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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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I was diagnosed with T1D past the age of thirty, a while after being put on disability for epilepsy.
I was volunteering in neurological research at the time. The desire to help with medical research had definitely been sparked by my health and unanswered questions.
Yes and it still is effected every day. I am a dental assistant in a small dental office. We work straight through lunch witch is a big no no for being diabetic already. I am frequently having hypos at work
I worked in the restaurant business for many years and paid health insurance out of pocket. I had to find another career path that was more likely to provide health benefits at a reasonable cost. Also, working in a restaurant was hard at times with eating schedules and activity based on customer traffic. I am much better off now.
Mainly because it locked me in to the health insurance I got with my initial employment in the US, and by the time that did not act as a lock (because of the pre-existing conditions business) my rather good occupational pension did!
Not my career path but many aspects of my life including travel, exercise, hobbies, and more. I am able to do all things I want to but it just takes added preparation and planning.
My entire career is focused on helping other people learn how to manage and thrive with T1D and T2D.
It hasn’t had a *significant* influence, but I will say that I have had an incredibly stable career (23 yrs at my first job; working on 10 at my current job), largely b/c I don’t want to be without health insurance (or pay continuously for COBRA).
Also, my current job is as a technology consultant in the pharma industry and, as such, I keep abreast of what’s happening in healthcare and life sciences. I think my 50+ years living with T1D makes me love that more than I would otherwise.
not diagnosed until age 43 so no influence as far as career path is concerned.
I worked at several administrative type jobs before I found my chosen career as a paralegal in immigration law. I would have gone on to law school and become an immigration lawyer but for the stress of going to court to represent clients before a judge. The stress involved was too much for my system to handle and my blood sugRs just skyrocketed every time I had a hearing. I loved helping my clients, but I consciously decided to not go to court. I did most of the casework, and met with my clients, but did not go to Immigration Court. Less money, less “prestige”, but a much happier, healthier life. No regrets.
I was diagnosed at 12 and it has not in the least affected me because I never let it. We all are different and have “things” that are different about us. Some of you sound like because your life isnt EXACTLY the same as people without diabetes, the disease did it. We have different acts we do than non-diabetics. That is normal. What a boring world this would be if we all were like robots. T1D created the perfect question for social media to created barriers and amplify differences as a result of being human. SAD!!
I am now retired, but was an NP for 40+ years in a variety of settings, but the last 15 were in an academic medical center in their diabetes clinic and it was the most rewarding position. I never would have been there had I not gotten t1d at age 39.
Most likely influenced career path – was always taking care of / solving problems with others as a child. Dx at age 12, 57 years ago. Became an RN, CDE & still happily working with T1d community.
Wow! That’s amazing, ma’am. More power to you.
Yes I was diagnosed with T1D while a nursing faculty member and after living with it 5 yrs. Decided to become a CDE. As there was little help available at the time. I learned everything the hard way and thought I cd be best utilized as a CDE. Retired after 35 yrs but still active as volunteer helping those with T1D or Type 2 and have a women only T1D support group in my city for the past 14 yrs
Well done, ma’am, for seeing it through … and for continuing your support of diabetes, whether Type 1 or Type 2.
A BIG YES. My career path was most certainly influenced by my T1D. I became T1D before there were blood test strips, insulin pumps and CGM’s. I was working for a large international food company as a traveling sale representative when I was diagnosed in 1977. When I told my supervisor he said, “You better find another line of employment. We don’t want you getting into an automobile accident.” I went back to college for my Master’s Degree. But, having been married prior to my diagnosis, I decided to take a secure path with health insurance, a pension and chances for promotions. Had I not been diagnosed T1D, I had more risky ideas about what direction my life might have taken. I wanted to own my own business … maybe.
YES: Having been diagnosed with diabetes when I was a youth, my life has been influenced significantly by the “challenge” imposed. When diagnosed, the general thought of doctors was that I MIGHT LIVE for as many as ten years, at most to double my age of diagnosis.
Diabetes has challenged me to live each day to its fullest, to do as much as possible with my talents and enjoy life. My life has been very full and active, I’ve outlived more than half the members of my graduation class and worked full-time for over 50 years (including serving as President/CEO of a national firm) before retiring almost 12 years ago.
Learning to effectively manage diabetes has been a positive influence for me.
I was diagnosed Type 1 in 1976 while working as a unit supervisor in an office (having been promoted from an entry level position in 1972.) I continued working for that same company for the next 20 years, achieving additional promotions and a relocation. In the early years, I was hospitalized in 1980 with DKA and lost several weeks of work because of that DKA. I had developed DKA while attempting to treat a bad cold while on a skiing vacation and did not know that I needed to increase my insulin to help combat higher glucose levels due to infection. That was the only significant absence I’ve had from work due to diabetes. I NEVER felt my diabetes prevented me from achieving my goals. I learned as much as I could about how to achieve better control and implemented some hard decisions about changing habits that were detrimental to my good diabetes management. With the right knowledge, the proper medical support and the determination to make the right decisions, I have been able to successfully enjoy my retirement. Luckily, I was insured and did not encounter financial difficulty in obtaining the insulin and supplies I needed to manage my condition.
