Meet Andre

I was 19 months old when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Living in a small rural town in South Carolina, the medical knowledge for juvenile diabetes was not progressive, so my mother moved north to the Washington, DC, area to bring me to an advanced endocrinologist who specialized in juvenile diabetes. It was determined that my onset of diabetes was from a viral infection. Here I am, 58 years of age, living with other onsets from diabetes like heart disease, hypothyroidism, kidney disease, diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, and GERD to say the least. I've been using the Tandem t:Slim Control IQ Insulin Pump since 2008 and my A1C has been consistently between 6.3–6.7. When I tell my experience to people in general, they look at me and are shocked at my physical appearance and my medical history. I always hear the same comment, "You look like a perfect specimen of health!" I tell them that I am, "Because diabetes doesn't have me, I have diabetes!"