Leslie Lewis

I got type 1 diabetes when I was 26 years old and on a driving trip to visit family in Maryland. We had to stop repeatedly for bathroom trips and to get things for me to drink. I was easily diagnosed by my childhood doc while I was staying at the house that I was raised in with my parents. When I came home after that Christmas vacation trip I started on insulin. This was before there was home glucose monitoring, so I imagine my BS control wasn’t very good.

Since that time, I spent 25 years teaching mathematics, doing web design, and running a teacher math activity website. I always began each year with asking students to tell me a little about themselves in a note. As an example, I would tell them that I was a type 1 diabetic and how that might present during our time together through the year and how I hoped that they would notify me if I seemed to be acting differently. It was my goal to educate my students about how to be supportive to people with diabetes and to learn more about the condition.

I’ve now retired from teaching. I have an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor. My A1cs are always below 7 and I have no complications of diabetes. I’m active with gardening, walking and hiking with my dog. I believe that I have been a very lucky person and have a great deal to be grateful for. Managing diabetes is constant work and consideration but I feel proud to have done a good job of it for now 50 years.