Peter Hoogenboom is the creator of www.livingwellwithdiabetes.com. Living today in Salt Lake City, he's had diabetes since 1973, and he also has 22 years of bike training and experience to boot! Diabetes has not kept him from becoming a true athlete--he's biked in 48 out of 50 states. Peter has lived with diabetes while the tools and resources we have to take care of this disease have changed and developed hugely. Diabetes wasn't always easy for Peter to accept as part of his life, but through persistence and the development of a positive attitude, diabetes now seems to keep him challenging himself further and getting the most out of his life!
Ginger: Hey, Peter! So, you were diagnosed at the age of 14 in 1973! Things must've changed a lot over the past thirty years in terms of how we take care of our diabetes, test our blood sugars, and give ourselves insulin. What are some of the most memorable changes you've seen?
PETER: Wow, there have been so many changes. Where do I start? When I was first diagnosed, my doctor recommended the standard treatment of the day: a single shot of Lente insulin in the morning and then the rest of the day, I was to be very careful what I ate, what I did, and to monitor my blood sugar levels. Except all I had for measuring my blood sugar levels was an indirect test for glucose in a urine sample. Since that time there have been faster and faster-acting insulins; smaller, quicker, and more accurate glucose test meters; and, of course, insulin pumps. And for me personally, insulin pumps have to be the biggest and most important change in diabetes care over the last 30 years. When I started using a pump 13 years ago, the more precise and more configurable delivery that it offered helped me lower my HbA1C tests from the 7% range to the high 5% range. I’m a believer!
More recently, continuous glucose monitors offer an amazing view into a person’s blood glucose levels and what they are doing throughout the day and night. When insurance companies finally are convinced of their value and coverage for them becomes standard, I believe they’ll become the new gold standard in diabetes care.
Ginger: I've read on your website that you really didn't want to deal with your diabetes when you were younger. Looking back on that time, how did you feel or think about your diabetes then?
PETER: I basically wanted it to go away. If it wouldn’t go away by ignoring it, I wanted to spend as little time thinking about it as possible. Of course, all of this was happening in my teenage years when I didn’t want to be different in any way, so I never told anybody I had diabetes. Even in college when I joined the swim team, I never told my coaches or anybody on the team about my diabetes. It was a very unhappy time for me and probably a very dangerous time too.
Ginger: What's helped you changed your view on the disease? What helps keep you going when you frustrated these days?
