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Has your career path been influenced by having T1D, for better or worse?
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“Professionally” probably not, healthwise without a doubt. Still 80 lbs from 23 years ago, no 5-6 cases beer a week (will last me now 4-5 weeks??), even though l could still be called a workaholic I now try to have other goals. But not worldwide except I’m older?
Yes would have stayed career military but they don’t like insulin junkies. But in retrospect given the lack of bg control in my early days I can see why. Diabetes therapy advances in my diabetic lifetime have been incredible. If they could have slapped a pump and cgm on me from the start, I am sure my career choices would have been different.
Living with T1D has certainly guided and transformed my life. I went to nursing school and eventually earned a MSN with a clinical specialty focus in diabetes care and education. As a diabetes educator I educate both PWDs and HCPs who care for them.
I went back to school for 9 years and completed bachelors, MSW, and PhD to have a career in research. I would not have done that without diabetes diagnosis at 28 years old.
Not by me having T1D but my younger brother having T1D for 10 years before my own dx. His dx. in 1972 at age 7 months is a huge part of why I became a RN.
Have been retired for the past three years, but during my working life I never let my T1D influence the type of job or other career situation. For 30 years I traveled on average three days a week across this country and throughout the world. Trips to Europe or Asia sometimes lasted two weeks. Having a pump allowed me to freely go between time zones without too much worry. My main priority was ensuring I had plenty of insulin and pump supplies to cover my time away, including extra for missed connections or extended stays. My only regret is I didn’t employ a CGM until my last two working years.
I chose jobs and a career based upon the health benefits offered by my employer, a local government.
Yes, I became a pharmacist CDE to better understand T1D and to help other with diabetes. In university I went back and forth between medicine and pharmacy and settled on pharmacy.
Diabetes in general didn’t influence my career path, but finding a more effective way of T1D management absolutely did. After starting a coaching business, then growing beyond just me, my diabetes education company now includes CDCES (certified diabetes educators) and is helping people around the globe improve their T1D management. In that respect, diabetes has directly and dramatically influenced /improved my life and for that, I’m incredibly grateful.
Yes, definitely for worse. I became a T1D (then known as Juvenile Diabetes) in 1977. Back then there were no CGM systems, no insulin pumps, no blood test kits. The only tools I had were insulin made from pork, syringes, and Testape (a litmus kind of strip that uses urine). Testape was useless because it told you what your blood sugar was on hours ago. When I was first diagnosed I was a traveling sales rep. for an international food company. I told my boss my diagnosis, and he immediately advised me resign. Over the years, I had many low blood sugars, some which resulted in embarrassing situations. Not until I got my first insulin pump in 1998, did my career make a turn for the better. But, I am sure my career could have taken different directions and I would have done better if I never were a diabetic.
I have always chosen jobs for the medical benefits. I worked in a grocery store that had 100% coverage but the job was tough, the hours were challenging and the pay wasn’t good. For the past 25 years I’ve worked in the patent legal field which has been rewarding and the benefits are good. I feel fortunate that I found something I love that also offers me the healthcare I need.
My career path was not influenced but my life has been changed. Diabetes is challenging but I have also learned much and doors have opened up for me- meeting interesting people, volunteering at a diabetes camp for children and teaching a class for prediabetic individuals.
Helping other people learn how to thrive with T1D and T2D has shaped my entire career and I wouldn’t change it for anything! (Oh, okay, except maybe for a cure.)
Yes. Both. The discriminations were prior to the enactment of the American With Disabilities Act in 1994. The “better” were subsequent association with coworkers who managed T1D as well as they could. I even enjoyed working with the one lady who did time in the slammer. Life’s experiences, my own and others’, never cease to amaze me. ツ 🙌 🎸 🎉
Most definitely! After completing my BA I choose jobs that had health insurance. But I was without a career direction until I attended UCSF’s Diabetes Clinic, taught by the well known nurse educator, Peggy Huang. Her teaching made a huge impact on my life, and I decided to follow her path and become a nurse or become a Diabetes Educator! I love my work, it’s challenges and the rewards of helping others!
