How does it feel to have diabetes type 1? please diabetics type 1 only if possib!

I have type 1 diabetes and use an insulin pump.

I dunno what it's made of lol - the same kinda stuff as any kind of computer or electrical device - I guess a bit like a phone it's got a tough plastic case, but obviously it also has insulin in it!

It's connected to me all the time although I can disconnect to take a shower or go swimming etc. for a short time. It goes into my skin using a cannula - a bit like when you have a drip they put a needle in and then take it out and a little plastic tube is left under your skin. I change this myself every few days. The insulin works like a really high tech syringe - it pushes a little bit forwards every few minutes (I set the rate). So it drip feeds me insulin 24 hours a day but I can also tell my pump if I eat or if my blood sugar's high and how much and it can calculate how much insulin I need, or I can just tell it how much I want to take.

The advantages of having a pump are that I don't need to inject and I can adjust my insulin much more closely according to what I need throughout the day. It also means it's a lot more easy to exercise which is great :) But it's a lot of work and the big needle every couple of days is worse than 4 or 5 small injections / day! Also because I have nhs funding (uk) there is a lot of pressure on me to do well on the pump or they'll cut my funding and I don't have as much choice of consultants. Also having a pump attached to you all the time isn't for everyone - I've had mine for 4 years so it's kinda just a part of me now but sometimes you wish you could forget it for a little while - esp if you're gonna wear a dress or something!

I'm not exactly sure what you mean about how it feels to have type 1? I've had it for 14 years so don't really know any different. A lot of the time it sucks - esp when it stops you from doing something. I wanted to join a new gym at the weekend and they said I have to get a letter from my dr first - it's more anoying than anything else. Then there's when people think they know more about your diabetes than you do so they say things like 'you shouldn't be eating that' when you're eating glucose tablets because you're hypo! Or when you have to stop what you're doing for diabetes - at the gym I sometimes have to leave classes or stop and test my blood during a class and that's embarrassing, although most people at my gym know I have diabetes and that makes me feel a lot safer, so it has it's good and bad points. Most people with type 1 diabetes grow up to be more organised than other people and it teaches us that there's more to life than always meets the eye - it has it's good points as well as bad.

Hope that helps xx