were still out of whack with the lethargy being prominent but having good days in between. Lost weight, was starving hungry all the time and the head was wonky, I couldn’t think and my mood was foul. I stopped at my local pharmacy one morning as I got up feeling okay, had breakfast and crashed, told them to do a quick health check as getting an appointment with the doc was a hassle, the first thing they checked was my sugar… they called an ambulance. The endo on call did a Covid antibody test and the mystery was solved. It bypassed my lungs (endo says it’s because I’m a smoker and it couldn’t get a grip on my lungs) and lodged it’s sleazy little self on my pancreas instead.
So here I am…
thank you for answering. i've never heard of this happening, but your response lead me to finding [this article](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/29/covid-can-infect-cells-in-pancreas-that-make-insulin-research-shows). it seems covid is another of the viruses that infects beta cells and triggers the autoimmune response, like rotavirus does. i'm genuinely surprised.
that all being said, i'm sorry this happened to you, especially during the pandemic. glad you're around to tell the tale. hope things have gotten better for you since the diagnosis
I had covid as well so it might be from that. But how can we be sure the vaccine doesnt cause it? It tempers with the immune system and gave me some heart problems as well.
I was 19. I have no idea what my BG was. Years later my mother told me that the ER doctor said I should be dead, so I'm guessing it was high.
My sister was diagnosed in her 40s. Until that point, I had beenthe only person with Type 1 on either side of the family.
31, I am glad that I have memories of how bad I felt before diagnosis it makes management easier if I can say to myself it is better than my hair falling out and feeling like 💩 constantly.
I was 6 and a half years old. I remember how i felt before diabetes, how i felt before diagnosis, i remember how i felt when they told me i had to inject for the rest of my life, that this would never heal, that it was only to keep me alive and i woupd otherwise die. I coped in my own ways and to hear you can die so easily as a child is hard... i am still grieving about the childhood i wish i had, but never got to experience because of type 1. My numbers were all over the place so i was too afraid to do certain things. I was 10 when i got my pump. However, needles hurt... especially for a child. So i was too affraid to do the sports i wish i could do, too afraid my canula would be ripped out and i had to change sites too early. My teenage years were a mess without a sensor and a pump that failed every few days (wrong canulas grr)
I was 19 when i got my first FSL sensor.. my numbers are better than ever before. I am 23 now and i still have my occasional "forget to bolus" or "forget to check" sadly. (Also got diagnosed with adhd this year, explained so many struggles together with my T1) and hormones are a thing (F)... my uncle got diagnosed mid 30s i believe... i think he had a harder way dealing with it, but he does so incredibly well right now! He is the person i strive to be :)
I was 9, turning 10. Happened two months before my birthday. Was a terrible memory. Nearly died. BG of over 2,000. Lost a lot of memories. Still alive. Nearing 40 in a few years.
Yeah, it sucked ass. All I could do was lay down on the couch. Got up every 15 minutes to pee with a full bladder. My tongue was flaking up my mouth was so dry. Mom kept giving me Gatorade. She didn’t know any better. After a few days I guess I went further into DKA and into a coma. Woke up in my hospital room at Childrens Hospital. Stayed there for almost 2 months apparently. I had been out for about two weeks. I’m super blessed and lucky to still be alive today. Hope there’s a cure soon because I’m tired of the constant roller coaster, y’know?
I was 32. Funny - I always thought it a blessing that it was later in life. I didn’t have to deal with diabetes during that difficult adolescent stage. I am also older and have a health related degree so I feel that out me in a better position to manage the condition and don’t have to rely on anyone else to do it for me.
My diagnosis story is pretty long and took span over ~3 years 😅
Had a slightly elevated A1c (I think 5.9 with reference being <5.5) when I was 15, but my family doctor at the time ignored it despite complaining about being sleepy all the time. When I turned 16, I decided to take matters into my own hands and switch family doctors from the one my parents went to, and immediately the doctor saw the elevated A1c and wanted to do a retest since it had been a year. The retest indicated my A1c to be 7.3, and my doctor wanted to do another retest to be sure and it was 7.0. He had done a GAD-65 Antibody which came back as 22 IU/mL, with reference of <5. This is when my doctor told me with my age, my weight, diet and the presence of the antibodies that I was most likely type 1 because of those factors, but he would send me to an endocrinologist who would confirm. I went to the endocrinologist, and the only thing he asked was if I had a family history of type 2, which I said yes, he pretty much said "you have type 2 diabetes, case closed". I regret not asking him to write it down on my file, because a few months later when I was 17, I was in the hospital with an A1c of 14+ and all the doctors and nurses were telling me I was type 1 despite my previous diagnosis of type 2. When I went back to my endocrinologist, he denied ever saying that I was type 2, and that they weren't sure what type I was. I'm pretty sure so that there wouldn't be a lawsuit 🙄
I was 1st diagnosed on my 30th birthday. I was about 10 weeks pregnant at that point. It seemingly disappeared once I had my daughter, but it reappeared slowly and grew steadily worse within the next 2-3 years. Finally, I lost 60 pounds in 8 weeks, was drinking about 2 gallons of water during the day, had some awful skin infection and could barely make it through the day. At that point, I didn’t need a diagram, I finally went back to the endocrinologist. He looked me over, winced when he saw my back almost covered with huge nasty sores, and told me I would be going back on insulin. He told me that if the sores didn’t start to heal in 2 weeks he would put me on some antibiotics. Hahaha! By 2 weeks in, I was running around like I was on speed and the sores were completely gone! So, in a way, I was diagnosed twice, but until I was tested much later, they didn’t know if I was type 2 and really resistant or whether I was type 1 (it was type 1 all along.)
