My little brother is a type 1 and I feel so bad for him. He’s only 11 years old, but I’m so worried about him not having a normal life with regard to friends, dating etc.
What have your experiences been like?
08
Nov 2009
How Much Has Type 1 Diabetes Hindered Your Life?
By 6 Comments
I’ve been diabetic for 13 years.
I’m married, with a baby, and I’m also0 a qualified ski instructor.
It hasn’t hindered me in any way, because I refuse to let it.
I went heli-skiing, bungee jumping, and plan on going sky diving next year.
Help him to take care of himself. Don’t make him, but help him to understand what is going on with his body, and how he can take care of it.
Let him know he’ll be fine.
I was diagnosed at 4 years old. I am almost 20, so you do the math.
Diabetes has not altered my life. I am still normal. I am still healthy. I am still happy. The worst part about it, is worrying about having complications during pregnancies, or passing it on to my kids. But it is something I have to wait and see, and deal with when it happens.
He will be fine. It isn’t like having a disfiguring disease, or something contagious. Everything will be OK!
I am a type 1 and I live as normal life as my friends and husband do. It hasn’t stopped me or held me back from anything. I am always sorry to hear about anyone especially a child being diagnosed, but your brother is very lucky to be a diabetic in this modern day. There are so many tools (meters, pumps, fast acting insulin) out there that make it possible for me and every other type 1 out there that can say that we live normal lives.
I am 18 years old been type 1 diabetic since i was 11.
The only way it can mess his life up if he dose not take care of him self.
It got the best of me last year 11th grade and i was in the hospital all the time and missed so much school i dropped out.
Now i am taking better care of myself and working on owning my own Business help him out any way you can and he will be ok.
I just got diagnosed with type 1 about 4 months ago. (I am 16) It is hard to handle at first, but now giving myself shots and checking my blood sugar all the time is pretty much second nature to me…
If I may, honestly I’d advise anyone with diabetes type I to let his condition be known to everyone ie. his classmates, his friends, his future colleagues etc. because if one day he collapses because of hypogglycemia or diabetic ketoacidosis, at least the people around him may know what to do in these emergencies.
I got it when I was only 13 but it was not the era of internet and Wikipedia, and thus my family and I weren’t armed with much knowledge and still believed that sugar was the culprit. In fact, I was too young to care and didn’t even think too much about it.
Time passed quickly and adolescence, girls and career and partying became my life’s focus and I was defaulting on the doctor’s appointments and medicine on and off for more than 10 years, thinking I was too young and I was invincible.
I was hospitalized a few times because of the usual bouts of hyperglycemia, and before I knew it – I am in my early 30s, the bosses at work whom I sacrificed for work let me go because I didn’t have enough leave to go for my medical appointments and before I knew it, I have stage 3 CKD (chronic kidney disease), diabetic neuropathy, diabetic retinopathy, hyperlipidemia, and my left ventricular function was 25% and I needed a quadruple heart bypass to stay alive.
So, for your brother’s sake – please. Please remind him to take care of himself, DO NOT forego any treatment or therapies in exchange for his social life and work, do not give up. Find out all you can about the disease, stick to your recommended diet, educate your friends and family about the disease so that they know better to support your brother, and keep him in good shape – physically and mentally.
God willing, he will live a fruitful life and contribute to society, and not become a victim of his own undoing and carelessness.