Diabetes Doesn't Define You

My name is Amanda, but I go by Mandie and I'm 24 years old. I was dx'd on September 17, 1999 with a blood sugar of 984 as a T1.5 I knew I was a T1 and I always wanted the pump ever since I was dx'd, but since my Ped Endo knew more about my Diabetes then I did [even though I grew up with giving my father his shots at times, and I'd always be around my grandma] she wouldn't allow me to get on the pump. My father was a T2 and he was diagnosed 2 weeks after I was born in 1986. Ever since his diagnosis my mum made sure to get my brother tested four+ times a year. He passed away to cancer in 1996 when I was 11 years old. In 1999 during July and August I remember being freezing cold in two of the most hottest months of the year in Texas. I was wearing jackets and ever piece of winter clothing I owned. My mum thought I was becoming Anorexic to fit in because I had lost quite a bit of weight, but she had started to see the same signs my father had right when he was diagnosed.

I remember my symptoms were harsh. I was constantly sick, I was freezing cold and because I was in my teens at a rich yuppy middle school my mum thought that I was making myself sick so that I could fit in with anyone in my grade, though it wasn't the case she knew I was a D just by the symptoms she could tell three months before my diagnosis. My mum had me tested every week because something wasn't right and each time the doctor said that I had Mono or something, well the doctor was a sub and he was reading test results from 1997, in 1999 he was reading the wrong ones. While living with D in the 8th grade not only did I wish I wasn't diagnosed, but I lost all of my friends because they kept telling people I was contagious and so no one wanted to be around me. Everyday before I even got off the school bus to go to school I'd be picked on because I had Diabetes and the kids at my middle school were always rude and I then became very quiet with everything in life. So because of that for the first year of while not wanting it I wished if I had been diagnosed at a younger age I would have had more friends.

I was misdiagnosed by my Ped Endo when she kept telling me I was between a T1.5 and a T2. In 2005 I was working at a summer camp and my health was horrid. My blood sugars were back around 500 - 600 everyday and the Ped Endo didn't seem to care because she said I wasn't on enough medicine. Out of the 11 years so far I've been on Glucophage, Avandia, [when I was a T1.5] Lantus, NPH, Humilog, Symlin that helps control the blood sugars and keeps you in target. July 2005 my adult Endo asked me why I wasn't on the pump because I was a T1 I had told her what happened with my Ped Endo and she sent me home after the first appointment told me to research the pumps because I was going on one. Since then I've been on the Minimed 715 and 722 model. Come this December I am going to be switching to Animas. I'm 24 years old and have had Diabetes for the past 11 years. Out of the 11 years I have had 5 Endocrinologists and I'm looking at switching for the 6th and hopefully final time until I move to New York where I eventually want to live. Out of those 5 Endocrinologists two have confirmed I'm a T1 and so that's what I believe I am.

It's rumoured that my father's biological father was a T1 Diabetic, but since there's no contact with him nor does anyone want contact I do know know if it was true seeing how my father was diagnosed with D in 1986. To add complication to the mix of my family and connection to Diabetes my father's mother got married, and her husband adopted my father when he was 9. They divorced and my father's step mother was a T1. In 2007 my great aunt was diagnosed with Diabetes and in 2009 my cousin was diagnosed with Diabetes both have T2. [My grandpa, grandma, grandmother and father have all passed away now]

To this day I am still very quiet with my illness and I don't like to make a big deal out of it, but when I have low blood sugars I inform people that I may be out of it. Luckily I've got a really good friend now who always asks me how I'm doing, how my blood sugars are, e lets me know the carbs of items I want and he helps me. If he sees me wit a real coke he will know I'm low. If I'm having a real coke I've bolused for it and he knows too. I'm so thankful to have someone like him in my life, because many times my pump would be falling out and he would automatically catch it, make sure my site didn't rip out or anything.