My name is Doug. I live in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes, Paul Bunyan and the Mall of America.

I found out that I was a diabetic at the age of 15 (1975). I had an appendicitis operation in September of my Sophomore year in High School. Everything seemed to be fine after the surgery. I played Sophomore basketball and had no problems.

After the Basketball season ended, I started to get tired real easy, and didn't feel like exercising like I used to. It got worse as the days went by. Eventually my parents took me to the Doctors. They thought at first that I had Mono. The school had an outbreak of Mono that month. I returned home and waited to get better. Things got progressively worse. I was sleeping about 14 to 16 hours a day and drinking a lot. I returned to the Doctor again. He said that he didn't know what was wrong. My blood work had not shown any signs of Mono. I told him that I was getting frustrated. I didn't know how long I could put up with all of the sleeping, drinking, and going to the bathroom. At that moment the Doctor knew what was wrong.

He did a Urine Sugar test, because at that time, they were the quickest to get results. The test confirmed that I had Diabetes. Like you, my Mom couldn't believe that I had Diabetes.

I was sent to the University of Minnesota Children's Heart Hospital. My blood sugar was over 750. I think that I dealt with it better than my parents did. They started to look at the history of each others family to see if they could blame it on each other. They just didn't think that it could just happen with no history in the family. There were times that I could hear them fighting about things and thought that it was my fault, but then I realized it wasn't.

After leaving the hospital, the first thing I did when I got home was pet my dogs and go outside and shoot baskets with my brother. I also experienced my first insulin reaction away from the hospital. This helped me realize that I had to eat something before I was active.

To make a long story short, I went to some classes at the Diabetic Education Center in St. Louis Park MN, that were taught by Dr. Etzweller( I hope I spelled that correct). I played two more years of High School basketball, and two years of College Basketball, and one year of College Baseball.

I am now 43 years old and have had Diabetes for 28 years. I have had Laser surgery for some minor problems with my eyes. These surgeries have corrected those problems. I am married and have twin daughters that are 13. I am still very active, I referee basketball, and also play basketball, and coach my daughters basketball teams. I am also on Pump Therapy, which has cut down on Insulin Reactions during periods of activity. My lowest A1C has been a 6.6 and my highest was a 7.4.