For the better. I became a Registered Dietitian and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist.
I was a homemaker, age 49, when I was diagnosed with T1D LADA. I never worked after that because I wasn’t confident or had the energy to do so. The Golden Years have been rather Rusty with this disease, and now I am living alone with it. My husband was a juvenile T1D, so we did diabetes together and I miss his company. Since both parents have the gene, our adult son was diagnosed at age 13. He just got married so he has help when needed. I miss that help too.
I answered “other” because I wanted to be an anthropologist, but even with the US Dept of Agriculture’s publication of nutritional content of most foods found around the world, I wasn’t sure. I also became uncomfortable with the inequality of the “social exchange” inherent in any anthropological study (the researcher can’t influence but there is always an exchange, even to elicit info and that exchange may be very unequal). So I focused on urban anthropolywhile in college. In the end, although T1D was only part of the reason, I went to law school instead, but have used the anthropology observation and analysis skills in my work.
For the better! As a PharmD I was able to work with patients and health care professionals to improve our hospitals outcomes in the diabetic population.
For the worse. I’m an office worker. High volume, high stress. No one ever wants me stopping to care for my T1D. It slows down progress. I do it if course, but I feel guilty. So, I asked about 3 years ago to start working from home and they said yes! I’ve been with the company almost 11 years now. It all worked out.
My diabetes seemed to ‘get in the way’ more frequently than a non-diabetic MIGHT experience. One of my jobs was as a Residential Care Worker. After a few years I asked about going on to do Social Work Training as I felt that, at that stage, I was doing the same at work that I was doing at home … wiping bums and noses. (I worked with clients suffering with advanced stages of dementia.) Obstacles were placed in front of me at many stages. I was spoken to as though it was me that didn’t know about diabetes when, in fact, it was the interviewers who had little, to no, idea of the condition. (They told me that the training would be lengthy and ‘hard going’ … “even tortuous”. At that stage I was still running marathons, and out training 6 or 7 days a week, so I KNEW about lengthy training. I’d been doing it for 15 to 20 years … ever since my Army days.) I was informed that if I had to take time off sick, then it would be up to me to ‘catch up’ with the training. (At that time, my sickness record was exceptional; even better than some of the staff that had no underlying medical condition(s).) I did complete my Social Work Training successfully, and with no problems, so I took that as vindication that the obstacles shouldn’t have been presented in the first place. Sadly, within a few years of my obtaining my degree, my health began to deteriorate in that I started developing diabetes-related complications. The local authority decided, I presume, that it would be too expensive to keep me on, so they decided to retire me on grounds of ill health. (I sought assistance from a Union Rep, who was next to useless. All he was interested in was that he had the same computer that I’d got, and he was typing in a book about model railways. The representative from our Head Office, to me, had no intention of working through things so that I could retain my job. She came with facts and figures about how long I’d worked for the organisation [organization, for my American brothers and sisters]; how much I’d be getting as a pension; what I’d be getting in severance pay, etc. etc. (This happened in 1990 and I haven’t worked since. I did attempt retraining in a different area, but found that an ambulance had to be summoned for me on two occasions when I lost consciousness in front of a computer.) Having said that, I was PROBABLY my own worst enemy. I’m quite verbose when I KNOW what I’m talking about and confronted interviewers with their ignorance, which I don’t suppose went down too well. 😉
Due to my official diagnosis in 1963 I became very interested in medicine. With my physicians permission I was allowed use of the medical library on the floor where I was a resident (for a week!). At first, the nurses on the floor prohibited me from visiting that room. That didn’t last long. Eventually I became a cardiovascular perfusionist and practiced for forty years until I retired thirteen years ago. If it had not been for organic chemistry I likely would have attempted medical school, but things being what they were, I practiced medicine from behind the pump in open heart surgery.
For the better! I got T1D in 1955. I went back to school again and became an RD in 1980 and a Certified Diabetes Educator after that. Worked as an RD in my local hospital, then as a WIC coordinator and finally as the director of the Diabetes Education Program at the hospital. I loved seeing our patients and helping them care for themselves. Retired in 2013. Learning about nutrition and becoming a CDE also helped me to take much better care of myself and stay healthier. Never stop learning!
