Cynthia Kollar

I was diagnosed with type 1, or “sugar diabetes” in the summer between 8th grade and high school. I had had a high fever and measle-like spots over the fourth of July holiday and was told by my doctor not to go outside because I’d get scars. After that, I started having high blood sugar symptoms (I know now). For my high school check up, the doctor tested me and there it was, juvenile diabetes. I struggled as expected and my parents didn’t understand the disease so they’d punish me for things out of my control. There were no home blood testing tools so my dad would drive me into Chicago every Saturday at 7am to get my fasting blood sugar, and then find out what it was the following Monday. I was told I’d never have children, would be blind and in a wheelchair at 40, and dead at 50. It took me until I was 42 to finally realize I’d live well beyond those deadlines! I had a son when I was 21 and a daughter at 25, miracle babies my endo called them. No one knows how grateful I was to have healthy children after what those doctors said! They are now 41 and 37 and bring me joy every day. I started working in IT back when women were not readily accepted into the field, working for 47 years before retiring last year. I still have pretty good eyesight (had glaucoma laser surgery and a vitrectomy along with laser to fix some retina tears), I walk 5 miles every day to avoid any neuropathy (if it can be avoided), and the rest of me is healthy. I’ve used an insulin pump since 1997 and started on a CGM about 5 years ago. My a1c runs at 7.0, about a good as I can get. I try to help newly diagnosed type 1 diabetics, especially children, to understand this disease and to show how I’ve been able to do everything anyone else can do in spite of the difficulties.