I’ve lived with type one diabetes for over 58 years, since the age of two. I was one of the early users of the insulin pump (39 years), CGMS (23 years) and worked on development of the pump infusion sets, pump and CGMS software as well as features for both systems. Currently involved in diabetes support and education, writing books for children in a way they can understand and feel comfortable with as well as .

Me count the carbs in foods
Me also count protein and fat
Me calculate me insulin
Me pump gives it - me like that

Me body don’t make insulin
Which me needs to eat
For every meal or snack
Especially when sweet

Me pump me fill with insulin
And part is inside me
I also have a CGM
Which measures how I be

Me CGM also has a part
which goes inside of me
It lets me know me sugar
is where it has to be

Me CGM alarms me
If blood sugars high or low
Without my CGM attached
Me sugars level me not know.

So be not afraid to learn
To count all carbs yummy
After taking a bolus for them
They go straight into my tummy

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From age two I was extra sweet
When almost five I DKA’d in a hospital suite
At ten I was afraid to go to a friend
At twenty I began the cyborg trend

At thirty I married and a future I saw
At fourty I got Gastro, Nuero and even more
But now at fifty I’m ready to go
Another ten or twenty or thirty or so

I thought that I would never see
Myself rewarded for hitting fifty
For I thought by now that diabetes would be
Something controlled and worry free!

From syringes glass that we sterilized
To an insulin pump delivering wise
From urine testing with five drops or two
To a glucose sensor every five minutes true

From glycogen my childhood friend
Thinking uncontrolled hypo would never end
To replacing the Glyco once a year
Due to glycemic unawareness and childhood fear

From U40-R and L and N
Calculating shots with unspent insulin
To pumping only genetically spliced
Insulin with faster action and tail sliced

So to all newbies and tens and twenties or more
I doubt I will see you hit the floor
Or have troubles with eyes or neuropathic pain galore
Just follow the rules and you will endure