I wanted to create this post to have people tell their stories about when they were diagnosed. I know it can be hard and there aren’t always people that you can talk to about it so why not here where there are so many people who can relate. I also think that this can be therapeutic.
This is my story:
My junior year of high school I started loosing weight and felt really good physically but mentally felt so drained. I thought I was depressed for a while. I finally decided to shave my head to get a fresh start and it helped a lot and made me feel free for a few weeks then I fell into a huge slump. Now it was worse. I had been doing film for my high school basketball team since I was a freshman and went to a game one night and ate a snickers bar. When we were on our way home from the game and I got a pain in my stomach. It was a dull pain. I went to bed and could not sleep. I woke my parents up and my dad took me to the emergency room. It felt ridiculous at this point but we went. It took a few hours for me to get called back and is about 3 am. They thought I was going to have to be rushed to surgery so I was not allowed any food or water. I was so tired at this point I thought I was dying. It wasn’t until about 6 am that they finally diagnosed me as diabetic. Then about 10 am I was transferred into the ICU and went to diabetic bootcamp and learned more in 4 days than I have in my entire life.
Share your stories!! even if its just for you to read and type for yourself do it!
Thank you Samantha @Yellowbailey17 , for sharing your story - and welcome back to the Forum, haven’t seen you in a while.
My “warm up” period to diabetes was kind of drawn out and long - six months or more. It began during my high school Sophomore year during Christmas break I was tired and lethargic and tried to fake it through - what 15 y/o boy wants to admit a weakness. My family, of course, couls see that something was bothering me, and when asked, I’d respond “Nothings wrong, just working extra hard and tiring out” - My mother would mention that I appeared to be loosing weight even though I was eating more; my friends would also comment when I had to “sit out” because I exhausted myself so easily.
Fast forward to July 4th, my 16 birthday celebration!!! Yeah, some celebration, I was too weak to push myself off the bed even though my weight went from about 150 to 128 pounds. Certainly, my family became very concerned, but being a holiday in the 1950s, everything was closed - including doctors. My mother called a neighbor whose husbane is a surgeon, and the neighbor called her husband and told him to visit me on his way home from hospital rounds.
When he got to our house, and about halfway up the stairs, he said “someone has diabetes”. The smell of acetone in the air, to which the whole family [9] had become accustomed over time, told this doctor that I was deep into acidosis poisoning. He looked at me and immediately said “you have diabetes”, and to my mother to get me to the ER. He called the hospital, gave instructions for my admission and had me admitted as a patient of the head of medicine. Turns out my BS was something over 1,700 mg/dl - yeah, seventeen hundred was as high as the lab was able to test.
Two week later, I was discharged and sent home “fully diabetes educated”. I’ll describe later, the Full Diabetes Education.
I always just figured my diagnosis story was average. I was 12-13 and I had recovered from a cold and just got a vicious sunburn. It was the nearly constant need to pee. That and the thirst. Thought it would go away so I didn’t say anything. Getting up every 1/2 hour got me exhausted. So did losing 4 pounds a day. My mom asked me to make a big ice cream for myself, with cookies, that was nice. Anyway it might have gone on a few months until the pediatrician diagnosed me by saying I had sugar in my urine to which I replied, “that means diabetes, right”? 2weeks in the hospital I swear the first 2 bags of saline were awesome. I felt like a million bucks. That and the first night sleep. I could kick the worlds ass that next morning. By day 3 I was off the IV and I was helping the nurses and stocking their closets with stationary and pens from the stock closet in the basement. I took the stairs.
Haha Dennis, the “education “. I guess the real education was with my kit and trying not to die over the next couple years. It would be almost 6 years later I got a bs tester. I had disposable needles but the “testing “ (urine tests) wasn’t worth the effort. So I just didn’t. Cheers and good luck 
to everyone in this club!