Yes I went back to Washington State University to become a dietitian and later became a CDE and Medtronic pump trainer. I will never regret becoming a dietitian and learning about nutrition. 67 years with TID this summer.
So very thankful!
Congratulations on your achievements, ma’am.
Being DXd in my mid 50’s it cost me my FAA medical so yeah – this damn disease affected my career.
T1d did not change my career choice, but it did influence my path. I always felt that I had to have solid health insurance, and therefore was never comfortable taking risks. I had been told I was, for all practical purposes, uninstallable privately. But education, travel, job stress, etc were all part of my path.
Yes, simply because I am an RN so I use my personal experience alongside my knowledge.
Type 1 did NOT affect my career choice, but it DID affect things within that career choice.
To progress in my chosen career I felt ‘duty bound’ to carry out further training. On applying for permission to attend those courses my diabetes was always ‘thrown against me’. In fact, actually getting the job I’d applied for, which was working with people suffering with different types of dementia (organic brain failure), but when I wrote a letter (this was before the days of emails, lol) to question what I did, or said wrong at my interview, as I felt that the interview had gone fairly well, until I ‘slammed the ignorance’ of the interviewers for their inept beliefs of diabetes and its control. I was sent a response from the Director of Social Services informing me to attend at a specific location, reporting to a specific individual (who wasn’t actually there when I got there) to start my employment. Yippeee!
Although I did attend Care Assistant job training, after a while I felt that ‘there’s got to be more to it than this’. I was doing the same at work as I was at home … wiping bums and wiping noses. I applied, therefore, to do Social Work Training. The arguments against me doing this training astounded me. Initially, the argument was that I didn’t need to do any further training due to the experience that I’d gained working as a Care Assistant. Then, once I’d argued my point about doing the same at work as I was doing at home, I got through to the ‘second round’ of interviews, where they deliberately ‘threw’ my diabetes at me, informing me that as well as attending the course I’d still be expected to carry out my working duties, and that the demands on my health, both physical and mental, would be detrimental to me. That’s when I, again, ‘let rip’ at the sheer ignorance of people that are supposed to be in a caring profession and basing their decisions on ignorance of facts.
Happily, I got my way and carried out my Social Work Training.
Clients with dementia are often not able to ‘work things out’ and OCCASIONALLY need to be ‘Sectioned’ under the Mental Health Act. (I’m in the UK, by the way, so the laws in the United States of America will be different.) Not any Social Worker, in the UK, is allowed to put forward a case for someone to be ‘Sectioned’, it has to be an Approved Social Worker. That’s one that does further training after they’ve qualified as a Social Worker, under the Mental Health Act.
To say that I was surprised at the number of Social Workers who approached me to get one of their clients ‘Sectioned’ is an understatement. To me, SOME of those Social Workers were simply attempting to move ‘unwanted cases’ from their case load(s) onto someone else. The good thing was, as I’d managed to carry out my original Social Work Training, with nothing untoward occurring, getting on the further training required to become an Approved Social Worker, didn’t involve me jumping through rings. lol.
Over the years, however, once things started going wrong with my health, such as the development of diabetes-related complications ‘they’ wanted me ‘out of the door’, so they forceably retired me on grounds of ill-health. (I’ll tell you now that I was extremely bitter about the way it all came about, but I haven’t worked since 1990 and I’ve slowly lost some of that bitterness. )
Friends and colleagues that I used to work alongside have repeatedly informed me that I’m ‘better off out of it’, but to be frank … if you don’t mind me changing my name for a second … that really doesn’t help me. I’d have quite willingly worked until the day I dropped down dead. I absolutely adored ‘my’ client group and used to spend many unpaid hours just to be with them, knowing that what I was doing was important, and a way of offering clients something that I KNOW Care Assistants didn’t have the time to carry out.
I was a painting contractor when diagnosed at age 26. Now I’ve been a RN/CDE/CDCES for 27 years working for a peds endo academic division so I guess that would be a yes.
I became Type I at age 56. It was a contributing factor in my deciding to retire from my tenured professorship at age 67 because of (1) the stress of lecturing with either the worry of going low during a lecture, or having to start out undesirably high to avoid that possibility; and (2) the need to maintain a rigorous exercise schedule to stay under good control — a requirement that added unacceptably to all the other increasing time demands of maintaining an active research lab and teaching. While there were certainly many other factors, T1D was right up there. That said, I certainly do not regret retiring.
In college, in 1977, I was admitted to medical school. I was talked out attending bu the dean, once he found out that i had T1D. I have had a successful career in engineering and marketing.
