Happy Diaversary To Me: What's Changed In 16 Years With Diabetes?

Today marks my 16 year 'diaversary' or diabetes anniversary. In so many ways I can't believe that it's been so long since the day that my life changed forever. But then in other ways I feel like it was only yesterday, when I hear the song that was playing on the radio when we were travelling to the hospital. Or when I get the smell of the flavour of squash I was drinking so much of prior to my diagnosis, those things take me right back to the day.

So what's changed in 16 years? I think this is an important question because many people think that life with diabetes is incredibly stagnant. That whilst you're waiting for the cure your treatment remains the same. But I would disagree with this sentiment because technology is what's happened in 16 years, to make managing my condition easier. When I was diagnosed, I'd never heard of an insulin pump and I didn't even own a mobile phone. So I could have only dreamed of being able to use CGM to see my glucose levels.

It would be flippant of me to say that living with diabetes is easy however, because it's absolutely not. Some days it's like a puzzle, where you think that you have all of the pieces in position and then the picture changes for no apparent reason. But in my mind the positives of the condition, such as making new friends and having new experiences that I would never otherwise have had outweigh the bad.