OK, you asked for it. In early April 1956, Mom knew something was wrong with me but didn’t know how to find out. So I was taken to the GP next door for diagnosis. He said that I had a “bug” of some kind and prescribed an antibiotic. This was rather before they knew that viruses weren’t affected by those…
Mom had been wondering though because her Grandfather had diabetes (Type 2, he lived with it for 25 years) in the early 1900s and her sister had developed diabetes (Type 1) too, sometime after she married and moved out. So Mom didn’t know the symptoms or much else about it. Also note that Juvenile Diabetes wasn’t recognized as an actual disease until 1952, just 4 years before, and most Doctors hadn’t heard about it yet.
So about a week later I woke up with such stomach pain that I woke up the whole family. Such timing, the morning of Mom’s birthday. They finally took me to the ER. The Doctor that worked on diagnosing me was a surgeon, so he decided with NO tests or attention to any other information that I MUST have acute appendicitis.
He succeeded in getting me on the operating table and starting the procedure, but somewhere in there I went into a DKA coma.
In the meantime my Dad had been following Mom’s idea, so he called all the doctor’s offices he could find in the entire Richmond, VA area looking for a Doctor that knew about Juvenile Onset (now called Type 1) Diabetes. He finally found Dr Weinstein, a new Pediatrician that had just started his practice and his training included Juvenile Diabetes.
He got right in there and had me pumped full of insulin. Dad claimed he gave me 1050 units before recovery even started, but numbers grow larger over the years while memory declines, so I can’t say that’s verified.
So they were at least giving me insulin but I still didn’t regain consciousness. After waiting 2 days it was thought that I couldn’t survive, so Mom, Dad, and the Head Nurse (who was the wife of Dad’s assistant) started toward my room to hold a “Death Watch”. Just before stepping into the corridor, Dad wondered why he wasn’t feeling alarmed or distressed while walking toward my room to possibly see me die. He was sure that whatever happened was in God’s hands, so any outcome must be right.
Once walking down the corridor as Dad put in his memoirs “the nurse” stopped him and told him that as soon as he got to me he MUST talk to me. She said it was very important to keep me connected to life by doing that, so I wouldn’t just slip away. I don’t know who that nurse was, apparently not the 1 walking with them, but I think she was really an angel.
So when they got to me Dad followed instructions and was saying anything he could think of, with his my right next to my ear. This went on for some time, and then I opened my eyes.
That began 6 weeks of trouble trying to get me to recover so I could go home. I had kidney failure several times, most other systems badly affected, and was weaker than a kitten for most of it. I wasn’t able to do much, but Dad brought in a flashlight that I could just manage to move around to shine on the walls or ceiling to keep amused. When they came to visit 1 morning he found that the batteries had been removed. The Hight Nurse told him she was afraid I’d burn out the batteries so she took the batteries out. So he turned and went out, coming back with a large box of batteries with clear instructions written on it. If th batteries die replace them with the ones in this box!
Also since I had a condition the doctors hadn’t even been aware of they kept slipping into my room when nobody was looking and giving me drugs that had NOTHING to do with my diabetes, complicating everything.
I know that I nearly died multiple times during my stay there. When they got me home Dad refused to pay the bills and sued the hospital for malpractice.He finally won and I even went in to testify, all of age 5.
I’m sure that the only reason I survived was that God had a mission for me, to help diabetics understand what to do to improve their situations. I know that in the 34 years since I got my first computer, and started telling diabetics around the world what I knew I have improved many lives and saved more than a few.
So you asked, and I trust that answered your question.
In August of 1977 (around when Elvis died) I was a Lance Corporal in the USMC in Iwakinu Japan playing drums with the 1st Marine Air Wing Band. Even when I got there I was not right. Drinking a lot of fluids, eating a lot, losing weight, and sleeping a lot. My band mates nicknamed me “Burnout” cuz they thought I was burned out from doing too many drugs or something.
I went to the sick bay once and they said since I had just gotten there it must be jet lag. Then as time went on, finally, the drum major called the doctors and told them something was wrong with this guy and made an appointment for me. I was diagnosed by the doctor based on my symptoms before they did anything.
