39 Comments
How long did T1D still feel new to you after your diagnosis?
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Guess I really don’t know how to answer your question. I’ve lived with T1 for soon to be 66 years.When I was dx at 8, I didn’t know anyone besides my grandfather who had diabetes. In the 1950’s personal information was not openly discussed. There were many changes to my life right after diagnosis, but throughout my life there have continually been “new” things that have required me to continue learning and adapting. Neither life or diabetes is static.
70 years. Something new or different each year. Smart pens? Gastroparesis? Some unknow-yet-to-be-identified comorbidity? Who knew one condition, T1D, could have such a wealth of opportunities? 🙈 🙈 🙈
Difficult for me to answer this question too. I have had T1D for 43 years, dxd at age 10. My maternal aunt and uncle both had T1D dxd in their 20s, so it wasn’t a completely foreign concept to my family. I have now have 3 kids of my own and one of them has T1D as well – dxd at age 5.
I answered other. Most of the time I feel normal, but there are always those days/events that remind me I am a T1 diabetic, and I don’t ever see that changing in my life time.
My husband came to T1D after his pancreas gave out two and half years ago (in his 60’s). When I asked him this question, he said immediately said “About a year and a half” and noted that for the first year, his prevailing thought was “Ok, I can wait this out” like it was going to go away. Now at two and a half years, he gets that it is just a part of his daily life and always will be. He’s grateful that if he has to have T1, it’s at this point in time when the tools and technology exists to better manage it.
I was diagnosed 32 years ago at age 7. I said it took less than 1 year because i had to tell my friends/classmates and teachers about it and at first some were nervous about it being contagious.. After a while they didn’t treat me any differently. My parents were very supportive and I had a routine with fingersticks and insulin twice a day and eating every 2 to 4 hours. I just got to eat snacks or candy in class sometimes.
jUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE THIS T1D FIGURED OUT, IT CAN CHANGE BECAUSE YOUR BODY AND HORMONES CHANGE. NOW THAT I AM A SENIOR, I AM IN THE SAME ROUTINE, BUT THE NUMBERS ARE NEW EVERY MORNING, AND YOU MAKE ADJUSTMENTS EACH AND EVERY NEW TEST OR NOW SCAN THE SENSOR.
Since I was 4 when I was diagnosed, it just became my new way of life. I do remember it was not fun!
I am constantly learning. Something new on a regular basis. I would say every morning is a new day.
I was diagnosed in 1945, when I was 6 years old. I cannot remember how long it seemed new to me.
Fortunately for me my older brother had had T1D for 6 years before I was diagnosed with the disease. So I was brought up in a diabetes environment which made the transition that much easier for me.
I selected other because I was diagnosed 51 years ago. It pretty quickly became normal the new for my parents and me, but I was always “othered” in school – especially grade school. Really – it only served to piss me off, but it also caused some kids to try to bully or tease me because they thought I was getting special treatment. They soon learned that I would turn it around on them either verbally or physically – if necessary. Ahhh, the 1970s when no holds were barred on the playground – at least where I grew up. It was eat or be eaten on the east side of Flint, Michigan. lol.
I had to choose “other” as I was diagnosed at 2 yrs, so I have no memory of life before or after diagnosis
I was diagnosed in 1994. I don’t remember how long it felt “new”, but I do remember a brief period of thinking I could wean myself from dependence on insulin through diet and exercise. After a couple of months, once it was apparent that wasn’t going to happen, I was able to accept it, despite the fact that with T1D I had to abandon a seagoing career. Oddly enough, I never felt bitter about that.
57 years ago, though I was 15 at the time of Dx, my father was a LADA T1 so I grew up watching him inject every day. I was brother 4 of 5 and I drew the D card but each day is different
Well, let’s see. I’m sitting down right now to change infusion sets while I think. 🤔 2021 – 1983 = 38 years. So yeah, that’s how long it still feels new to me.
Well, such an odd question. On my checkin sheet at the doctors appointment it stated “Diabetic for 40 years.” I always find it funny to read. But in answer to your question it was never “new.” It was a “Whamo” and still Whams me everyday as I deal with management of T1D. Must be doing something right after 40 years. But “New” is not a word I would use.