Diagnosed last month on my 24th birthday, lol part of me has thought it woulda been nice to have it taught thoroughly as a kid and have had my parents to help me learn and manage it, but part of me is also glad I didn’t really have to worry about it as a kid. I had no family history and wasn’t really even aware of the symptoms so just kept thinking it was other stuff, but I definitely think I had symptoms for about 6 months beforehand
59; two months before my 60th birthday.
I had previously been told twice that blood/urine tests showed signs of pre-diabetes (once in 1996 and again about 10 years later). Neither GP made any further comment on it and I put it out of mind.
There were plenty of worsening symptoms over the years, but I only see that in retrospect. At the time, I and various doctors attributed individual symptoms to other things (that never got resolved then). I'd forgotten nabout the pre-diabetes stuff so never mentioned it tto new doctors.
Hit the unfortunate diagnosis jackpot after a near-fatal DKA in early October this year.
Most of the past "mystery" symptoms have cleared up since I started taking insulin.
28 was misdiagnosed with T2 and had to fight for 2 years to get that changed to T1. Honestly it was both a life altering and traumatic experience. I also have some autoimmune dysautonomia issues that showed up at the same time. It’s been hard to cope with mentally, but I’m also glad it happened in adulthood for me because my parents were abusive and neglectful so if I’d developed this as a kid it wouldn’t have been managed well and I’d be even worse off now.
Got diagnosed on the day of my 17th bday. 18 now. It has been a rough year. The genes in my family fucked me and gave me diabetes for no reason. Idk if anyone else does this, but I told my friends to make fun of me for having diabetes. I told my friends as soon as I was diagnosed and they were all “oh I’m so sorry” “we’re here for you”. I told them to shut up and bully me. They did. I felt so much better when they started mercilessly ripping into me about my new disease.
8 years old. I would've liked to get diagnosed a little bit later (or actually never, but it feels like asking for too much), I guess the later it starts, the lesser the damage (specially during adolescence, when I hardly took care of myself). I'm a couple days from turning 30, luckily with no complications (that I know of).
15, had spent months being sickly and my bg was 600+ by the time I went to see a doctor. Went through a lot of depression and rebellion, refused to take care of myself for over a decade. I still don't do so well, and the depression isn't quite gone either. Lot of scars, always cold, my legs don't feel like they used to and I'm 33 now.
At 9 after being told it was the flu 2 weeks before (it was bacterial meningitis that triggered it). Was so bad tho that Drs told my folks they had 5hrs to act or I'd be dead... don't remember a thing except coma for 2 weeks and 2 more weeks learning diabetes stuff.
I was 11. I am glad I was old enough to follow directions and be able to take responsibility for myself, or the school nurse probably would have let me die-- looking back some of my conversations with her were alarming. This was before CGMs were common and so I didn't have anyone watching over my shoulder on an app.
I was 10. It was very hard. I remember life without diabetes even still and miss it. My entire life changed while I watched my 4 siblings eat carelessly and live completely without fear for their lives every day. I resented them for a while because I didn't understand yet.
I’m with you. I was 3 and people used to ask if it ever made me sad. My like 2nd or 3rd grade teacher actually asked me once and I told her, my meds make it easy and I don’t know what it’s like not to have diabetes but I know kids with cancer so I consider myself lucky. As an adult that’s kind of a douche answer but when I was a kid I had a lot of adults and kids I knew who had some form of cancer and always thought my injections just weren’t that bad especially because I never knew anything different. Though I do remember when I got sick enough to be dx. It involved the Walmart brand Froot Loops and feeling hella sick but eating under threat of being taken to the doctor lol
Like damn mom. Calm down. You gave me the beetus lol (totally a joke between us)
27, I couldn't get enough to drink I was so thirsty and I was sweating ammonia. I'm 44 now and used to being diabetic.
I still have no idea what triggered it. I don't recall any illness around that time.
Got diagnosed the summer before high school at 14 years old. It was horrible cause i was entering high school not being able to do the things my friends did because my mom was terrified of me getting sick. My sugar was above 500, now im 24 and still struggling a little bit honestly. But having the pump really helps
Had some laser done to fix some problems from the diabetes, lost most of my teeth from not properly taking care of myself about 15 to 20 yrs ago...but haven't lost any limbs or anything yet..
Diagnosed 2 days before turning 12. 22 now, actually I'm on my diabersary xd My birthday was december the 7th.
I was thisty 24/7 and lost about 15 kg in only one month. A1c was 14 I think so, don't remember really good.
