Hello, Everyone.
My name is Todd, and I've had Type 1 diabetes now for 28.5 years. This beast decided to become a part of me when I was 11 years old, and I've had to learn to live with it whether I liked or not. I was a chubby kid who lost a LOT of weight over the course of about 2 months. I was terribly hungry/thirsty/tired all of the time, and had a full bladder's worth of urination almost every other hour towards the end. It got so bad that I started experiencing massive abdominal pain whenever I ate. I was taken to see a doctor and was diagnosed in less than 10 minutes with a blood glucose level close to 1000 mg/dL. I spent 1 week in the hospital. They had to pump 43 bags of essential body fluid back into my body intravenously to save my life. Death was only about 1 week away. I think my parents just thought I was sick and it would go away...I'm glad that I'm still here. It seems like it happened yesterday; I swear that I can still feel the pain whenever I think about it. I can still see that look of concern in my Dad's eyes at the time as he was fighting back his own tears trying to be strong for me (I was terrified). My parents told me that maybe I got this disease for a reason, so I used it as motivation to grow up to be a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry developing drugs to help people.
This is the first time I've joined a group to talk about this. I have not made it through all of these years thinking that I'm the only one who has to deal with this issue. Millions of us have to. My friends and family have been by my side throughout this battle, but it's sometimes hard to get them to "see" or "feel" what I'm going through...they can only imagine. I hope that by joining this site, I can share my experiences (good and bad) and try to help others who are going through the same things as me. As you will find out, there are some days where I just simply need to vent frustration, and there will be other days where I can share my triumphs. Thank you in advance for listening. Peace.