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Has your career path been influenced by living with T1D or having a loved one with T1D?
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To a certain extent.
Yes, very much so. I work in diabetes research.
Well…QUITE! LOL. I’ve spent the last 15 years writing books and articles on T1D.
Yes once diagnosed (3rd in my family) I became a CDE, I had been an RN for 13 yrs when diagnosed. CDE for 35+ yrs
Before retirement, I worked in an academic medical center endocrinology clinic as a nurse practitioner in diabetes.
I mean, I said no, but I do work for a health insurance company which helps me better understand and navigate that side of my healthcare.
diagnosed at age 43 so no
No, other than not being able to accept the military commission and the government paid travel expenses to Nam in the 1960s.
No, but that’s because I was diagnosed at 51.
As an engineer, some days I’m sedentary and tied to a desk, other days I’m active at a job site. The difference between the two with respect to insulin usage, time in range and average blood sugar is astounding. Active work days are much better for my glucose control.
Regardless, I’m grateful to have a job which allows significant freedom and flexibility to address diabetic needs.
Yes it has
I was well into my academic research career as an RNA biochemist when I was diagnosed. I sometimes wonder if I would have chosen a different research subject if I had been diagnosed earlier.
Yes, absolutely. I was diagnosed in 1977, at the age of 23. At the time, I was on the road everyday, working as a sales representative for an international food company. My supervisor told me to look for a new job. I went back to college for a degree in something that might fit my health issues. Back then, there were no insulin pumps, no CGM’s, not even any blood tests. Aside from peeing on a test strip, diabetics were flying blind. So, to keep it short, YES, it definitely influenced my career path.
No, but as a kid it crushed my soul that I couldn’t be an astronaut because I had T1D 😅
When I was diagnosed (age 10) I had already become interested in science. So, the direction I took wasn’t affected by t1d. However, my path most definitely was, since I always put health insurance access and affordability ahead of what may have been better for my overall career.
My son is only eleven, and he knows that, for now, going into the military is not an option. He also knows, however, that many doors have opened since his diagnosis in 2013 such as the opportunity to be a commercial airline pilot!
yes, I had a great opportunity to start my own business but was afraid to be without insurance for a while. so I didnt do it.
I was diagnosed later in life, over 65, so my “no” means something very different from those whose career choices were not affected by having T1D. Data like this can be misleading.
No, since I was diagnosed at age 60. And agree the question is too vague.
Was diagnosed at 54 after graduating nursing school at 53. Has not impacted my career. Travel nursed, taught clinicals, worked in hospitals in several capacities. Now work part time as an admission coordinator for hospice
Yes, but what seemed awful at the time ended up being a blessing. I wanted to be a phone operator when I was 18, but my diabetes made me ineligible because of shift work. This “failure” to get into the career I wanted as a naive young woman opened the door to great work in the sciences and art and literature! Maybe those careers would’ve presented themselves eventually, but my desire to be like Laugh-in’s Ernestine was a fun idea. One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy!
I said No, but in my case it’s because I was diagnosed at age 72.
Jobs I have had ate very much affected by having insulin dependent. I am very open about my diabetes and
diabetes with my unawareness of low sugars. I was a teacher and it was not safe for me to be alone with the kids.
At the end of college I was accepted at medical school, but was dissuaded from attending by the dean who was unsure of my ability to manage T1D and the 24 hour shifts. This was the late ’70s, before BG meters, CGM and pumps. I went on to have a great career in engineering and marketing.
I was discouraged to enroll in law school but like you found my niche in HR. My personal experience with lawyers reassures me I made a good decision. Thanks for sharing.
Only to the extent that I was reluctant to accept promotions and/or move out of Boston and the expanding health care team I acquired over 50 years with T1D. No regrets, however, I felt compelled to take the safe route but still enjoyed a long career in a job I loved.
T1D did not influence my career path but my geographical location has been determined by it.
Yes and No, No because I knew I wanted to work in the medical field. Yes after I got my PharmD and worked in a clinical setting in the CCU, my impact on diabetic patient care in our unit was definitely influenced by my living with T1D. I was involved in our hospital’s policy and procedures for pump usage, DKA protocols, and basal/bolus dosing.
Yes and no. I was dx at the age of 8 in 1955. I knew at that time that I was a visual artist, but I was also very interested in science. Those interests continued with Saturday art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute thru high school and several long-term science fair medical science research projects that I developed/conducted until high school graduation. I won awards for both and was offered scholarship incentives to continue my education. When I asked the MD, PhD mentor of my science fair project for guidance, he advised me to continue with my fine art education because the demands on my physical endurance would be less. He knew that I was having trouble dealing with unexpected severe lows. (1963-64). I accepted the scholarship offer from the California College of Arts and Crafts.