I realized early on that I would need good health insurance, so I ruled out working for startups or new industries, and I settled on a public sector job. I would say that T1 has led me to be somewhat more risk-adverse than I might be otherwise.
As a church musician, I was impacted mostly by services or rehearsals during or just before mealtimes. Looking back, I don’t know how I did it while raising five children.
Influenced? I am not sure how many jobs were lost or not even offered before glucometers and multiple injection therapy were available. Once I learned control things stabilized but I still can’t be a pilot or a truck driver. Any type of driving job that you have to pass a physical. It seems hypoglycemic episodes scare the people around you as well.
My diabetes has not held me back but having autism spectrum disorder (Asperger’s) has greatly kept me from achieving my career goals.
Maybe. Probably I guess, most of my life is influenced by it but to what extent, and how, I can’t tell.
Type 1 diabetes definitely made working on live-action film sets hard, particularly as a Production Assistant, but I think even if I had been able-bodied I wouldn’t have enjoyed the job, anyway. So in a way Type 1 accelerated my career in the direction I was most happy with, otherwise I think I would have stayed in live action longer and had been unhappy longer. (I now work in animation and love it! It’s my dream job <3)
It could have been influenced by my brothers diagnosis at 7 months old, I was 2.5 years old. I always wanted to be a RN, once I was allowed to go to a endo. visit & saw what the CDE did I wanted to that. After I was dx. I wanted to do T1D research as a RN. What I ended up doing was different, neuroscience travel RN, but In was able to work bedside with patient population I love.
Yes, definitely! I’ve known what I wanted to do with my life since I declared at the age of three that I was an artist. Twenty-one years after diagnosis, as I was nearing completion of fine arts graduate studies, diabetic retinopathy suddenly created an immense barrier to my goal. I was unable to get a correct diagnosis and early treatment of the visual distortion I was experiencing. The University Health Center dismissed my issues as “visual fatigue” . By tremendous effort I was able to revise my thesis and create the artwork for my Master of Fine Arts graduate exhibition. My goal had been to teach in higher education. By the time I received my degree it became necessary to focus on medical care for my increasing visual impairment. In the forty-two years since then my teaching has been limited to several non-credit adult education drawing classes and I’ve continued to be a working artist for most of that time.
I (correctly) said no, but it’s because I was diagnosed at age 74, 9 years into retirement. I don’t actually think it would have affected my particular career (software ergonomist, designer, developer), but who knows?
I graduated from nursing school when I was 54. I remember taking care of diabetic patients with a host of other heart , kidney dialysis complications. I thought to myself I hope I never get that disease. Shortly after I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I always disputed the diagnosis as I was slim and any other metabolic symptoms were not present. It took 2 years for correct diagnosis. Was frustrating and completely unnecessary. Doing well with my type 1. Keep my numbers in check.
Most definitely! Inspired by amazing Nurses and other health care providers I decided to become a RN and went back to college for my BSN, and a credentialed Diabetes Educator! I now proudly sport a long list of professional accomplishments BA, BSN, RN CDCES . I continue learning every day and love what I do to educate, help and assist others dealing with this disease!
Retinopathy has forever changed my life and how I can work.
I have lost jobs due to my diabetes – – too low to drive to work in AM, severe low while at work, business not wanting to work with me on my break schedule.
I think this question is referring to choosing to work as a nurse, CDE, etc. and not my experiences. This is why I chose “other.”
My attempt to change career from actuary to school teacher back in 1965 was thwarted when I was declined for teaching due to my T1D
My history has been wonderful in actuarial but I’ve made hypo related terrible decisions (disclosed confidential info) that have no doubt has some impact on how I’ve been observed and treated
I picked other because I wasn’t diagnosed until I retired.
I have lived a full and happy life of 79 years as a T1D and I’m grateful to God for HIS grace. The changes in T1D care are huge – I now have a Dexcom CGM and a Tandem slim X2 pump. My husband never knew me with these. He has been in heaven since 1999.
Retired now, but being T1D did not influence my career choice.
Yes, I entered the path of the health care profession as a medical assistant, then LPN, then RN with a career focused in chronic disease management and community mental health nursing. I went on to earn a BSN, and eventually a MSN in diabetes nursing, with specialist certifications as a holistic mental health RN, and CDE, now known as CDCES (Certified Diabetes Care & Education Specialist). I was inspired by certain brilliant & compassionate health care providers (some of whom lived with T1D themselves) who assisted me through some tough times in my own journey with T1 diabetes, and I vowed to pay it forward to others.
Leaving the workforce for me (and most other T1D parents I know) upon diagnosis. We even had to relocate accross the world (we are a family serving overseas) which significantly shook our world and caused a major disruption – professionally and personally.
Before CGMs and the fear of going low, I have always worked near food, retail, restaurants, or for most of my career (30 years), regulating and inspecting retail food.