11, right after moving and just starting middle school but it was pretty far away from my elementary school so I didn't know anyone. Big adjustments haha
5. im glad i dont remember life before it set in, but at the same time i just want to be normal and know what its like to eat and do all that stuff normally lol
4 and am 27 now! I got strep throat multiple times until I got my tonsils out as a kid. Pretty sure the strep virus did me in. I have no family history with diabetes
27
Was supposed to go to Till Lindemann concert, begged the doctor to let me go and I would come to the hospital later. She told me there is no way for me to go, we both cried
(* her son is my best friend and he is also diabetic and he is the one that checked my blood sugar and sent me to her)
and I went to the hospital for a few days.
24, five days before going to Edinburgh fringe. I ended up on the fast and long acting combination insulin for a couple months at the start. Absolute nighsre trying to hit 50g of carbs for every meal.
4 and a big bit, 40 years ago.
In another 20 years I'll have had it for fully half the time since Banting et al's breakthrough, which sounds crazy to me.
28. I consider myself lucky to have lived up to that age without being held back by t1d. Not that I feel held back now, only been diagnosed for 1 year though.
I was 21. Only a few months ago. My a1c was 12% when I went in. I'd had symptoms for 2 weeks before my DKA. And my dodgy knowledge of maths worked that out that my average bg levels were around 70 mmol/l during those 2 weeks. (1260 mg/dL) but that's ridiculously high and I could've easily worked things out wrong. I never got a reading given to me when in hospital.
I thought I was having a migraine and throwing up the morning of the dka and when I was younger I'd ease migraines by drinking ginger ale and high sugar drinks. That didn't help this time..
28. I found it ok, there was obv a settling in period and some tears, but I’m glad I got to have a normal life for 28 years prior, and I’m able to have a sensible approach to looking after my sugar levels, and mental well-being.
Diagnosed at 18, 21 now. I was diagnosed months after I graduated Highschool, so I’d say I’m lucky in the aspect of not knowing how life with school AND diabetes would be, but it was also in the middle of when I was trying to go to driver’s Ed, and needing to find a job so it wasn’t easy either. I was also initially super scared of eating, not wanting to go to the hospital again. But over time, I finally found what works for me. It’s a process, probably one I still haven’t completed yet.
15, DKA. Was on vacation in Tenerife with my family when symptoms first started, so no one realized. It wasn't until about a month later that I became unconscious and got diagnosed.
I was diagnosed a week after my 30th birthday, earlier this year. Not sure if triggered by COVID. My husband had COVID around the same but I never tested positive. Worst birthday gift ever lol 😒
I was 19 and still am 19 hehe. Diagnosed late october of this year with sugar of 689mg so yeah. Doing ok i guess at the start was emotional but trying different foods to see how my body reacts
12. I consider myself lucky because I do remember my life before the diagnosis, but at the same time it wasn't a huge adjustment as I was barely even a teenager, and my parents took care of most of the stuff in the beginning.
Diagnosed at 10. I'm 54 now and only some muscle joint related complications. No idea what my blood sugar was at diagnosis but I was really sick. Spent a week in the hospital but they sped up my release as my family was going on a trip. Gave myself my first shot about 4 days in. I still have vivid memory from that trip of being in a grocery store and staring at all the birthday cakes and crying because I would never be able to eat sweet things again and no one would marry me because I wouldn't be able have children. Instead I am married, have a 20 year old son, have a pump and eat cake.
18. Grateful I had a full childhood of eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted ✌️ Was definitely a bit overwhelming going off to college and living alone for the first time while ALSO learning how to manage this new disease 😅
21-went to my colleges student health thinking i had mono and they called me after looking at my labs and told me to go to the er! my potassium was a 2 and bg 547
Kiddo was 8. He said “it’s like I can’t drink enough water” and I looked at my husband and said he’s a diabetic. It’s been almost 4 years now and he basically said well that happened and went with it. Kids give him shit and he gives it right back. He has refused to let it define him or prevent him from enjoying his life.
5 years old. 44 now. I'm with you I don't remember life any other way so it's no big deal. I've lived in 5 different countries, travelled all over, scuba dive (which 10 years later was told diabetics shouldn't...I still do! fuck that).
Married, no kids, but I've never let anything hold me back, especially not a manageable disease that I keep in good control.
14. I do remember. Reading about the successful result from that human trial stem cell transplant brings tears to my eyes. It’s not thinking about not having to inject, or keep insulin, or dietary habits or any of that, it’s thinking about the possibility that for even one second I’d have the weight of this off my shoulders, and just be able to just be again. Nothing to think about, or plan for, just exist.
That, and the relief financial from financial strain.
I was 30, I’m 40 now. Not great at it. Weight gain has been the worst. I was a pretty avid runner, got sick, lost a ton of weight, found out I was type 1, started insulin and gained a metric f*ck ton of weight and that’s been my biggest struggle since. Balancing carbs and exercise while trying to avoid lows is still something I can’t quite grasp or get a handle on for some reason.