Yes- it made me want to be a doctor, then a diabetes specialist, then to really specialize in T1D…
For better: realising at university that I was disabled / getting into disability politics meant that in my career I focussed on equality issues in heritage. And that got me jobs. For worse: realising that I would not be allowed to dive (this was the early 80s) and therefore I would not be able to do underwater archaeology. (This was a couple of years after an army recruiting sergeant had sworn with a _really_ bad word when I explained the reason I would not join up). Longer term, with comications, and age related issues … I fear I will have to give up work I love due to the fascist government, that wants me dead. Never forget who the Nazis first killed in Germany …
As a child I wanted to be a nurse but when entering college, I had to work full time to provide health insurance for myself. I tried both and a year in, realized it would put me in an early grave if I kept it up. I firmly believe everything in life happens for a reason and although things didn’t go as I had hoped or planned, they went how they should. I have learned to be realistic when it comes to my limitations and accept them rather than allow them to make me bitter. God wouldn’t have been able to mold me the way he has had it not been for this what I call T1D, “My Constant Companion”
I started out self employed then became a teacher, partly for the health insurance! I know I am not the only one to look for more of a “corporate” setting in order to get health insurance.
For the better. I was diagnosed my freshman year at college. Already a biology major, my T1D further solidified my interest in science & physiology. Graduated with plans to take a year off to work before applying for medical school. I was hired by a local research hospital and have been there for 20 years working with an inspiring group of physicians/scientists who want to cure T1D as much as I do. The other comments about health insurance influencing career choices are an important factor for sure. I was originally offered a part-time position without benefits and I told them I couldn’t accept because I wouldn’t be able to afford my diabetes care without it. Luckily, they renegotiated and offered a full-time position.
I was lucky to marry a man whose job provided my insurance. With that security, I was able to attend nursing school. That was in the 70’s & early 80’s. Most medical personnel knew nothing about T1d. I became the go-to person by default. So, I went on to become a CDE taking the very first exam that was offered. I then had the honor of teaching a few seminars for the nurses at our hospital and later working in a clinic for diabetics.
Better. I was diagnosed at 2 and inspired by some pretty terrible health care providers I am pursing becoming a cde as a dietitian and even considering going back to school to become an endocrinologist so I can help others.
Worse. I wanted to go to grad school for a PhD program but it was pre-affordable care act and my parents insurance would only cover me to age 22 (if a FT student). I then couldn’t find a full time job for awhile, then when I did, I was promised insurance but then the company decided they couldn’t afford it so I was uninsured for 6 years leading to credit card debt. I then sought out a new job that would have insurance only to find out when I started that there was a year waiting period for pre-existing conditions. So again, paying out of pocket for all diabetes stuff. Once my full coverage started though, it is excellent and very affordable. ACA isn’t/wasn’t perfect but allowing coverage to age 26 for dependents and doing away with the exclusions of pre-existing conditions is very needed and for sure helps people not to delay needed care.
I chose other. I wasn’t diagnosed with diabetes until after thirty. At the age of ? 23 ? I lived in a small town working two small part time jobs and two or my feelings or deja vu (focal seizures) generalized to so that what everyone recognizes as epilepsy showed up at both my jobs. I was fired immediately. I kept finally trying and finally finished my bachelor of Science just before T1D. Diabetes has not influenced my career path. I have worked for short amount of times and volunteered for ten until COVID. My problems are epilepsy and social skills. During speech, my thoughts come out much too easily.
For worse. I taught at a top 10 university for over 35 years but was fired in 2016 because I had a couple insulin reactions and my chairman was convinced I represented a threat to my students and wouldn’t let me drive them anymore. I am now on disability because of this and I miss my job. I used to teach all over the world and design primarily in Europe taking students with me and setting up programs in 4 different countries. I am still upset about this but there was nothing I could do. It made me severely depressed for a long time.