Living with type 1 diabetes can be difficult sometimes, especially for an adolescent whose just newly diagnosed. Not only is it all over whelming but there are a lot of things to take into consideration. For me, my most difficult thing was my needles being regulated and on time every day. Beens as I am a teenager, I obviously like to go out with my friends and go to parties with everyone else, but having diabetes made this hard because I would have to stop what we were doing to eat, check my blood sugar, or even take a couple units of insulin.
At first I thought my friends were going to get frustrated with me, but they completely understood. When it comes to parties, I myself decided that I wouldn't drink because my sugar levels were usually about 5.5 mmol so i really couldnt afford them to go much lower, especially considering I always drink more than i should. If you do decide to go out and get "drunk"with friends, know your limit an be with someone the whole night who knows the signs and symptoms of a low blood sugar spell. Going out with friends and doing typical "teenager" stuff can be a hassle sometimes, but it is possible. Its just a matter of trial and error!
Jenn :)
When I was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I was well well aware that my body could no longer produce insulin, but I was expecting my doctor to tell me that I was going to be on pills just like my dad and that I was going go be feeling better in a month or so, but little did I think that I would be on insulin shots 3-6 times a day. When my doctor first told me that I was going to have to learn to give myself needles, I broke down. I was terrified of needles and always had been. My grandmother is a type 1 diabetic and i would cringe at even the thought of seeing her do it because it always felt like i could feel her pain for a spit second whenever she would inject herself. Learning to give myself needles was probably the biggest hurdle for me being newly diagnosed, as they were always my biggest fear. I couldn't even lance my finger when i first found out i was diabetic, so I didn't think I'd be able to do insulin shots. The first time I did a shot on my own without the nurse guiding my hand was a Lantus shot of 20 units before bed. This was probably my biggest mistake. For anyone else who is diabetic and on Lantus insulin, I'm sure you know exactly what I mean by the "Lantus Sting" that has you crippled over in pain for an hour.When I injected myself, I immediately felt that horrid sting that makes you want to throw up, which obviously made me scared of it. Psyching myself out with Lantus became a problem and when i came home from the hospital, i would put it off or sometimes not even take it at all. Then when I checked my sugars, they were noticeably high again.
My biggest suggestion to any diabetic is to 1) never skip insulin shots and 2) tell a doctor right away about discomfort. Here i was thinking "Wow, I'm gonna be in pain twice a day everyday for the rest of my life", which of course would give anyone a negative outlook on diabetes. But your not stuck with that pain! Once I informed my doctor that I was in that amount of pain, he switched me to a new long acting insulin called Novalin which is cloudy apposed to clear like Lantus. I no longer feel that sting nearly as much anymore, the only thing that worries me sometimes is when the cloudiness separates from the clear part of it and it freaks me out a bit. Insulin injections are a mind over matter situation though. To this day i still scare myself with needles from time to time, you just have to remember that your body needs it to function properly. Developing bad habits is never a good idea when managing diabetes!
Jenn :)
Hi, my names Jennifer O'Leary, but i prefer Jenn for short. Im a country girl from Burford, hick central of Brant County, and I love it. Ive lived in the country my entire life and grew up on a farm in Princeton unitl i was 12. When I moved, I enrolled in elementry school at Blessed Sacrament, and graduated on to highschool to attend Assumption College. I was always pulling off high grades from elementry school to first semester of grade 11. I'll be the first to admit it, everyone in highschool feels this constant need to fit it, make friends and get along with others. Girls are probably the worst for this, but while trying to do this, fights, drama and tears come out of it which does cause quite a bit of stress for a teenager in highschool, but everyone goes through it. I had a boyfriend of two and a half years so balancing friends with him became a challenge. I myself have had my fair share of arguements and fall outs with some close friends, but back in February of 2012, everything just started to pile up. After two and a half years, my boyfriend had pretty much broken me into a million pieces, and my best friend of 5 years chose to listen to rumours and lies from a former ex-bestfriend. Stress was a huge factor in my life when it came to school, and home was not too much better at the time. I began skipping classes, would not do homework and just felt tired and exhausted all the time. My grades began slipping from high 80s to low 60s and 50s. I hated getting up for school because no matter how early I went to bed, I always felt as though I never got enough sleep. Each night got worse, and it came to a point where i would have to get up 6 or 7 times in the night to go pee, and chug approx. 1 litre of water because no matter what i did, I could not quench my thirst. Then one day i went to school and felt extreme hunger as well as tiredness, so i bought food before all my classes, i would eat it before the lesson would start and i fell asleep in every single one of my classes because i was so tired, and my eyes were always blurry so i could not see the board no matter how close I sat. At one point, i would go to school and just sleep the entire day, lunch and everything. On May 1st my friends and I decided to go visit one of our favourite teachers in his classroom and he had commented on how much weight i had lost, how pale my face was and how sunk in my eyes were.I decided that it was probably time to go to the doctor and called my mom to make me an appointment. When I got home that day, my mom took me to the doctors and i realized how difficult i found it to walk and how bad my legs would cramp up after sitting in the car for only 15 minutes. As i entered the doctors office after waiting just a few minutes in the waiting room, my doctor walked in and just by looking at me he had an alarmed look on his face. I explained to him my symptoms and how i was feeling so he asked if he could check my glucose level with his monitor. As we waited for the results, we heard a lot of beeping and noise from the little machine. My blood sugar level was too high to give us a reading. The meter said my glucose level was OVER 33.3 mmol/L My doctor gave me a presription for glyboride and told me that it was gonna "punch" my pancreas to get it to start working again. I was sent to the hospital the next morning for blood work, where i received an actual reading. My blood sugar was 38.7 mmol/L. I was 1.3 away from going into a hyperglycemic coma. After getting my results, my doctor told me to go to emerge in the woodstock hospital where i would be emited and put on an insulin drip through the IV. After about 8 hours of this, my doctor finally came to see me and told me that i had Type 1 Diabetes and would be on insulin for the rest of my life. My mom burst out in tears and my dad looked terrified. My doctor explained that I would be in the hospital for approximately a week to learn how to give myself insulin shots, how to manage my diabetes, and a nutritionist would be coming in to teach me how to count carbs. At first, I was terrified of the needles. I didn't even want to look at them when the diabetic specialist came to visit my room. After a while, I began to play with the insulin pens and tried to get a better feel for them. I was admitted on a Wednesday, and by Saturday I was giving myself my needles like a pro! A lot of family and friends came to visit, and my friend Jamie came with her boyfriend Austin to bring me a pet fish to stay with me. On Monday I was finally allowed to leave but it wasn't over yet. I had to go to the doctors every three days, see the specialist and nutiritionist a few times in a month and learn how to deal with it at school. Although everything was so quick and overwhelming, i got the just of things pretty fast and caught on to everything. Since leaving the hospital, I feel as though i learned a lot about my life and how to be healthy not only through diet but how to manage stress and things like that. To this day i still dont know everything there is to know about T1D, and I still have a little ways to go!
Living with type 1 diabetes can be difficult sometimes, especially for an adolescent whose just newly diagnosed. Not only is it all over whelming but there are a lot of things to take into consideration. For me, my most difficult thing was my needles being regulated and on time every day. Beens as I am a teenager, I obviously like to go out with my friends and go to parties with everyone else, but having diabetes made this hard because I would have to stop what we were doing to eat, check my blood sugar, or even take a couple units of insulin. 