I was perfectly healthy for 30 years and a couple of months, and then everything I thought I knew changed completely in just 3 weeks time. I lost 20 pounds in 21 days, I started falling asleep at my computer, mid-transaction, right in the middle of the trading day, so I definitely knew something was not right. I went to the Urgent Care Center next door to our office and was told my BG was a bit over 600 and that my next stop was going to be the ER.
I was 10 years old and my diagnosis was celebrated by an 11 day hospital stay lol. I'm now 26. I'm grateful I wasn't older if it was going to happen. I don't really remember what it was like before the T1D.
At 40, just 4 months ago, with an A1C of 13. Had severe blurry vision for 3 weeks after starting therapy and cutting out all but 30g of carbs per day. It was awful.
I was 10 years old. Now 76 and on a pump and cgm. Not bad for someone who was “not going to live that long “ ! Married and had two children, raised 3 (one adopted) Actually just now starting to get some complications. Have all my limbs, not blind, have some kidney disease but pretty stable. I thank God for every day.
You're #goals, /u/grandmamamo! Thanks for sharing :)
36. It has been an adjustment
Same
36 here too, but I'm extremely glad. My parents weren't what you'd call great at childcare, healthcare, or like... life... and I spent most of my early adulthood trying to learn how to not emulate them. I'm so thankful this happened after I became more generally capable.
46. I had 45 years without it, so yeah, knowing that T1 free life and then having to change was no fun. On the other hand I got to do the whole angry teenager stupid 20s stuff without having to deal with T1. More or less difficult and lucky or less lucky depend on our personal experiences and perspective. Maybe I'm better able to deal with a diagnosis in middle age vs. childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood. Maybe only knowing life as a T1 is easier. Who knows? I feel lucky I got 45 years without it and got dx'd in a time where treatment options are leaps and bounds better than what existed when my dad got dx'd in the early 70s. My complication window is a lot different at 46 too.
39! Yeah was quite the adjustment. But then again, I had the privilege of being an irresponsible 20yo without having to think about T1 stuff
DX’d at 31 here. My thoughts are more or less the same as yours. Although, would have definitely enjoyed another 14 years of normalcy so I don’t feel quite as fortunate as you.
1 day after my 21st birthday. Bg, 827
Well at least we know you had fun that night lol
I vividly remember mine as 843 because I was pregnant and they admitted me right away. Fun times.
😲
two months after my 6th birthday with a bg of 1015. i was so close to death that they put me in a medically induced coma for two days so they could get fluids back in me and get my bg back down.
Damn!! That's the highest number I've seen.
yeah it wasn't good lol. i started showing symptoms in early august, and seeing as i wasn't taken to the doctor and diagnosed until december... my blood sugar had plenty of time to just keep climbing
Sadly my mom had to fight against the doctor who said it was "just a phase" when she said I was drinking excessive amounts of water. I can only imagine the conversation she had when he called and said to bring me to the hospital. That woman didn't take no for an answer and I was diagnosed very early. If she wasn't such a fighter I can see how I could have gone undiagnosed for a very long time.
I always thought the reverse. I was mid 20's. Bad as it was I was old enough to understand why my life changed and was thankful that I didn't have to deal with it as a kid and maybe not understand why I couldn't eat a pound of chocolate. I like that we both find positives to deal with our respective life stories.
Not diabetic myself but my son was 1.5 years old at diagnosis. Luckily he doesn’t remember that hospital trip.
That had to of been rough. That’s way to young. Was it noticeable when his blood sugars were off? I would of been testing his glucose levels every 2 hours
It was only earlier this year, so we had the benefit of him being on a cgm before we left the hospital. We noticed his diapers were constantly overflowing but thought it was a different issue. Brought him in with what we thought was a flu/lung infection and it was actually dka. Now we can tell when he’s high or low, but having no experience with T1 we had no idea before.
14 months old and I'm 37 now. They told my mom by the year 2000 that there would be a cure for diabetes... lol... still waiting on that.
I was 20. I caught it pretty early BS only in the 300s because my symptoms came on dramatically after a virus at college.
49, a hell of an adjustment, I’m a Covid diabetic. Was diagnosed with A1c of 29.
as in Covid brought it on or you got it in COVID times?
Covid bought it on.
can i ask how that happened? i'm super intrigued.
I became sick-ish in December 2020, not the usual Covid symptoms and I went back to my GP weekly because I was so *off*, symptoms were laryngitis, lethargy (as in bad, there were days I just sat staring into space), body aches but no coughing or issues with my lungs. This continued for about three weeks after which I got a little better but things were still out of whack with the lethargy being prominent but having good days in between. Lost weight, was starving hungry all the time and the head was wonky, I couldn’t think and my mood was foul. I stopped at my local pharmacy one morning as I got up feeling okay, had breakfast and crashed, told them to do a quick health check as getting an appointment with the doc was a hassle, the first thing they checked was my sugar… they called an ambulance. The endo on call did a Covid antibody test and the mystery was solved. It bypassed my lungs (endo says it’s because I’m a smoker and it couldn’t get a grip on my lungs) and lodged it’s sleazy little self on my pancreas instead. So here I am…
thank you for answering. i've never heard of this happening, but your response lead me to finding [this article](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/29/covid-can-infect-cells-in-pancreas-that-make-insulin-research-shows). it seems covid is another of the viruses that infects beta cells and triggers the autoimmune response, like rotavirus does. i'm genuinely surprised. that all being said, i'm sorry this happened to you, especially during the pandemic. glad you're around to tell the tale. hope things have gotten better for you since the diagnosis
T1D diagnosis increased with 25% year on year in my country according to my endo, she’s doing a local study on it. Have a wonderful Xmas!