But the next day I had to go in and be tested. This was done by first taking blood out of my arm to test. Then I drank a bottle of some kind of glucose stuff. Then they drew blood to test each half hour for 4 hours. After 2 hours of this, they said “you got it”. I was put in the hospital. Once I got on insulin I started to feel much better and like my old self.
My band mates then rechristened my nick name as “The Flame” because I was an energetic young man once again.
I got discharged because of it. Didn’t like that. Wanted to stay but could not. My VA doctor tells me now when they diagnose someone in the military with Type I they put them on a pump and they stay in and get disability when their term runs out. Timing is everything I guess.
I’ve been a firefighter/paramedic for 24 years and in the fall of 2016 I noticed I was extremely tired all the time. Since we were super busy at work I attributed it to lack of sleep and the long shifts.
In March 2017 I passed out after jumping up from the couch to answer a knock at the front door. This was obviously concerning, especially since I found myself to be light headed whenever I stood up.
In addition, all winter I noticed I was thirsty all the time, super hungry (especially for sugary foods) and was peeing a ton, especially at night. Though I didn’t want to believe it, I finally put it all together: I was experiencing the same symptoms which I observe my DM patients having.
The straw that broke the camel was when I was on shift, and again I felt light headed when standing up. I overcame my denial and I measured my sugar with the meter on the ambulance and it was 599.
So a endocrinologist diagnosed me with adult onset Type I DM at 41 years old. Now with Control IQ on my insulin pump and the DexCom I’m doing okay. Thanks to technology I can still do my job.
I’m wondering how long I actually had DM. I’m guessing months to years, and it finally became bad enough for me to notice.
Haven’t shared my story with anyone so here it goes. Also this is a super long story so read at your own risk :3
It was the beginning of my senior year in high school around late 2019. I was a 17 year old, skinny, short and felt like hot stuff. I started to notice a few changes with my body and school went on. I started to drink a lot of water (which at first thought it was a good thing), went to the bathroom a lot more often and I was losing a bit of weight. I didn’t think much of it at the time and the symptoms would get worse as time went on and even a couple of friends noticed that I was drinking a lot of water.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2020. Was so excited thinking that this was going to be my year since it was the year I was graduating. Boy was I wrong! A lot of things happened but I’ll stick with what I believe to be caused by my diabetes. I was losing a lot of weight. Doesn’t sound too bad for a teenage girl but I felt like something was wrong because I had a terrible diet and didn’t exercise. Normally I’m between 110-130 lbs but I was starting to get under 100. I was also drinking water almost all the time. My family has a water fountain at home that has 5 gallons a jug and I would finish it in only a couple of days by myself. My family and I didn’t think that this was a problem, in fact we thought it was a good thing.
Since this was when covid started, school turned into online learning. This was when I started feeling abdominal pain and felt nauseous when I would lay down after dinner. I didn’t tell anyone about the nausea but I would complain about my abdominal pain to my family. I didn’t realize that it was my pancreas for another few months.
Fast forward again to July of 2020. I was 92lbs and days after my 18th birthday. I had a doctor’s appointment for something I don’t feel comfortable sharing but I had mentioned my rapid weight lose for doing absolutely nothing. She started to list off symptoms of everything I was having. Drinking lots of water, going to the bathroom alot, nauseous after eating. At one point she mentioned that it could be diabetes so she had me take a blood test. The car ride home after that was really strange for me. I had a gut feeling that it was diabetes but my mom would say, “it’s not diabetes” so I passed those thoughts aside. That was until we got a phone call saying that my test results were back and that I was diabetic.
It was a really heartbreaking time for my family. I had no family history of diabetes so my family and I were clueless. We jumped to conclusions and thought that I basically had type 2. I remember thinking to myself “I wish I had gotten fatter, maybe then I could have caught it sooner.” I realized how stupid that sounds now. A few days after we went to another doctor to get more information and was told I most likely have type 1 diabetes. I didn’t know the difference but I was told that I would have to take insulin shots which absolutely terrified me. I hated needles and would cry at the thought of getting them. Now I would have to give myself shots was insane to me. They took a ketone test since they ran out of needles at that clinic. Later on that night we got a call saying that I should go to an emergency room as soon as possible because I was most likely in a dka state.
