July 2

Today is a special day.  Today is the anniversary of when I was diagnosed with diabetes.  And as of today, that was exactly 20 years ago.

A lot has happened in 20 years.  When I was first diagnosed I was on two injections of insulin a day.  I had to mix both Toronto/Regular (it was the same insulin, but it had different names) and NPH into a syringe.  When I was first diagnosed I was too young to do this myself so my parents had to do it.  I think I also did glucose only two times a day, plus any time I needed to because I was feeling weird.

Eventually I moved to four injections a day, three of Humalog and one of NPH at night.  This was supposed to provide me with more control, but it was also done while I was going through puberty, which meant that hormones made control much more difficult.

Finally I switched to the insulin pump, which has made my life much, much easier.  I can eat whenever I'm hungry, rather than being stuck with specific meal times; this has been great for university when I didn't have a set daily schedule the way I did in high school.  I also do exactly the amount of insulin I need for what I eat, rather than having to guess how much I was going to eat with the Toronto/Regular (you had to inject it 30 minutes before you ate to give it time to work; Humalog and the Novorapid I use now are much faster).

During this time I've also used many, many glucometers.  My original meter, a One Touch 2, died and was replaced by a One Touch Profile.  I've used most of the One Touch meters, and several meters from other brands (I can't even remember them all now!).  Originally I had to wait 45seconds to a minute for my results; now the new meters finish the test in 5 seconds or less.

As you can tell, these last twenty years have seen a lot of change.  Sadly, the one change I would really like to see is still years in the future: a cure.  When I was first diagnosed I was told that a cure would be coming within ten years; that date passed us by ten years ago.

But today is not a day for being angry that a cure hasn't come yet.  Today is a day of celebration.  Look at how far we've come!  And so far, (touch wood!) I've managed to remain healthy.  Sure, diabetes is a constant, every day challenge.  But thanks to living when I do, I've managed to lead a relatively normal life.  Sure, there are things that are unique to me that a person without diabetes doesn't need to worry about.  But I am still able to get out and enjoy myself.  So what if I have to bring Skittles and a Power Bar with me to do so?