Janis Baldwin

I was diagnosed T1D, Juvenile Diabetes back then, on June 25th, 1974. I was 5 years old, getting my pre-K physical and shots to start school in September. I remember that day because my Grammy gave me some star chocolate candies before my mom took me to my pediatrician. I also ate a bowl of Corn Flakes with two spoons of sugar on top. I remember Dr. Patrick speaking in an urgent and stern voice to my mom, my mom looked scared and on the verge of tears. We immediately went to St. Alexis Hospital (no longer there) in Cleveland and that is where I stayed for two weeks, not understanding why I couldn’t go home. My diagnosis was traumatizing, to say the least. I was a child in the 70’s where they didn’t know as much about Juvenile Diabetes as they do T1D today. While my childhood was awesome and spectacular, there were things I just couldn’t do. I couldn’t go to the Caboose Snack Bar after my softball games and pig out on candy and ice cream like the rest of the teams. I had to remember to take my shots, check my sugar several times a day, have somewhere cold to store my insulin if I went on any outings. Honestly, I had an uncle that I had never met pass away of diabetes complications in his late 20s…I didn’t expect to make it much past 23 so….I did not plan for my future. I lived day to day as if it may be my last. My siblings held my T1D against me because my parents “babied” me (which they babied my younger brother and I not because I had diabetes, but because we were the youngest, my mom still does! And my younger brother is also a T1D diagnosed at age 19). Kids in school bullied me because I had to take shots, check my sugar and sometimes passed out because my sugar was too low or too high. My A1c was horrible and I could never ever keep it at a normal or close to normal level during my teenage years. Diabetes was hard for me. I had always felt like an outcast because diabetes was trying to beat me. Diabetes tried beating me in my 20s, it tried beating me in my 30’s, where I met and married my hubby Shane. He got to know diabetes well and intimately. Diabetes tried beating me in my 40s and is still trying to beat me today in my mid-50s, but I won’t let it. I have stage 4 kidney disease from my T1D, but guess what? My A1c has gone from near 14 in my 20s and 30s to 6.5 at 55! My Omnipod insulin pump and Dexcom G6 Continuous Glucose Monitoring System as well as some AMAZING Endocrinologists got me here (and obviously a lifetime of hard work, blood, sweat and tears from me!) My insulin pump/CGM looping system is the closest thing to having a functional pancreas since I was 5 years old and I absolutely love it. The technology of today and the future of T1Ds is outrageously fantastic. Just the size of needles today as opposed to what they were in 1974, huge, huge difference and much less painful. Diabetes sucks, don’t get me wrong but I feel like I have a better hold of it now. I understand what I can and cannot do, which today, there isn’t a whole lot I cannot do with T1D. The information available today as well as classes in nutrition and staying healthy are fantastic and so accessible. Again, not that way in 1974. So here I am, 50 years and almost 3 months and I saw on my Facebook group someone had received their 50 year T1D coin and I thought, “well hell, I put the time and effort into staying alive and thriving, why not try for one as well” so here I am! This coin symbolizes the years of the unknown, the many many doctors visits, the finger pricks, the insulin injections several times a day. It symbolizes the love and sacrifice of my parents who were learning along the way right next to me. It symbolizes the hospital stays and the fear. The unending fear of not seeing the next day. This coin is proof that I am way stronger than I ever thought I was. It is proof that I AM a warrior.