So off we went to the emergency room during a covid outbreak which turned out to make things feel so much worse. They put an IV in me and checked my blood sugar which was over 1,000 and around 8pm I was put in ICU. Here’s how covid affected all this. Normally they would let some stay in ICU with me over night which my mom desperately wanted to do. However since covid patients were also put in ICU, they did not want to risk having someone catch the virus and possibly spreading it if they were to leave the ICU rooms. So I had to be left alone that night. That first night was absolutely terrible. I was set on an insulin drip for my IV and every 2 hours I would have to wake up to get my blood sugar checked, every 6 hours they would come take blood and I would sometimes hear one of the covid patients yelling about something which woke me up as well. My fingers were so bruised that they started to look like zombies but got my dka under control.
The next day, no one was able to visit me. Something I will never forget is that my mom still stayed with me but sat outside next to my window and called over the phone to talk. One day the head nurse for the day was nice enough to let her in one morning and she didn’t have to sit outside. The only catch was that she had to leave before the next head nurse shift started so they wouldn’t get in trouble.
I stayed in the hospital for 4 days (not counting the night I first came) and missed my graduation. It was just my luck, for my birthday my body gifted me diabetes and now I missed something I was looking forward to for years. I didn’t get to see my dad till that fourth day (it was also the time where the “high” jokes started to happen). I had to wait to get a normal hospital room that I would have to share. They were packed so I had to stay in ICU longer than I had to till a room was freed up. During that time I finally got over my fear of needles and was fine injecting myself. However the first time was very awkward since the IV I had in my arm was put in wrong and caused my arm to swell up. I’m starting to realize how nonchalantly I take health problems because I didn’t say anything till one of the nurses pointed out and gave me a new IV. Every nurse that worked with me were really nice and understanding and I wish I could have thanked them all properly.
When I was finally able to leave the hospital, we had to get the prescriptions for everything and that took a couple painful hours to get. I was also told to meet with an endocrinologist as soon as possible to manage my diabetes better. Thanks again pandemic for making things harder, I was able to schedule one for 3 months and my blood sugar was awful.
That’s how my diabetic journey started. I always knew that it would be me to mess up the family blood line. Just didn’t think it would be T1D and have my days be filled with Snoop Dogg jokes. Thank you to anyone read my story. It was definitely a lot and I really do appreciate it.
I was diagnosed at 3 years of age (back in the 60s (that’s the 1960s by the way 
). Reading the stories that have been posted, and just from what I’ve heard over the years about diagnosis later in life, I wanted to point out how very easy it is to mistake the symptoms of diabetes for something much less serious, seasonal (I’m drinking a lot but it’s near 90 degrees), or desired (“I don’t know what I’m doing different but I’m losing those pounds I wanted to shed!”).
My parents noticed I was thirsty and peeing a lot so they took me to the doctor right away. I don’t know if they would have used a glucose tolerance test at the time (@Dennis?) or something else but of course you know the diagnosis came back positive. I don’t know how they determined my insulin regimen. My earliest recollection from childhood was of taking pork based U40 insulin - many of you will need to Google that. The concentration eventually doubled with U80, and we could take half the dosage we did before; later U100 came about and we (actually doctors) did some mental math to determine the corresponding dose. At some point I switched from Pork to Beef, then NPH came into the picture.
It wasn’t until after college that my doctor started me on multiple injections - medicine had figured out that certain insulins were long lasting while others only worked for a short time - relatively speaking. What we now know as basal and bolus insulin was just becoming “a thing.” It was around that time too that I got one of the early home BG meters - designed for a tabletop, not a purse or pocket! My only experience with them prior to that may have been at the doctor’s office and I believe they had some version at summer camp when I was little! I was once told that these meters were not for home use - you had to be a professional to understand (puhlease), and as I was looking into getting my first meter a rep told me that you didn’t want the fast tests - the slower the better. At camp we each did a finger stick and waited about 5 minutes (!) for our result - now we get accurate readings in seconds! My memories are clouded from the timeframe so the facts may be off.
