I have had diabetes for the past 34 years and was started
at 6 years old on insulin therapy with 2 shots a day. Seven years ago a friend of mine pushed me to
attend an insulin pump meeting at one of our local associations and I dragged
my feet and attended. It was the most eye opening experience of my life!
At that time, I was 32 and I exercised as cautiously as I
could, but did not dare to push myself for fear of being hypoglycemic. Anyone
who takes insulin and has ever suffered a hypoglycemic event knows the feeling
is not one they would wish to repeat and exercising is a great way to bring
one's blood sugar levels down.
I decided that I would try the insulin pump and after a
few months of getting things controlled and bringing my mind into proactive
versus reactive mode, I began to feel better about adding more exercise into my
daily life.
Last year I decided (before I turned 40!) that I would
train for a triathlon. I began in
October and in July, I swam, biked and ran my way through my first ever
triathlon!! I have to say that I have never been so proud of myself in my
entire life as when I ran across that finish line with my blood sugar still in
great control.
There is one more piece to this puzzle of the best
control I have ever had and it was adding the continuous glucose sensor to my
insulin pump therapy. I started wearing this last April so was able to do some
training with it on and wore it during the triathlon. This helped me to know
when I was trending up (after my swim and during my biking) and when I started
to trend down and had to treat with some glucose (during my run).
Everyone is different, but the new technology on the
market has made my life one that I am happy to live! Thank you for letting me
share my story with you!
Heather S, 40
Richland, MI
132689