It was Christmas Day 2008. Cas was just 13 years old and drank three gallons of tea with sugar. For the past several months, he was often thirsty at night and woke up three or four times during the night to use the restroom. He proceeded to spend the through New Year’s Eve in the hospital as he was given a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes.

He all of a sudden had to learn how to inject himself with insulin and the doctors wouldn’t let him leave the hospital until he knew how to inject himself. Over the next several weeks, Cas described that “the biggest change was having to count everything I ate having to count carbohydrates and figuring out how much insulin I needed.”

Cas described situations where his blood sugar isn’t high enough: “All of a sudden it is like you’re very hungry like you hadn’t eaten in a few days but also you’re very weak and it’s difficult to focus and I get sweaty and I’m incoherent when I talk.”

Cas credits his sensor and insulin pump for allowing him to live as normal as a life as you can with Type 1 Diabetes: “I’ve got a sensor which alerts me when my blood sugar isn’t working correctly. I’ve got a pump. I’ve got an app on my phone that links the two together so I think I can lead a pretty normal life or as normal as you can with diabetes of course. I still gotta count my carbs and and bring snacks with me but overall I think it’s as normal a life as I can have.”