I was diagnosed with T1D at the age of 8, in 1973. I was lucky - it was pretty uneventful. My mom had been a nurse and recognized the symptoms. She brought me to my pediatrician who sent me to the Montreal Children’s Hospital right away.
The doctor put me on NPH and Toronto insulins once a day in the morning. I had to adhere to a strict diet based on food exchanges (see photo). I used glass syringes, which my mom had to boil every morning. I checked my glucose using urine and Clinitest tablets which fizzed and then turned a color – blue was good and orange was bad. My mom used color pencils to log my tests in a booklet (see photo).
I wasn’t very cooperative with my insulin injections at the beginning. Sometimes my mom and dad had to hold me down to give me my insulin. It must have been very hard on them.
Other than the once a day insulin shot and the special diet, T1D was not a big part of my childhood. I don’t remember having a lot of low blood sugars (probably because they were more on the high end). I didn’t carry anything on me during the day (like glucose or insulin). I wasn’t restricted from doing any activities. I would say that I had a pretty average childhood. I never felt different than any of the other kids.
In 1989 I went on multiple daily injections with Humalog. Prior to that I was only taking insulin twice a day (long acting in the morning and regular at breakfast and dinner).
I had a pretty good pregnancy with my daughter. I actually found that during my pregnancy my blood sugars were easier to manage. The issues that I had always had with the dawn phenomenon went away. My daughter was a born a couple of weeks early (which was planned) via caesarean section (which was not planned).
In 2014 I moved to a pump and CGM. I had been thinking about it for many years, but when you are so used to doing something one way, it’s hard to change. The pump made a huge difference in my T1D management, especially with the ability to give small doses of insulin and extended boluses. And I don’t think that I have had more then one day without my Dexcom in 3 years! See – you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!
My daughter, who also has T1D, has a much more interesting diagnosis story. One day, when she was 11, she decided to check her urine using my Ketostix. I have no idea what made her decide to do this, but the stick turned purple and she came to show me. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I called her pediatrician the next day and she connected me with the Diabetic Clinic at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. I spoke with an Endocrinologist there who had us check her blood glucose periodically during the week. Most of the time it was perfect, but she had the odd out of range postprandial BG. The doctor told me that she would probably become diabetic, and that we would just continue to monitor her.
We had a long time to process it and T1D wasn’t new to us, so it didn’t shake up our family in the same way that it would impact those new to T1D. A whole year passed before she actually had to go on insulin. She has had T1D for 12 years now.
Through my 44 years of T1D I have seen many changes. I have seen the introduction of blood glucose meters, disposable syringes, carb counting, synthetic insulin, insulin pens, insulin pumps, CGMs, big data gathering and analysis, and I know that there are many more exciting things to come…
And my room is not very organized at all, so I have not gained organization skills yet. I am not sure if it will help me 
Organized logbooks with lots of nice colors are like fidget spinners, to me…they can keep me interested for hours. 
But those require very little work!