Type One Diabetes Is a Major Challenge

On April 19, I will celebrate my 14-year diaversary. Not many people know what a diaversary is—it’s a “diabetic anniversary”—since only about nine percent of Americans have diabetes. I am one of those people.

I was diagnosed when I was ten years old, and have lived with diabetes ever since. There is no cure, and there are so many misconceptions about people with the disease. The ignorance that surrounds diabetes is a challenge for me, especially in college with my professors and peers.

Diabetes is a complicated and highly personal disease. I have Type 1, like one percent of the diabetes population, but everyone with the disease has a different day-to-day experience. But we’re all tied together by the highs and lows of diabetic life.

When I was first diagnosed, my doctor explained the major lifestyle changes. Every Type 1 diabetic has to check their blood sugar by pricking their finger with a needle multiple times a day—at least four times, and up to 10 or 12. Newly diagnosed diabetics are also prescribed shots of insulin, a necessary hormone for survival, for at least three months. After that, they can begin looking at other options to administer their insulin, like pumps, but insulin in some form will always be necessary until there is a cure.

Checking my blood sugar has become second nature, but the extreme blood sugar swings and complications that come along with it are something I’ll never get used to. The ignorance surrounding diabetes is a huge challenge too. Most people think I gave myself diabetes by eating too much sugar as a kid, or not taking care of my health. The words "auto-immune disease" seem to mean little.

Diabetes has always been a challenge, but moving to college, away from my parents, doctors, and support system, presented new challenges. My day-to-day life and diabetes management changed drastically overnight.

One of the hardest things for people to understand about Type 1 diabetes is that everything affects it. How much sleep I get, my mood, what the temperature is, what I eat, and how receptive my body is to the artificial insulin I get through my pump—affectionately named Benny—these all affect how my day will go. I wake up once or twice every night to check my blood sugar. On bad nights when my blood sugar is too high or too low, I usually get very little sleep.

My blood sugar changes quickly throughout each day, a fact that’s so difficult to explain to my professors and peers—even my friends. One of the biggest challenges is confronting sheer ignorance. People suggest I can cure myself by eating more cinnamon. They’ll give me diet tips, and tell me they know someone who “died from complications.” The most common thing I hear is, “you don’t look sick.”

Preston Ruff is another student at App State with Type 1 diabetes, and he says challenging the ignorance is the hardest part.

“Most teachers don’t understand the severity of diabetic complications and some are unwilling to listen and take me seriously.”

There is a major misconception that diabetes is just a few finger pricks and carbohydrate calculations. On any given day, I’ll have at least one high or low blood sugar that makes me feel sick, whether it’s mild shakes or the feeling that I’m about to pass out. Having these feelings in a class full of other students who have no idea what diabetes is, or how it affects my life can be difficult to deal with, and hard to explain.

Although life with diabetes is anything but easy, there have been good things that have come out of it. I feel empathy for all others with chronic diseases and daily struggles. I have a community of diabetic friends who constantly uplift me with their positive mental attitudes and perseverance. Diabetes is tough, but so are we.