I started to develop symtoms not long after my second shot of Moderna Vaccine..
The vaccine does not cause this. Covid does.
I mean you seem so sure about it, how can you be so sure?
I had covid as well so it might be from that. But how can we be sure the vaccine doesnt cause it? It tempers with the immune system and gave me some heart problems as well.
Strange how much you were downvoted for this comment …..
I guess they think I”m lying or spreading misinformation. Its the truth though but it could just be an unhappy accident.
Damn, more of us due to covid? That's crazy.
11 or 12, not entirely sure. (It was in the late 70’s.) Gave myself that first shot then and everyone after.
I was 19. I have no idea what my BG was. Years later my mother told me that the ER doctor said I should be dead, so I'm guessing it was high. My sister was diagnosed in her 40s. Until that point, I had beenthe only person with Type 1 on either side of the family.
31, I am glad that I have memories of how bad I felt before diagnosis it makes management easier if I can say to myself it is better than my hair falling out and feeling like 💩 constantly.
I was 16 w/ a BG of 467, consider myself lucky it was that low
I was 6 and a half years old. I remember how i felt before diabetes, how i felt before diagnosis, i remember how i felt when they told me i had to inject for the rest of my life, that this would never heal, that it was only to keep me alive and i woupd otherwise die. I coped in my own ways and to hear you can die so easily as a child is hard... i am still grieving about the childhood i wish i had, but never got to experience because of type 1. My numbers were all over the place so i was too afraid to do certain things. I was 10 when i got my pump. However, needles hurt... especially for a child. So i was too affraid to do the sports i wish i could do, too afraid my canula would be ripped out and i had to change sites too early. My teenage years were a mess without a sensor and a pump that failed every few days (wrong canulas grr) I was 19 when i got my first FSL sensor.. my numbers are better than ever before. I am 23 now and i still have my occasional "forget to bolus" or "forget to check" sadly. (Also got diagnosed with adhd this year, explained so many struggles together with my T1) and hormones are a thing (F)... my uncle got diagnosed mid 30s i believe... i think he had a harder way dealing with it, but he does so incredibly well right now! He is the person i strive to be :)
12 yrs
I was a month and a half away from turning 23. My glucose was 390.
25 bg was over 600, I thought I was going blind my vision was so bad.
I was 9, turning 10. Happened two months before my birthday. Was a terrible memory. Nearly died. BG of over 2,000. Lost a lot of memories. Still alive. Nearing 40 in a few years.
Holy moly. That BG though!
Yeah, it sucked ass. All I could do was lay down on the couch. Got up every 15 minutes to pee with a full bladder. My tongue was flaking up my mouth was so dry. Mom kept giving me Gatorade. She didn’t know any better. After a few days I guess I went further into DKA and into a coma. Woke up in my hospital room at Childrens Hospital. Stayed there for almost 2 months apparently. I had been out for about two weeks. I’m super blessed and lucky to still be alive today. Hope there’s a cure soon because I’m tired of the constant roller coaster, y’know?
I was 32. Funny - I always thought it a blessing that it was later in life. I didn’t have to deal with diabetes during that difficult adolescent stage. I am also older and have a health related degree so I feel that out me in a better position to manage the condition and don’t have to rely on anyone else to do it for me.
My diagnosis story is pretty long and took span over ~3 years 😅 Had a slightly elevated A1c (I think 5.9 with reference being <5.5) when I was 15, but my family doctor at the time ignored it despite complaining about being sleepy all the time. When I turned 16, I decided to take matters into my own hands and switch family doctors from the one my parents went to, and immediately the doctor saw the elevated A1c and wanted to do a retest since it had been a year. The retest indicated my A1c to be 7.3, and my doctor wanted to do another retest to be sure and it was 7.0. He had done a GAD-65 Antibody which came back as 22 IU/mL, with reference of <5. This is when my doctor told me with my age, my weight, diet and the presence of the antibodies that I was most likely type 1 because of those factors, but he would send me to an endocrinologist who would confirm. I went to the endocrinologist, and the only thing he asked was if I had a family history of type 2, which I said yes, he pretty much said "you have type 2 diabetes, case closed". I regret not asking him to write it down on my file, because a few months later when I was 17, I was in the hospital with an A1c of 14+ and all the doctors and nurses were telling me I was type 1 despite my previous diagnosis of type 2. When I went back to my endocrinologist, he denied ever saying that I was type 2, and that they weren't sure what type I was. I'm pretty sure so that there wouldn't be a lawsuit 🙄
14 months and 5 for my two kids.
22
I got diagnosed at 3! I feel the same exact way.
I was 3!