I find this to be a strange question. “New” is not a feeling that I ever had after being diagnosed with it in 1980. Rather, it had been a drastic change in my life as a senior in high school. From that day forward I have just had to adapt.
It was so long ago that I don’t remember. I was 8 years old. I suppose it took a few months to get used to the new way of being and living everyday life differently. My whole extended family along with social acquaintances and school friends had to adapt and accept that Connie had “juvenile diabetes” so it was a learning experience for all of us. It didn’t take very long for it to become a “new normal” and life went on as before.
Pancreas failed at 49 for me. Less then a year ago. Most definitely not accustomed to living this way yet. Fear i never will be.
I don’t remember as I was 9 years old and it was 65 years ago. It is a strange question. I became used to having it and taking care of myself, but it took many years as decent blood glucose testing didn’t become standard for many years. I eally appreciate cgm and pump technology probably more than most people. I became an RD and certified diabetes educator in order to know as much as I could as most doctors don’t have the training they need. I participate in research when possible at the UW in Seattle.
“New””old” “alien” I acquired diabetes as an adult. I feel like some alien entered my body. I robotically do the actions. It all feels new, old, alien. Too many years. A different day, I might have given a different answer:)
I don’t remember. Its too long from diagnosis at age 15.
I was diagnosed at 11 years, so 39 years now, but I had been living with it, via my younger brother, for 9 years already.
I was 8 years old and fell into a diabetic coma before I was diagnosed. I only remember feeling so much better after getting insulin. Decades later I still wonder what it would feel like to be diabetes free.
I wasn’t typed correctly for a couple of years. Was type 2 until they figured out the drugs weren’t working. Then it took a few more years before I felt I was ready for a pump. Since the pump in 2007, I feel pretty experienced and as comfortable as someone can with a mechanical device attached to their body. But there is always something to learn.
I was basically on my own to manage my T1D after the month or so of daily morning calls to my pediatrician that followed my discharge from my initial hospital stay. So eating and injection routines were set and quickly became old. I don’t consider daily and hourly adjustments, or all the changes in technologies since diagnosis as making my T1D new; just different and usually better tools for the same old, same old routines.
Probably only about a week. It got incorporated into my daily routine pretty quickly. With no technology when I was diagnosed, there wasn’t much to get used to.
My body, it’s conditions and T1D still feel new to me in some aspects constantly. (Unless in an alternate reality, my body came with a user manual or spoke to me about the problems occurring and the actual cause.) My mechanical memory of using the devices is ingrained, but problems arise so often with me trying to understand why my BG varies independent of stress I am unaware of, autoimmune inheritance, how conditions I have are related if at all, what causes my insulin sensitivity to change, and the list goes on.
I am 7 months in and while it feels new because I am still experimenting and learning, I feel well managed. I got a CGM within a month and my pump the soonest I could which was 6 months. The technology has been great and I don’t feel it to be a huge burden.
Having been diagnosed more than more than 50 years ago, I don’t remember when it stopped feeling new.
Good God, it was so long ago I have no memory of it. 1962.
I remember everything changing so fast, at least a year. Frequent hospitalizations from lows, I was only 9 so it took a while to recognize them early enough to treat.
I don’t think that as a 10 year old, 55 years ago that I could process those kinds of feelings. It was all so overwhelming and scary, but as to how long it felt new, I really don’t know.
I was three years old at the time, and my first memories were in the hospital after diagnosis. I wasn’t old enough to process feelings of “new” vs. “familiar.”
I was a young three year old. I don’t remember life without it.
Other because I was 6 years old and I don’t remember
Diabetes has never felt new to me. My brother was diagnosed at 4 years old, he is 55 now….(I was 9 at the time) I raised 2 sons with T1d so when I was diagnosed 3 years ago it just felt like another day!
I was diagnosed at age 6 in 1966 just before Christmas. I only remember it feeling “this is new” during my hospitalization. I never minded the shots or the urine tests much even with site reactions (hives, itching, swelling) with the Beef insulin. Mother’s motto was “Hooray! You don’t have leukemia! It happened…. life goes on. This is treatable.”. I live by that motto.