I’m so grateful that diagnostics, knowledge and technology have come such a long way so you can get treatment that hopefully makes it possible to live life to its fullest, however you define it.
I forgot to mention I had had some sort of a “bug” prior to the symptoms that took me to see a doctor - thanks to @Tee25 for mentioning your step throat and reminding me! I think it’s not uncommon to hear about people being diagnosed following an illness - apparently it triggers something in our flawed autoimmune system (if you’ll excuse the term).
Hi everyone. First time on. Glad I found you. I was diagnosed with diabetes in a more unusual way than most. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year. I had surgery to remove the tumor and had 40% of my pancreas and all of my spleen removed. There was hope that what remained of my pancreas would start to function but the trauma was too much. It never woke up and I have no insulin production at all. Never will. I function as type 1. I wasn’t born this way but rather, created. I literally became a diabetic overnight. Thankfully, the cancer is gone completely. It’s been a difficult journey at times, learning all the diabetic do’s and dont’s. You learn the dont’s pretty quickly, especially when it comes to lows. I think the hardest part for me has been the mood swings that come along with blood sugar fluctuations. Those are not fun. Anyway, this is my story and am looking forward to connecting.
Hi @estepjanice and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis but am glad you’re doing well. Explore the forum and if you have questions don’t hesitate to ask - people here are more than happy to share experiences and recommendations but you should check with your doctor if you are new. I recommend a book titled *Think Like a Pancreas *. The author is a medical professional with Type 1 so he writes from first hand experience and it’s actually a fun read.
Again, welcome!
Hi Kristina @Acina for “delightfully sharing” the story around your diagnosis. Considering the horrors surrounding what you experienced, most especially having to endure countless hours alone with your thoughts because of the pandemic coupled with what I expect might be very little “diabetes education” restrictions the manner in which you write indicates your strength.
During my seven decades living with my diabetes, I’ve found that the best medicine is a positive “I can” attitude. Diabetes does not keep us from doing and achieving. I too hated needles, and still do even though I’ve had to give myself many thousands of injections over the years, but it is still something I know I need to do; nice that you are no longer bothered with this.
As for being the only person in your family with diabetes, you are not alone - as a kid, I grew up in a family of 9 and I was the only “diabetic” even though we all ate together, the same foods, and had very similar activity. Statistically, only about 10% [TEN percent] of people diagnosed with Autoimmune [TypeOne] Diabetes have a first or second degree relative with T1; it is some of the “lifestyle varieties” of what is called diabetes that appears to run in families. As far as Messing up the family bloodline", that risk is also very low; none of my children or grandchildren [now in late teens and twenties] have any sign of diabetes.
Live a healthy life and be thankful - the life we live is not governed by what has been given to us, but rather what we do with the hand that is dealt us.
I was diagnosed at 11. I got strep throat one fall day and then never felt better after the antibiotics. We went through a period from October-thanksgiving where I was definitely diabetic but was not diagnosed, I sort of had a gradual decline to that point. For months I had been saying I felt sick and had headaches but being a kid I just thought I had strep. My parents did the right thing and brought me to the pediatrician multiple times but they never asked anything related to diabetes symptoms like thirst or urination so they didn’t piece it together and told my parents I was faking sick since I just started a new school. Meanwhile, I was losing weight and declining everyday. One of my teachers even told my parents at conferences that they thought I had an eating disorder because I was starting to lose weight rapidly. My parents were caring and great but had no idea what diabetes was so missed it and trusted me when I said I was eating that I didn’t have an eating disorder. On December 9th, I couldn’t take it anymore. I remember begging to stay home because I was puking. I could not keep anything down and could barely stay awake. My mom helped me into the bath tub and saw how skinny I was (I was 11 so she wasn’t helping me bathe) and we immediately went to a new pediatrician that night. He smelt my breath looked at me and said take a urine sample, blood sample and CT this kid is sick. As soon as my labs came back he confirmed what he knew from my fruity breath and told me and my mom that I had type 1. I just remember being relieved that it wasn’t in my head and I wasn’t crazy. I was admitted to the hospital for five days and had a blood sugar of 524 and learned a ton about it and have been handling in the 16 years since!
