The Rollercoaster of Type 1: Triumphs and Trials

[@LeeMoraglio]

Thank you for being so honest about your past struggles. I have read that when a child loses a parent at a young age, he or she doesn't know how to process the loss, so their grief often manifests as rebellious or even criminal behavior. Studies show that many inmates in prisons and juvenile detention centers experienced a terrible loss in their lives. I only mention that because I think your indifference to or neglect of your diabetes was related to that. You rebelled against the disease that took your mom too soon. Don't beat yourself up over it. Those were the cards you were dealt, and it was a difficult hand. You needed a reason to live and take care of yourself, and it sounds like your brother and husband gave you that reason. I'm so glad you found a good man who has done that for you. Before I started using a CGM, I had no idea what my blood sugar was running throughout the day. I probably checked it between 2 to 4 times a day, or when I felt low. Somehow, I was winding up with A1cs that were around 6.0 to 6.3, but in hindsight, I have no idea how. Maybe it was just from being physically active. Needless to say, I was struggling with a lot of low blood sugars. There's nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night with a T-shirt drenched in sweat from a low while you were sleeping. Here is another confession that I've never heard anyone else say. When I started using the Dexcom G4 in 2018, I suddenly had access to glucose data like never before, and I began to micromanage my blood sugars like never before giving myself correction boluses throughout the day, as needed (manually). I actually resisted starting to use CGM because I didn't think I needed it, and because I didn't want to deal with another device connected to me. It wasn't until a new endocrinology pleaded with me to give it a try that I relented. Now I can't imagine NOT using it. Anyway, as a result of that access to glucose data throughout the day, I began to gain weight since insulin is a hormone that leads to fat storage. I am convinced that my weight gain was caused by this new way I was managing my blood sugars with the CGM. My time in range was better, but I was needing more insulin throughout the day to achieve that. That added insulin began to impact my weight soon afterwards. Physical activity makes me much more sensitive to insulin, so my goal now is to reduce my daily insulin totals by eating better, but also by exercising more so that I don't need as much insulin to handle whatever I am eating. Exercise will also reduce my glucose without the need for more insulin. In the past, if my glucose was 150, I was blissfully ignorant. Today, I will correct for it. That has caused me to improve my TIR and reduce my A1cs to around 5.7, but I weigh more than I'd like. Being a perfectionist doesn't help. Doctors have always loved my A1c levels, but it's more work for me now having CGM data always at my fingertips. Sometimes I would like to turn it off due to burnout. It's a very challenging disease to live with, and most people have no idea how difficult it is to manage. I still remember NOT being a diabetic and never thinking about blood sugar. I look forward to going back to that blissful ignorance someday because I believe a functional cure for Type 1 is coming in the next 5 to 10 years (really!). So even though I am tired of living with it, I continue to do my best to remain as healthy as possible so that I can take advantage of the cure when it comes. Thanks again for your honesty, and I'm super glad that you are doing well now. I am also terribly sorry for your loss. Your mother would be very proud of you for how well you are managing your shared disease. She didn't have the technology that we do now to make it a little easier. In my first decade of diabetes, I had to be rushed to the ER more than once from severe hypoglycemia. It's not fun and it doesn't seem fair. We do the best we can with the cards we're dealt, and feeling sorry for myself doesn't accomplish anything. Keep up the good work! I look forward to your future videos! Sorry for the length of this. I tend to be verbose. :-)

[@Indulgentdiabetic]

I truly appreciate you sharing your story! I do hope the cure is coming-and agree we need to keep ourselves healthy to see that day! And thank you for watching my videos!! 🥰