When I was diagnosed all those years ago, I was the only diabetic of any sort in the whole entire family. A few years ago my neice met and married a fellow who also has type 1, so now I have a brother-in-jabs.
My son is the only one of his peers with T1. In a school of about 1200 students, there are now 7 T1s total. But he doesn't really know any of them. There is one teacher with T1
Besides the people at camp, I haven't met another person with type 1 that I can remember and camp was a LONG time ago.
in my family (i come from an absolutely huge family) i'm the only one with type 1. in recent years, a few of my older family members have developed type 2. i went to very large schools, so there was typically 1 other diabetic there. in high school (and still today) one of my very good friends is diabetic. i met others in college, and now more through work (i work at the iowa diabetes center... hard to NOT meet diabetics (c: ). even though there are others there for support, it's still very easy to feel alone, but it is refreshing to know there ARE others out there like me. on days when i feel like a "bad" diabetic (which is a lot of days because i'm terrible about testing BGs), i have support to know i'm not the only one. even if someone isn't physically there with you, keeping in contact with them can really help you see your world differently. everyone has a unique view of life, even when we're standing in the exact same spot.
I know two other girls at my high school with T1 (both one year younger than me). One, I went to diabetes camp with, so we were pretty good friends for a while, but don't really talk much anymore. The other I met in middle school one time when we were both testing in the health room, and then I met her again this year. I was introduced to her that second time by my newspaper advisor (who knows I have T1 and is awesome), because she is going to be on the newspaper staff this fall. I'm hoping to get to know her better this next year, so I can have another T1 friend.
Oh, and there's also one guy at my school that has T1. I used to have a crush on him, but he never paid any attention to me. Haha. (= I alway got the feeling when around him that he's not very open about his diabetes, so I stopped trying to get to know him. I'm not even sure if he still goes to my school.
|†~*Sarah*~†|
P.S.- My high school has about 1300 students.
Well all through school there was no one with diabetes and my little brother was dx at the age of 10 and I was dx yrs later. But all through college I was the only one with diabetes and in all of my jobs I have only meet one other T1 and I don't speak with her anymore. And I think that is a shame cause it would be really nice to have a friend that knows and understands what I'm going through on a daily basis.
CJ