Hi! My name is Raegan, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on May 13, 2021, so I was 10 when I was diagnosed and my diagnosis was a little out of the ordinary. But let me introduce myself, so you may know that my name is Raegan, and am 11 years old, am in 5th grade and I have a younger brother named Jack. Now diabetes changed my life, but I’ll explain my whole story in the rest below!
My diabetic story: So it started in February, I went in for a big blood draw, cholesterol, A1C, Thyroid, and many more but, my A1C (glycated hemoglobin) came back pre-diabetic. About 2 weeks later I go in and they talk to me and my parents about diabetes, especially to see if I had any signs or symptoms, but nope. I had zero symptoms. Now because I had no symptoms, my pediatric office had pushed back from the hospital to get me in, to get tested, and more. it was about one month after the date we wanted to get in, I was in.
Now’s it about the end of April, and am seeing an endocrinologist, (Finally!). Now we go in and they talk about type 1 and type 2, they tell me that most likely I don’t have type 2 diabetes. and then the doctor tells me that I probably don’t have type 1 diabetes, but they perform an antibody test just in case. So they said that if zero anybody’s come back that means that there is no chance of diabetes, if 1-2 it means that it will most likely develop, and 3-4 means that you have type 1 diabetes. They said that the test will take about 2 weeks.
Now about 2 weeks later and the doctor calls my dad and apologizes profoundly, I have all 4 who’s come back popular. After the call, we head straight to the doctor’s office. By the time we get to the office, all the doctor can do is apologize, but after that, we get into the real stuff. She talks about Dexcom’s, finger pricks, insulin, DKA (Diabetic ketoacidosis), and so much more. But the doctor says that they have never seen anyone in the office this early, so I can’t start insulin, but they will send us home with a glucometer, and tell us to hit the pharmacy for all the other a million things. Now the Dexcoms weren’t ready the first night so I had to do my first finger prick. it took me about 30 minutes to have my parent press the button, and it was really scarier but in the end, it didn’t hurt so much.
My first Dexcom application: so the first thing we did was watch some YouTube videos ( there were helpful), and about halfway through I start crying, I was so scared. we spent about 30-45 minutes waiting to put the thing on, but again after it was on it didn’t hurt. Now the next few (it felt like 20 million) were still hard it took us 30 minutes every time for the first 10 Dexcoms. After some time they would just fly on, and in 2 minutes I would be done!
Ok so it has been about 5 months (in September) and I could not get into any clinical study without a proper diagnosis, so we went in to do the OGTT test (Oral Glucose Tolerance Test). So I go in and we wait and then they call us in for the first blood draw to see what my blood sugar was at while fasting. The phlebotomist drew my blood and tested it and it came back at 254, that was at fasting! So the phlebotomist went to talk to my doctor, but she was not on call, so another doctor answered and said that we should continue. So they went on and had me drink some disguising orange juice. they had us wait for 1 hour until we come back in for the second blood draw. Now we do the blood draw but the phlebotomist doesn’t tell us what the blood glucose is at. So I and my dad go into the lobby and do a finger prick. My finger prick comes back at 334. After the second hour, I drink the rest of the orange juice and we do the blood draw. Again they did not tell me what my blood glucose is at so we do a finger prick cause the Dexcom said I was above 400, and I was at 659! My dad calls the endocrinologist and talked to an RN (Registered nurse) my dad was like can I cancel the test and come in for some insulin, especially because I had not eaten. So the RN tells us that they would not let us in for insulin and that it is unnecessary to cancel the test. So we go in for our last blood draw and after the finger prick says that am at 689. By the time we are home, the endocrinologist calls us back and says we need to come in. We drive back to the office and they talk to me about insulin. After dinner I had to do my first shot, I was really scared, but we did it and it bleed, just a little, and again it did not hurt that much.
December: Finally am starting my pump! We go through the first class and chose Tandem (T-Slim), it was 1 week later when I go in and learn all about it. We learned about cartridge changing, site, basal rate, and much other stuff. Now had put it on with the t-slim expert. Now it was scarier, probably the scarier of all stuff. But we put it on! Now it was about 1 or 2 months later till we decided to look into untethers approach, so I use long-lasting instead of the basal rate on my pump. I love the untethered approach because I can take off my pump for hours and not worry about my basal rate.