Twenty-two years of type 1, and counting

I'm Jake. I'm 24, and I was diagnosed at 2, so I don't remember life without T1D. There's no before-and-after story here. This has always been my normal.

I've been through basically every stage this disease has: the kid years when my parents ran everything, the teenage years when I did most of the things you're told not to do, the drinking, the stretches where I ignored my numbers and the stretches where I thought about nothing else. I've seen the extreme highs and the extreme lows from the inside.

I came out the other side managing it well. My A1C is 5.5. That's not a brag and it's definitely not a target; your diabetes will look different than mine, and the number that matters is the one you and your care team pick. I mention it for one reason: nothing on this site is theoretical for me. When a guide here talks about alcohol, or burnout, or a gym session going sideways, I've lived it. That's why T1DAL exists, and why it will never lecture you.

The name is T1DAL, as in tidal. Glucose moves like water: it rises, it falls, it never really sits still. Living well with T1D means learning to ride the wave instead of fighting it.

Two promises. Nothing here will ever tell you how much insulin to take; that's between you and your care team. And I'll never run ad trackers on your reading habits; what you look up about your health is your business.