About Me
Hi I’m John, a survivor of Type 1 diabetic for over 45 years. I created this site to share my journey as a T1D and my commitment to maintaining great blood glucose control while enjoying life to the fullest. For me that means an A1C consistently in the 5s, or an average blood glucose below 125 mg/dL. A “Fiver” if you will.
I haven’t always been in good control of my blood sugars. In fact it has taken years of trial and error, ups and downs, and experiences with diabetic complications like diabetic retinopathy that have brought me to where I am today. And like everyone else I still have my good days and bad ones. Through it all I have believed that good glucose control is the first step in living a healthy life with diabetes. But that begs the question what IS good glucose control and how attainable is it? My answers to those questions have changed over the years. When I was young, ‘good’ glucose control would be horrible by today’s standards. However we had far fewer tools to manage our disease back then. No truly fast-acting insulin, insulin pumps, CGMs, or even blood glucose strips. Today I believe an A1C that is considered normal for non-diabetics, or in the mid 5s, is both good and reasonably attainable.
When I was in college studying electrical engineering I ran across a paper that estimated the lifespan of type 1 diabetics. Based on historical data, it predicted T1Ds like me that were diagnosed at 9 years old to live to the ripe old age of 42. While I wasn’t altogether shocked having known the disease to take lives at that age or younger, I certainly didn’t want to believe that data would apply to me. After all, I was in ‘good’ glucose control, or so I thought!
Fast forward to my mid 40s when I first became a father to a beautiful baby girl and it hit me. What if I only live to 52 or even 62? The thought of leaving my young daughter without a dad was devastating. I now have two young daughters and that feeling has only grown. But in a good way it has inspired me to working harder at managing my diabetes and toward maximizing the time I have left on this earth to spend quality time with my family.
