my story: type 1
diabetic living MAY/JUNE 2019 119How long have you
had type 1?
I was diagnosed almost 20 years
ago. I was living in India, and
enjoying holidays after finishing
high school. I’d lost a terrific lot
of weight, even though I was
hogging on food. I was picking
up infections and tired all the
time. Most of my family are
doctors, so they organised tests.
When the doctors talked to my
parents about family history,
I learned that two of my
grandfather’s siblings had died
- at 16 and 20. We realised they
might have had undiagnosed
diabetes. I was 18 at the time so
hearing that was quite difficult.
How did you react to
the diagnosis?
The first thing I did was research
insulin. I had mixed emotions
- grateful that insulin meant
I could live, but also unhappy
because living with limitations
needing to be organised
sounded very daunting.
I was worried I might not be
able to go out as much, or go
hiking, but the idea of injecting
myself didn’t worry me at all.
I did that for myself right from
the start. Every year I celebrate
the date I gave myself that first
shot of insulin.
Strip tests weren’t available in
India back then, so I was
expected to go to a laboratory at
least twice every day to have my
blood sugars monitored. I had
moved out of home to start
university and couldn’t manage
that with my study. My dad
made a graph to help me work
out how much insulin I should
be taking. Then I did two
readings at the laboratory every
three days and adjusted the
doses according to where my
blood sugars were on the graph.
My diet also changed a lot
with moving out of home, soI’m busy. I’m not always
perfect at managing
my diabetes
TYPE (^1)
Prachi Paranjape spent her early days
with type 1 in India, when resources
and understanding were limited
the first few months were quite
troublesome. I was young and
rebellious so when I was told
not to eat pizza for dinner,
I ate pizza for dinner.
Do you remember bad
highs or lows?
My first low was very strange.
I was trying to cross a road when
there was a bus approaching –
I just didn’t register that a bus
was coming. A friend dragged
me from the road, fed me
chocolate and soon I was okay.
I remember going low in an
exam once, too, and I couldn’t
write at all.
I used to go a bit high before
exams, because I studied at