Indeed, hello world!! A quick introduction to me… I’m 45, and been type 1 for more than 25 years, and have used a pump (Minimed) for more than 5 years.
In the last year and a half, I have taken control of my diabetes, really for the first time ever. What took so long? The relatively rapid devolution of my marriage, in large part because I had never really been in control of myself. In the last year and a half, I have gotten some of my best a1c’s ever (though the last one was very disappointing, but I know why), lost more than 50 pounds of fat and added back about 20 pounds of muscle, and learned so much about diabetes.
It amazes me that I could have lived with diabetes for more than 20 years and never known anything about it (and that’s really how it was). The OC has been a life-saver, a university, an alternative medical community.
I live in New York City, with my 9 year old daughter (half the time). I recently decided that it was time to make a change in my medical team. I have been blessed with the resources to choose my own doctors, CDEs and nutritionists, without having to worry about insurance coverage. But, although they were all very highly recommended and listed in magazines as the best there is, I just was not getting the care I needed. I recently made a change to a clinic in Boston. Thankfully, my insurance picks up most of it, so I only have to pay airfare. But, more importantly, what I have learned in just one visit was more than I had learned from my NY team in the last 5 years.
Knowledge is everything. For years I was without it, operating kind of on autopilot, trying to keep my numbers down with lots of lows. They were often very difficult to feel coming on and very difficult to get out of (certainly before the pump). With the pump, they have been greatly reduced, but I have not really seen the promised improvement in a1c’s, perhaps because it is offset by my fewer lows.
With my divorce decision now final, I have embarked on a new life, as a single parent, taking care of myself alone, again, and looking to write the next chapter of my life.
Hopefully, with my new knowledge, it will be a long and happy one!!