I was 14 when I first started getting sick. I would be admitted into the hospital about every 3 month the ran all the tests for type 1 since it ran in the family. Dr would just say must be a bad virus. This went on for about a year and a half so many tests for everything cancer, meningitis, etc. Finally about 16 the pain in my stomach is so bad I can’t walk or sit. I remember being at the movies had to go to the bathroom and started vomiting my gf watched half of the movie before she sent someone in to get me. Being 16 and need to be strong I front of a girl I crawled out of the bathroom down the hall outside and refused perimedics. Got a truck I was helped I to the bed and was taken to the emergency room. At this point I was in and out of consciousness I don’t remember much but the god awful pain and the uncontrollable vomiting. I was admitted with a BG in the high 700’s. I remember waiking up the next morning and remembering at least I have family that is type 1 and they can do it. Boy was I wrong it took 20 years to be diagnosed as severe brital diabetic. I was almost 40 and was falling down hill quicker than any local Dr has seen. I fought with everything I had I won’t lie there were times my wife was told she needs to prepare for my death. About a 2 years ago I was diagnosed to be allergic to synthetic insulin. I stopped immediately taking my novolog and switch to regular with in 24 his I noticed a difference in my pain.skip to today, I am out of a wheelchair I am not sick in bed not able to move from pain and vomiting. It is going to be hard and lots of regret but I am going to fight and be blessed for every day I get from today on. No day will be taken for granite.
This is my first post on here! So I hope I am doing this correctly. Here is our son’s story: Luke was diagnosed almost 2 years ago in May. He was a normal 8 year old boy and we noticed absolutely no symptoms (none that were apparent to us). He never complained about anything and we always pump our boys full of water because Phoenix is so hot. So drinking a lot of water and peeing all the time is normal in this house. LOL. Anyway, I took him in for his 8 year old well check and his pediatrician just happened to run bloodwork on all my boys…and Luke’s glucose came back at 399. He made us bring Luke back the next day for a recheck and he was at 400. I had to immediately leave his clinic and go straight to the ER at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Needless to say I was freaking out over all of this because I had no idea anything was wrong with my child (I felt like the worst mother). Luke was throwing the ER doctors for a loop because they were expected a child in serious medical distress with everything going on. But he was just sitting on the bed, happy and answering of all their questions. We then spent three days at PCH getting fluids and insulin…and learning about the new world of T1D. But then he start becoming hypoglycemic with all the insulin they were giving him and then it was a game of trying to figure everything out. The Endos made the decision to take him off of insulin because it seemed like his pancreas was still doing its job. Once we got home we did finger sticks 3x a day, counted carbs, and kept a log for his Endo. Luke was in the honeymoon phase of his diabetes for almost 14 months. Then, as if 2020 wasn’t already a mess with COVID, we noticed by June of that year that his glucose kept creeping up no matter how much we were doing to keep it low. We had to finally start introducing small doses of insulin throughout the day and realized his honeymoon phase was coming to an end. By July he started wearing a Dexcom G6 and then by October his Endo made the call that he was ready for an insulin pump.
So even though he has been a T1D for almost 2 years, I feel like we are just in the beginning stages because he has only been on insulin for less that 9 month. I feel truly blessed for the way we found out. Our Endo has told us that if our Pediatrician hadn’t decided to do the bloodwork, by the summertime Luke’s story could have been a lot more scary!
Thanks for sharing and it’s great to have you here. You might want to read the book Think Like a Pancreas. The author works in the field and has Type 1 so he had an excellent perspective - and while the book is educational it’s not a difficult read. I’m nearing 60 years on insulin, with no major issues.
@wadawabbit thank you for the welcome! Yes, I just got that book from Amazon and am slowly making my way through the first few chapters!
