If there is any diabetes takeaway at all from this blog, it is that I cannot stress enough the importance of getting your eyes examined on a regular basis. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because you have no symptoms, that everything is fine.

When I was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes more than 25 years ago, I had no health insurance. And due to my young adult perspective and extreme naiveté about managing my diabetes condition, I believed that very little about my personal life would change with my diagnosis. I guess ignorance is bliss, but ignorance can also cause the eventual reality to be that much more painful.

When I was diagnosed at 18, I was told my lifespan would be 15 years shorter than if I hadn't gotten diabetes. Yet today many say that people with Type 1 diabetes may outlive others because we have to take care of ourselves.