Living with Type 1 Diabetes

Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi, my name's Maddie Cormie. I'm 16 years old. I just had my 16th birthday. I'm a type 1 diabetic, but I am so much more than just my type 1 diabetes. I'm a musician. I am a student, I go to St. Michaels University School, I'm in grade 10. I love to write my own music, record, and other than that, I love all the arts. I love to dance outside of school and hang out with my dog.

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Can you tell us a little more about your autoimmune disease?

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 12, so way back in 2022, I've had it for three years now. Type 1 diabetes is the condition of the pancreas, where your pancreas stops producing insulin, which is the hormone vital for survival. It's pretty much the unlock to the cells turning glucose into energy, and so my pancreas wasn't doing that properly, so I went into something called diabetic keto acidosis, where my blood in my body is not getting the nutrients it needs, because the insulin of not unlocking the cells, so my body was eating its own organs. I lost about 40 pounds. I went to the hospital, and I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Honestly, I think there's so much stigma around diabetes, just because there's two types and it's usually considered, like the fat disease. So honestly, I had kind of fallen into that stigma and I thought I was doing something wrong.

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How did you feel when you first got diagnosed?

I honestly felt like my life was over. I was gonna have to be giving about 10 needles a day for the rest of my life. I'm now on an insulin pump, so I have a needle constantly in me. I just felt like I couldn't do anything that a normal kid could do, and obviously for the first couple years of my diagnosis, I couldn't. I couldn't play the sports that I wanted to. I couldn't do things with my friends, I couldn't go to friends' houses, I couldn't go to sleepovers, all this stuff, because my friends’ parents didn't know how to manage my diabetes. Now that I'm more self sufficient, the options of what I can do have broadened a lot, which I'm really thankful for, but it's still a big roadblock, and although I don't feel like my life is over anymore, it's definitely kind of something that's there every day, and it just sucks.

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How has your mindset now changed from before?

When I was first diagnosed, I felt really alone and isolated. I didn't know anyone with type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is usually a genetic disorder, but no one in my family has it. No one that I know has it, but there's something called Camp Kakhamela, which is a camp for children and teens and young adults with type 1 diabetes, on the Sunshine Coast. Three weeks after I was diagnosed, I attended my first year at camp there, and it was life changing. I got to meet a bunch of people that had the same things going on as me. I made so many new friends and this year I'm actually going to be a junior camp counselor.

 

What is it like being a teenager with type 1 diabetes?

I think the biggest change for me is I have to be super prepared with everything I do. I can't be spontaneous. So I have to plan for exercise, I have to plan for food. I can't leave anywhere without my diabetes supplies, which is, you'll probably see me around if you ever meet me, you'll see me wearing a fanny pack which has all my diabetes supplies. Low blood triggers are obviously really hard. My body, it's like.. It's kind of like an out of body experience, to be honest. Your body just kind of shuts down. I can't walk. I can't talk properly. I can't communicate. Sometimes I pass out. So I think that's probably the worst. Being a teenager, I think it only happened once really bad at school, but the ambulance had to come and everyone was watching and like people came out from different classes and were watching me on the floor. Literally… I was probably at my lowest moment on that floor. Everyone was watching, like, it was kind of a TV show. So I think that's the hardest part - being in high school and having to plan everything and then kind of that shame that comes along with it. I know that there shouldn’t be shame with that, but I think in my adult years, I will learn to be less embarrassed. I'll also probably be in an environment with less teenagers. So I think that's probably the number one way that my life has changed.

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What is one lesson you can pass on to other children going through something similar?

I think the biggest piece of advice I would have is your life isn't over. As much as it seems like it's over, try to reach out and connect. I know with a lot of autoimmune diseases, there's different camps you can go to, and that [for me] was life changing. I know there's celiac camps, I also have celiac disease. There's lots of different camps that you can go to, so I know diabetes camp. There's camps all over the world, all over Canada, and there's definitely different kinds of camps for autoimmune diseases of the skin. And so I think that’s my number one goal - connect with people, especially people your age, just so you feel like you're not alone and try your best to do normal teenage things. Don't kind of think my life is over. I can't be a teenager anymore. It's gonna be okay. It's just gonna be hard in the beginning. I think the biggest thing is to connect with people your age that have the same thing going on.

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I'm just curious, you have celiac disease and what’s the third autoimmune disease you have?

It's a stomach condition, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. So with my pancreas dying, with the insulin portion, it also died where the part where it digests my food properly. So I go through phases, it's been happening for about three years now. The doctors aren't completely sure what's going on. They've never really seen this in teenagers. After I eat, I usually throw up my food, which is really hard with diabetes. Yeah, so I have stomachaches after I eat and drink, and they’re horrible.

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Thank you so much for sharing. One last question - how have these autoimmune diseases inspired your music career? 

When I was at diabetes camp, for my first year, that's where I performed my first original song. I had a bunch of young girls, about seven years old, come up to me and just like [say], you showed me that I can do things, even with type 1 diabetes. And I think that was a really pivotal moment, because when I first was diagnosed with type one diabetes, I was younger, and I didn’t have representation of female type one diabetics in the media. The only type one diabetic musician that's in the media is Nick Jonas and he is not female. So kind of that, female type one diabetics are not represented in the media. The one that I think a lot of young girls, including myself looked up to, was an actress from Buffy and the Vampire Slayer. She recently passed away from complications of Type 1 diabetes. So I think trying to have that stable, well managed, person that's living their best life while showing, you know, how you can properly manage your diabetes and live a long life while having fun at the same time. I feel like that's really important in the media, especially for young girls, because the girl who passed away was actually drinking alcohol, which can cause a low blood sugar, and she didn't have anyone in her room, and so she seizured and ended up passing away. So, although I don't fault her at all for her management, I just want to show - someone who can be really well managed while having a successful career, and showing up for type 1 diabetics with fundraising and just showing up for those little girls like I was.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Thank you.