How long did it take you

How long did it take you to find your diabetic groove. How long was it before you felt confortable and confident within the many aspects of diabetes where you felt like you knew what you were doing and were able to speak, ans
wer and preform tasks infront of people
about diabetes.

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A couple of decades, I guess as I was not really totally comfortable and confident until the advent of the CGM to really know what was going on 24/7/365

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About 27 years, when I was finally able to catch up to the modern technology. Without insurance coverage, I was doing it all old school and mostly just trying to survive my insulin.

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+18 years…though if you had asked me in the first 10 years I might have answered differently. Now I know better… age/wisdom or some combo thereof has finally settled in (plus I got a rockin’ Endo now)

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Dx age 11. By age 25, I came into my skin.

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I just realized that today is my 30 year T1D anniversary. Huh.

I was very embarrassed/shy about T1D as a child/teenager/young adult. I tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and didn’t talk about it unless I absolutely had to. Now…whatever. I don’t try to hide it. If anyone asks, I will talk about it.

As for “confident”, well…it’s just part of my life and I deal with it the best I can and have been somewhat successful for the most part. But there are still days that I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing.

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Congrats on hitting you 30 year “survival” mark.

Same for me. I ignored it for 10 years. Got my act together after that. I think getting your “groove” depends on technology available at the time. In the early days I had no feedback other than going low (no meters). My groove amounted to remembering my injections and staying away from candy. Today I feel I’ve hit my groove with pumps and CGM’s. If I go to closed loop the quest for a new groove begins again.

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I’m still a work in progress and it’s been 20 years. :slight_smile:

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Congrats on hitting 30 years

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I think it took me 3 years just to realize I had td 1 did lol as crazy as thats sounds. I would forget I ate 2 hrs ago I needed to check . I could grasp I had diabetes but couldn’t understand that I wasn’t able to eat the apple that was going bad without bolus. Probably took me 7 8 years in to really battle day in day out . Not good control just the physical check basal bolus everyday like every time.The honeymoon phase is really helpful becuase it allowed me to miss more . I probably couldn’t get away with what I did earlier on and still feel functional. As confident as I may feel im still a bit shy to pull needles out in front of 1 group people. People I kinda know or know of me but may not know i have diabetes. Friends and family the needle coming out and strangers at a food court im fine, but that one group the somewhat knows you is always the tricky group for me if that sounds wierd.

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50 years T1D and still learning things.

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I was lucky, diagnosed in the dark ages. Initial treatment one injection per day. Junk food was not invented yet and we grew lots of food in our garden. Have many siblings and other than shot and occasional urine checks, I was no different. Later came blood testing, MDI, insulin pump and cgms at a gradual pace (years! ). So never overwhelmed. I can imagine how different it is now for newly diagnosed. Maybe even harder with LADA when even doctors don’t recognize the early signs.

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I was diagnosed at 18 months old so diabetes is all I’ve ever known. I can’t remember ever being shy about diabetes. Although it took me until I was in my 20’s to really get a handle on diabetes to the point that I no longer needed assistance with lows and it’s only since CGM and newer drugs that my A1C finally stabilized. I’m going through the process of getting a pump for the first time (t-slim with control IQ) so this will be a whole new era for me.

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Some people call it a learning curve. The learning never reaches 100%. There is always something to learn. The farther you go the more you learn as you approach your comfort point, only you will recognize your spot.

How long before you will be comfortable? What percentage of learning gives you comfort? I know I am comfortable. I don’t know how long it took for me to be comfortable. I started a new pump in January. I don’t know when I got comfortable with my new Tandem with CIQ. The more you learn the more comfortable you will be.

This is not intended to be sarcastic or flippant. It is a truth that we are all different.

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I was 14 when I was diagnosed. I was told to take a shot before breakfast and other before dinner and given an amount of insulin to take. Other than how to inject the insulin, I had no other training.

Somehow, I managed to live for the next 19 years without too many issues, but I know that a good A1c would have been under 11 or 12 during that time.

In late 2004, my endo said that he would not write anymore prescriptions for me. I had to talk to an educator and switch to insulin pens or a pump. But, he wanted me to try the pens before the pump.

I did pens for a weekend, then ordered the pump the next week. I’ve been able to keep my A1c under 6 since that day.

I’ve had it for over 35 years now and it’s only the grace of God that allowed me to survive the first 20 years.

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It’s a little different for me. I’m 47 and was just diagnosed with LADA last week. But my son was diagnosed at age 3, and is now 16. It’s definitely different caring for a child with T1 than having it yourself. I feel like I had a super steep learning curve for a year after he was diagnosed. After that, I still had to learn as he grew and we had to deal with different/new situations. But I feel like after that first year I had a pretty good handle on the mechanics of everything.

Man it hit me like a ton of rocks at the age of 44 with no family history and after living an active, nutritionally “healthy” life. I have 4 kids the oldest was 10 at the time so I took it super seriously from the get go. I’d say it took me about 2 years of regular self experimentation to really understand what moves the needle. Like 8-10 finger pricks a day, diet modifications, seeking out the right match for a medical provider and quarterly visits to stay on top of it. Once my honeymoon ended 3 years in I got a cgm and pump and added the looping tech. By then I already had good grip but there was another 3 months of new learning and it seems another year of refining it. But I’d agree with an earlier post. It is an endless pursuit of a moving target.

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Of course I am still learning and always will be, but I feel like I became comfortable much more quickly than most. I was diagnosed when I was 6-7 months pregnant, so the stakes were high right away and I really had to dive in and take it super seriously for the health of my baby. Also, since the target during pregnancy is to stay under 140, I feel like that number really stuck with me and I always felt uncomfortable going above that, whereas someone not diagnosed during pregnancy might be told to stay under 180-200 and that perspective really shaped my experience.

I kept it to myself for many years especially when I was dating. I didn’t want to scare anyone off.
Once I moved to a pump it became harder to hide. And I sort of accepted it.
Now I’m passed 32 years and I’m kinda of proud to be this far down the road with no real complications.
I got a very prominent tattoo on my arm and I am very much ok talkIn about it.