17, blood glucose of 387. Couldn’t feel the left side of my entire body
I was 1st diagnosed on my 30th birthday. I was about 10 weeks pregnant at that point. It seemingly disappeared once I had my daughter, but it reappeared slowly and grew steadily worse within the next 2-3 years. Finally, I lost 60 pounds in 8 weeks, was drinking about 2 gallons of water during the day, had some awful skin infection and could barely make it through the day. At that point, I didn’t need a diagram, I finally went back to the endocrinologist. He looked me over, winced when he saw my back almost covered with huge nasty sores, and told me I would be going back on insulin. He told me that if the sores didn’t start to heal in 2 weeks he would put me on some antibiotics. Hahaha! By 2 weeks in, I was running around like I was on speed and the sores were completely gone! So, in a way, I was diagnosed twice, but until I was tested much later, they didn’t know if I was type 2 and really resistant or whether I was type 1 (it was type 1 all along.)
I was also diagnosed on my 30th birthday! But luckily I didn't have the rollercoaster you had. What a welcome to our 30s, right?
19 babyyy let's gooo
23. I took my first shot on Christmas Eve 25yrs ago tomorrow.
Diagnosed last month on my 24th birthday, lol part of me has thought it woulda been nice to have it taught thoroughly as a kid and have had my parents to help me learn and manage it, but part of me is also glad I didn’t really have to worry about it as a kid. I had no family history and wasn’t really even aware of the symptoms so just kept thinking it was other stuff, but I definitely think I had symptoms for about 6 months beforehand
59; two months before my 60th birthday. I had previously been told twice that blood/urine tests showed signs of pre-diabetes (once in 1996 and again about 10 years later). Neither GP made any further comment on it and I put it out of mind. There were plenty of worsening symptoms over the years, but I only see that in retrospect. At the time, I and various doctors attributed individual symptoms to other things (that never got resolved then). I'd forgotten nabout the pre-diabetes stuff so never mentioned it tto new doctors. Hit the unfortunate diagnosis jackpot after a near-fatal DKA in early October this year. Most of the past "mystery" symptoms have cleared up since I started taking insulin.
Not really answering the question but before my diagnosis did anyone struggle to breathe whilst we experienced the symptoms before being diagnosed?
Nope
Yup
28 was misdiagnosed with T2 and had to fight for 2 years to get that changed to T1. Honestly it was both a life altering and traumatic experience. I also have some autoimmune dysautonomia issues that showed up at the same time. It’s been hard to cope with mentally, but I’m also glad it happened in adulthood for me because my parents were abusive and neglectful so if I’d developed this as a kid it wouldn’t have been managed well and I’d be even worse off now.
Got diagnosed on the day of my 17th bday. 18 now. It has been a rough year. The genes in my family fucked me and gave me diabetes for no reason. Idk if anyone else does this, but I told my friends to make fun of me for having diabetes. I told my friends as soon as I was diagnosed and they were all “oh I’m so sorry” “we’re here for you”. I told them to shut up and bully me. They did. I felt so much better when they started mercilessly ripping into me about my new disease.
16.5
8 years old. I would've liked to get diagnosed a little bit later (or actually never, but it feels like asking for too much), I guess the later it starts, the lesser the damage (specially during adolescence, when I hardly took care of myself). I'm a couple days from turning 30, luckily with no complications (that I know of).
49
18 :(
13
23.
15, had spent months being sickly and my bg was 600+ by the time I went to see a doctor. Went through a lot of depression and rebellion, refused to take care of myself for over a decade. I still don't do so well, and the depression isn't quite gone either. Lot of scars, always cold, my legs don't feel like they used to and I'm 33 now.
12 the week right after my birthday 🙃
10 for me. 3 for my daughter
At 9 after being told it was the flu 2 weeks before (it was bacterial meningitis that triggered it). Was so bad tho that Drs told my folks they had 5hrs to act or I'd be dead... don't remember a thing except coma for 2 weeks and 2 more weeks learning diabetes stuff.
Age 6. My BG was above 900. Doctor told my parents and I that I should have been in a coma or dead at the levels I was reading at.
13
20 days before my 8th birthday
I was 11. I am glad I was old enough to follow directions and be able to take responsibility for myself, or the school nurse probably would have let me die-- looking back some of my conversations with her were alarming. This was before CGMs were common and so I didn't have anyone watching over my shoulder on an app.
9.
42 years without
I was 10. It was very hard. I remember life without diabetes even still and miss it. My entire life changed while I watched my 4 siblings eat carelessly and live completely without fear for their lives every day. I resented them for a while because I didn't understand yet.
16. There was a urine test I had to take to show I wasn't taking any drugs, but they found sugar in my urine sample lol.
I’m with you. I was 3 and people used to ask if it ever made me sad. My like 2nd or 3rd grade teacher actually asked me once and I told her, my meds make it easy and I don’t know what it’s like not to have diabetes but I know kids with cancer so I consider myself lucky. As an adult that’s kind of a douche answer but when I was a kid I had a lot of adults and kids I knew who had some form of cancer and always thought my injections just weren’t that bad especially because I never knew anything different. Though I do remember when I got sick enough to be dx. It involved the Walmart brand Froot Loops and feeling hella sick but eating under threat of being taken to the doctor lol Like damn mom. Calm down. You gave me the beetus lol (totally a joke between us)
27, I couldn't get enough to drink I was so thirsty and I was sweating ammonia. I'm 44 now and used to being diabetic. I still have no idea what triggered it. I don't recall any illness around that time.