I was informed of being T1D after waking up from a coma and on a ventilator. I beat the odds as my glucose level was nearly 1700 upon admittance into the E.R… I was found unconscious in my car after a passerby had seen me 17 hours earlier. I was going into respiratory failure and wasn’t expected to make it through my hospital stay. A year later I’ve maintained a 5.3-5.4 A1C level. I follow a strict insulin and diet schedule to avoid that from ever happening again.
I was diagnosed at age 72 after 1-1/4 years of symptoms. There were two things that delayed the diagnosis. The first was that my only symptoms for nearly a year were extremely severe leg cramps (10 minutes before I could stand, 30 minutes before I could walk, 2 weeks before all effects were gone), and the second was that I had a normal A1c just a couple months before that started. So diabetes wasn’t even considered as a cause until just before my self-diagnosis. Then I started trying to lose weight, and noticed after a while that it was much too easy. Before my diagnosis, I lost 30 pounds in 12 weeks. During that period, I started having constant drink-pee symptoms, then peripheral edema. I have a son with T1D – I tell everyone that I apparently inherited it from him – and those symptoms rang a bell. I looked up diabetes as a possible cause of leg cramps, and I contacted my physician the next day. He still didn’t think I could be diabetic until my A1c came back at 13.7. That was off the chart for A1c reporting where I get my medical care. The cramps stopped two days after the start of insulin therapy. I’m 77 now, and getting along well with a pump and CGM. I do have some mild peripheral neuropathy from the long period of undiagnosed T1D, but overall I consider myself lucky. At this time in human history, it’s manageable. 
My story sounds a lot like many of the others. In 1960 I was 13 and had symptoms of extreme thirst, frequent urination and weight loss. My mother was fearful of my thinness and took me to a doctor where a glucose tolerance test was done and I got my type 1 diagnosis. Testing (urine) was, in retrospect, a waste of time. I never learned to inject my insulin while my mother took on that role, feeling some degree of control. I finally learned when I married and moved away from my parents. I was the first in my family and then a few years after me, my older brother was diagnosed. I am 74 now and so thankful for all the technological advances in care.
My name is Taylor, and I am a 14 year old boy. I just wanted to started out by saying that I have never been ‘in sync’ with my body. I sometimes wouldn’t feel stuff, and even then I would brush it off as “I have lots of school” or “I have too much responsibilities”. Something like that.
Anyway, this Christmas break, my parents noticed that I had been drinking a ton of water, and peeing a lot. They were confused, but didn’t do anything. I went back to school, and I started to feel tired. I thought that this was only because I had been waking up early for basketball practice, so it’s natural to feel worn out. It got to a point that my friends would comment on how I never had any energy. Then my parents started to notice my weight loss ( I lost 20 pounds, and was 145 lbs). My mom set me up with a high carb diet, with a 1100 calorie protein shake for every meal. On Wednesday, I had so many carbs that I threw up at school. I was sent home, and my mom finally took me to the doctor, who recommended that I go to a sports physician (because I played football and basketball). I went to the hospital the next day. They did some blood work, and said that results would be back on Monday.
That weekend I had no energy. Sunday came, and I laid on the couch for at least 3 hours. I lost all track of time. My results came back: my blood sugar was sorta high, and I should schedule an appointment with an endo sometime soon, but no rush.
I went to basketball practice ( where I could not function, my mind and body was slow) and then school, and halfway through first period my mom called me and told me “The doctor just talked to an endocrinologist, and you need to go to the hospital ASAP.” I went to the ER, and when I walked in the nurses where confused why I was still walking. My doctor had called ahead and said that a critical possible diabetic was coming in, probably in DKA. They checked my blood, and then put me in IC. I got insulin and sugar water, and felt much better. I got insulin on the 100th anniversary of the invention of insulin. I was in the IC for 2 days, and then I was transferred to the less intensive care ( can’t remember what it’s called). Coming back home from the hospital, I felt awesome, had already gained weight ( was in hospital for 3 1/2 days), and I even started in my basketball game the next day.