Chelsey Brecheisen

I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of five. I was a little girl who was active and care free and one day 3 words from my doctor forever changed my life. I remember being confused as my mom cried and my dad tried to console her. I didn’t understand why we had to go home and pack a bag. I was especially unimpressed when I found out the hospital is where we were going and I was going to be the center of their attention. I remember getting so fed up with the poking and prodding that I waited for my mom to go to the bathroom and hid in the linen closet of my hospital room. Fast forward 25 years and that active, happy girl is back and doing just fine. The medical and technological advances of the past 25 years still blow my mind as things that were concepts when I was young are real and successful parts of care now. These have allowed me to live what could be as close to a “normal” life as possible. I’m grateful for all the hard work that my family and clinicians have put in to help me make it this far successfully and with no complications to date.