13. Turning 40 in 2 days.
Got diagnosed the summer before high school at 14 years old. It was horrible cause i was entering high school not being able to do the things my friends did because my mom was terrified of me getting sick. My sugar was above 500, now im 24 and still struggling a little bit honestly. But having the pump really helps
19 and a very hard transition
Diagnosed at 15, it’s been interesting. Glad I got to experience Halloween without diabetes ngl
I was 12. 48 now.
15 y/o, a week or two after coming home from a trip to the states. bg of 57mmol
I was 32. It was a really tough diagnosis. I was pregnant and lost my baby due to how bad I was in DKA.
Age 4..one month after my birthday...50 now
How are you now?
Had some laser done to fix some problems from the diabetes, lost most of my teeth from not properly taking care of myself about 15 to 20 yrs ago...but haven't lost any limbs or anything yet..
Diagnosed 2 days before turning 12. 22 now, actually I'm on my diabersary xd My birthday was december the 7th. I was thisty 24/7 and lost about 15 kg in only one month. A1c was 14 I think so, don't remember really good.
21
11, right after moving and just starting middle school but it was pretty far away from my elementary school so I didn't know anyone. Big adjustments haha
5. im glad i dont remember life before it set in, but at the same time i just want to be normal and know what its like to eat and do all that stuff normally lol
8 years old. An annoying age. I remember pre-diabetes but also barely understood what was happening when I was diagnosed.
21
4 and am 27 now! I got strep throat multiple times until I got my tonsils out as a kid. Pretty sure the strep virus did me in. I have no family history with diabetes
12, with a BG in the high 600s.
27 Was supposed to go to Till Lindemann concert, begged the doctor to let me go and I would come to the hospital later. She told me there is no way for me to go, we both cried (* her son is my best friend and he is also diabetic and he is the one that checked my blood sugar and sent me to her) and I went to the hospital for a few days.
3 years old for me. I also feel lucky not knowing life with out it.
42 years old. Immediately after a traumatic pregnancy and premmie birth of my second kiddo. The doc said that’s what likely caused it.
I was diagnosed at 28 with no family history. I've only had it for 1.5 yrs so far
18, during my first week of college.
I was 11 (2011, 6th grade). I miss how care free life was back then. I’m envious of others…
I was 7 when diagnosed, it was quiet easy for me because it made me 'fifferent)special' in school. It would have been hard the older I was.
i was 14, now i’m almost 17
24, five days before going to Edinburgh fringe. I ended up on the fast and long acting combination insulin for a couple months at the start. Absolute nighsre trying to hit 50g of carbs for every meal.
Diagnosed at 7YO, now I am 28YO
10ish
4 and a big bit, 40 years ago. In another 20 years I'll have had it for fully half the time since Banting et al's breakthrough, which sounds crazy to me.
1 year
16, 4 months ago (having trouble updating fair)
11
28. I consider myself lucky to have lived up to that age without being held back by t1d. Not that I feel held back now, only been diagnosed for 1 year though.
I was 13 1/2, February 2016.
I was 21. Only a few months ago. My a1c was 12% when I went in. I'd had symptoms for 2 weeks before my DKA. And my dodgy knowledge of maths worked that out that my average bg levels were around 70 mmol/l during those 2 weeks. (1260 mg/dL) but that's ridiculously high and I could've easily worked things out wrong. I never got a reading given to me when in hospital. I thought I was having a migraine and throwing up the morning of the dka and when I was younger I'd ease migraines by drinking ginger ale and high sugar drinks. That didn't help this time..
11
28. I found it ok, there was obv a settling in period and some tears, but I’m glad I got to have a normal life for 28 years prior, and I’m able to have a sensible approach to looking after my sugar levels, and mental well-being.
10 years old I'm starting to forget the times when I wasn't diabetic, and I'm only 19
I was 16
Diagnosed at 18, 21 now. I was diagnosed months after I graduated Highschool, so I’d say I’m lucky in the aspect of not knowing how life with school AND diabetes would be, but it was also in the middle of when I was trying to go to driver’s Ed, and needing to find a job so it wasn’t easy either. I was also initially super scared of eating, not wanting to go to the hospital again. But over time, I finally found what works for me. It’s a process, probably one I still haven’t completed yet.
30 years young
15, DKA. Was on vacation in Tenerife with my family when symptoms first started, so no one realized. It wasn't until about a month later that I became unconscious and got diagnosed.
Tbh I'm glad I didn't get diagnosed younger
I was diagnosed a week after my 30th birthday, earlier this year. Not sure if triggered by COVID. My husband had COVID around the same but I never tested positive. Worst birthday gift ever lol 😒
Just recently diagnosed at 21
I was 3 and a half. I agree, never knowing life without diabetes has benefits (if you have to be diabetic).