Yes. After first round of college and pursuing a career in performing arts theatre and dance in my late teens and early 20s, I took time off to pursue married life and then went and got a part-time job as a medical assistant for an endocrinologist and eventually as a full-time chiropractic assistant. From there I went back to school and became a nurse, first as a LPN, then RN, then BSN, and then MSN with a clinical specialty in holistic psychiatric/mental nursing, energy balancing therapy, and then in diabetes care and education. I eventually earned my CDE in 2006, now designated as CDCES. I maintain a part-time private practice providing community based diabetes self-care support and counseling work to individuals and groups.
you always amase me !!
No my own T1D had no influence on becoming a RN. My brothers did though. Since he was diagnosed before his first birthday, once I was old enough to understand what T1D was (we’re two years apart, I’m the oldest) I had decided I would be a diabetic research nurse. I’m a RN but not in diabetic research. lol
Yes… long ago… I was hired and then rejected after I said I had T1D during a Phisidle exam..
Every choice of education and work involved … “can I do this” and/or “what does health insurance cover?”
Diagnosed at age 15, I aspired to physics doctorate, but rote formula memorizations and tedious jumping thru hoops discouraged me. Soon realized to support myself, I would have to take any job (with or without insurance) that I could get. Most-liked jobs I got were based on who I knew or were no pay. Best paying jobs resulted from my ability to pass written and physical tests. Nowadays with a smaller workforce, I’m sure it’s much easer to find a good paying job that you will really enjoy, and it’s not necessary to go into college debt to get such a job.
I had to significantly delay work after maternity leave, when one of my kids was diagnosed with T1D and I knew I have to stay home to take care of her and her condition. When she started school, I have had to visit her school multiple times per school year to handle school activities involving food, etc or stay home with her to take care of her when unwell (preventing me from finding employment with such flexibility).
I am certain it has but cannot name a specific outcome(s) precisely because of it. I would sorely love to know its hidden and unwelcome effects…. I require a job with serious medical insurance(s) in order to have mandatory medical care required because of diabetes. Beyond that easy nightmare, I cannot say precisely how I have been effected in terms of career.
I would have preferred to wait to have children and had my career well underway first. But 43 years ago, sooner was considered better if one was so foolish as to attempt a pregnancy. Also, although I returned to work a few months after childbirth, I was just not able to sustain a slow recovery with the demands of T1, infant care, and working so I took a 4 year break from working. Finally, between the break in career then, and needing to retire as soon as eligible (again, demands of T1 plus other life events) I am not receiving full retirement benefits.
I have had car accidents due to quick drops in blood sugar. I have worked remote since the last accident. The guy who pulled me out of my last wrecked car said I pulled dead body’s out of less damage than this. I had no damage to me. To think I could have hurt someone. I drive very little if at all.
Career path seriously impacted due to T1D Rx.
Was planning First Response type of work (cop, fireman, EMS etc.) Family very disappointed, became an engineer instead (at my own expense). Basically became the Black Sheep of the family and have lived with it for close to 60 T1D years.
When I was diagnosed at the age of 15 I had every plan to become an astronaut. That’s one career that was not and still is not available to T1Ds. I instead followed science and education in another direction… but sometimes I still look at the stars and wish….
I was offered an opportunity to continue an undergraduate course of education in Great Britain in medicine so that I would have become a physician. This was my dream. However, it was the very early days of insulin pumps and the choices of food in Scotland were very limited to me – hard to get fresh green veggies all year – which have always helped me control my BG and not go to bed hungry. I decided to return to the US, complete my undergraduate degree, and in the process realized it was nearly impossible to make it through medical training (particularly residency programs with many “all nighters” without have really hard problems controlling my BG. (I interviewed a T1D young physician who told me to “think twice” about medicine as a career based on the struggles he’d had. Again, insulin pumps were not widely available yet.) I gave up my dream and decided to go into the pharmaceutical industry as a business professional because of the regularity of the hours and the fact that I could complete a graduate business degree while still controlling my BG. Now, nearly 40 years later, I have no complications due to poor glucose control and I have never been hospitalized for hyperglycemia or DKA. My decision was tough but I believe it was strategically correct given what was expected of medical students/residents in their training and the lack of use of pumps and CGMs at that time. Today, I might make a different decision and hopefully, residency programs have begun to assign T1D young physicians to much more “normal” hours of hospital work, given the importance of regular sleep for BG control in some of us.