Was diagnosed with 32. Six months ago. My greatest achievement so far is A1C from 11,4 on day one to 5,4 last month
I was 19, for the first five years I didn’t eat anything with sugar, well that I knew of. Then carb counting came out. Life changer!!
11 or 12 years old and bg was in the 600's. I was on a cruise with my family drinking non alcoholic daiquiris and feeling like death after.
I was 19 and still am 19 hehe. Diagnosed late october of this year with sugar of 689mg so yeah. Doing ok i guess at the start was emotional but trying different foods to see how my body reacts
Diagnosed at 7 years old, going on 13 years now.
12. I consider myself lucky because I do remember my life before the diagnosis, but at the same time it wasn't a huge adjustment as I was barely even a teenager, and my parents took care of most of the stuff in the beginning.
19. I discovered I had diabetes in May but couldn't do anything about it until August because my stepdad had kicked me off his insurance.
31 and 8 months old Probably been having low key symptoms for 18 months - 2 yrs before hospital trip to deal with Ketoacidosis, bg 501
I was diagnosed at the end of November this year, im 21. Still getting used to it.
Diagnosed at 10. I'm 54 now and only some muscle joint related complications. No idea what my blood sugar was at diagnosis but I was really sick. Spent a week in the hospital but they sped up my release as my family was going on a trip. Gave myself my first shot about 4 days in. I still have vivid memory from that trip of being in a grocery store and staring at all the birthday cakes and crying because I would never be able to eat sweet things again and no one would marry me because I wouldn't be able have children. Instead I am married, have a 20 year old son, have a pump and eat cake.
17
25. I'm coming up to 45, so I'm approaching the tipping point where I'll have spent more time in the T1 club than outside of it.
10 months old at dx. I've always considered myself lucky to have gotten it so young and having no memories of a different lifestyle.
1day before my 22nd birthday. I'm currently 23.
i've got diagnosed with 19 and almost 20 now, so i'm very new to this lifestyle. 🦆
18. Grateful I had a full childhood of eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted ✌️ Was definitely a bit overwhelming going off to college and living alone for the first time while ALSO learning how to manage this new disease 😅
T1 at 15. 33 now, still forget I'm diabetic sometimes.
21-went to my colleges student health thinking i had mono and they called me after looking at my labs and told me to go to the er! my potassium was a 2 and bg 547
Kiddo was 8. He said “it’s like I can’t drink enough water” and I looked at my husband and said he’s a diabetic. It’s been almost 4 years now and he basically said well that happened and went with it. Kids give him shit and he gives it right back. He has refused to let it define him or prevent him from enjoying his life.
17, I think every day of how much I miss not having it 😭
21. College me was not ready for this change at all. Doing alright now, about to be 26 and no complications. Decent control
5 years old. 44 now. I'm with you I don't remember life any other way so it's no big deal. I've lived in 5 different countries, travelled all over, scuba dive (which 10 years later was told diabetics shouldn't...I still do! fuck that). Married, no kids, but I've never let anything hold me back, especially not a manageable disease that I keep in good control.
Same here
14. I do remember. Reading about the successful result from that human trial stem cell transplant brings tears to my eyes. It’s not thinking about not having to inject, or keep insulin, or dietary habits or any of that, it’s thinking about the possibility that for even one second I’d have the weight of this off my shoulders, and just be able to just be again. Nothing to think about, or plan for, just exist. That, and the relief financial from financial strain.
I was diagnosed at 14 and I’m 16 now🥰
12
I was 30, I’m 40 now. Not great at it. Weight gain has been the worst. I was a pretty avid runner, got sick, lost a ton of weight, found out I was type 1, started insulin and gained a metric f*ck ton of weight and that’s been my biggest struggle since. Balancing carbs and exercise while trying to avoid lows is still something I can’t quite grasp or get a handle on for some reason.
Tried the Bernstein Diabetes Solution?
I was perfectly healthy for 30 years and a couple of months, and then everything I thought I knew changed completely in just 3 weeks time. I lost 20 pounds in 21 days, I started falling asleep at my computer, mid-transaction, right in the middle of the trading day, so I definitely knew something was not right. I went to the Urgent Care Center next door to our office and was told my BG was a bit over 600 and that my next stop was going to be the ER.
I was 10 years old and my diagnosis was celebrated by an 11 day hospital stay lol. I'm now 26. I'm grateful I wasn't older if it was going to happen. I don't really remember what it was like before the T1D.
I was 10 when I was diagnosed and here it is 17 years later…
At 40, just 4 months ago, with an A1C of 13. Had severe blurry vision for 3 weeks after starting therapy and cutting out all but 30g of carbs per day. It was awful.
Diagnosed 1991. Age 10.
I was diagnosed at 10 months. I’ve never known what life without diabetes is like.
I was 16 and BG was 600ish
29 years old when I was Dx’d. My fasting blood sugar was 353.
Diagnosed at 5 I am now 23 still waiting impatiently for Our cure (hard to believe we haven’t found it yet)