I’m Peter Lucas – co-founder and CEO at Hedia. My father has type 1 diabetes. He was diagnosed when he was 27 years old and the father to three boys – including 9-year-old me. I remember asking him not long after he was diagnosed with diabetes, what he would do if he could wake up without diabetes. His answer still recons with me almost 30 years later: “I would eat a lagkage!” (which is a Danish layer cake).
Try Hedia Diabetes Assistant – the app that Peter would end up creating – at Google Play or the App Store!
Just before he was diagnosed I remember he lost a lot of weight, he drank water constantly and one day out of nowhere – diabetes was a part of his and our lives. That included sometimes waking him up in the morning before I went to school – basically to save his life. Because he worked nights, he would sometimes fall asleep after taking his insulin but before eating early in the morning when he got home, which could send him into insulin shock and in worst case kill him.
It also included all the fear and anxiety that came with that.
My own Diabetes Diagnosis
Fast forward to the summer of 2010. I was 27 years old, self-employed with a couple of different businesses, a sweet girlfriend – life was good! Chaotic and hectic, but good and just how I liked it. This was a really nice time when I look back on it. But all of a sudden my life started to change.
I began having trouble seeing the license plates on the cars driving in front of us. I thought that I probably just needed glasses. A friend asked me if I was losing weight. I remember thinking this was strange since I was eating a lot of crappy food around that time due to stress at work. I figured maybe he needed glasses too.
Then my girlfriend and I went on a week-long vacation to Malaga with a couple of friends.
We ate and we drank. We were having a good time and after a trip like that, I would usually gain weight. But again I lost weight – enough for my blinding eyes to notice. On top of that, I had a short temper and I was cranky, which is not normal for me. These are some of the tell-tale early signs of diabetes.

I drank a lot and wasn’t concerned with the sugar quantity.

I had foul mood swings which is highly unlike me.
After returning from the vacation, Christina (my girlfriend) and I started to joke around with the possibility that I might have diabetes. But you know. YOU don’t get a life-changing disease. YOU don’t get diagnosed with diabetes. Your neighbors do. The friend of a friend does.
What does 27 mmol/L mean? Is that high?
After some time (maybe a week, maybe a month) Christina (who was a nurse at the time) asked me, or rather told me, that I should come and visit her at work. She had the graveyard shift that night and we lived close to the hospital, so I stopped by around 11.30PM.
We went into the nurse break room and she pricked my finger. I wasn’t fully concentrated, to be honest. I thought that it was a waste of time until I saw an expression on Christina’s face that I had never seen before.
She showed me the glucometer and it showed 27,3 mmol/L. I didn’t understand what that meant, but she did.
Christina said, as soft and full of love that she could, that she thought that I had diabetes. I immediately replied that it must have been a miscalculation and that under no circumstances did I have diabetes. However, Christina was already at work at the hospital and started the necessary procedures. She called the doctor at the emergency room at a different hospital and passed the phone to me.
I will never forget the words he said and the way in which he said it:
“27,3 mmol/L Peter, you have diabetes!”
No emotions in his voice, no beating around the bush, no nothing – only the stone cold message: Diabetes.
If you’re like me and have no clue how he could be that sure, here’s a picture to help you interpret the number:
At that time I was in shock – I started crying hysterically. I was diagnosed with diabetes! I didn’t know what was up and what was down. Christina got my father on the phone.
Diagnosed with Diabetes? Your life will Almost get back to Normal
The next conversation is a bit blurry. I only remember three things about it. My father being really sad, and him saying “don’t do anything stupid now”. My parents live on the other side of Denmark – so they couldn’t be there at this critical moment, but they told me that my life would be 95% of what it was before.
After talking about diabetes, and with a hospital appointment booked for the following day, I was sent back home to our apartment. Alone. Christina had to stay on her graveyard shift.
That night changed my life forever, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of my diabetic story with you. This was the part about when I had just been diagnosed with diabetes. There is much more to come – including some nerve-racking stories from the hospitalisation, but I won’t go into that in this post.
I would love to hear your story too. How did you find out that you had diabetes? Please share it in the comments below if you feel comfortable!
If you want to follow the rest of my story, please sign up for our newsletter! You can also see the full story so far here.
Related post: How to Reduce Blood Sugar Level Immediately
Den 2. marts i år fik jeg taget en kontrolblodprøve pga en operation året før, for for højt kalk i blodet. Alle tal var fantastisk gode, dvitamin, kolesterol m.v. Og som de sagde “du har heller ikke tendens til sukkersyge”. Mit langtidstal var 37.
Jeg fik en forkølelse nogle uger efter og blev tørstig, synes TV’ et stod for langt væk. Teksterne var uklare. Vi var sågar ud at se på nyt stort Tv ? Jeg skulle hele tiden tisse og tissede i bukserne lige før jeg nåede ud på toilettet. Det tilskrev jeg min alder (57 år) og tænkte jeg burde lave knibeøvelser.
Når jeg spiste Chips synes jeg ikke længere det var den store fornøjelse. Chipsene sad ligesom fast i munden, som om jeg ikke havde spyt nok.
Så fik jeg en hudinfektion oveni det hele og min læge udskrev penicillin. Vi var nu ca. 20 dage siden de glade nyheder om at jeg var kernesund.
Mit i påsken den 31. marts slentrede jeg op til vagtlægen. Synet var uskarpt, jeg havde pludselig stor succes med min årlige forårs rolige slankekur. Havde tabt fire kilo på 14 dage, hvilket var super – tænkte jeg – men også lidt mærkeligt.
En klog kvindelig vagtlæge nøjedes ikke med at se på mine bylder. Lige før jeg gik sagde hun: For en sikkerheds skyld tager jeg lige dit blodsukker. Det var 23! Først nu kunne jeg se sammenhængen i alle de mærkelige symptomer. Jeg var dehydreret og var igang med en syreforgiftning kunne jeg forstå.
På sygehuset var de alle enige om at jeg havde diabetes og min reaktion på det var var indre vrede og ydre irritation, hvordan kan man bare lige beslutte sig til det på baggrund af nogle enkelte blodsukkermålinger? Det må da bare være noget der går over igen, en bivirkning til noget medicin eller lign?!
Jeg havde uhyre svært at deltage i instruktioner i hvordan man stikker sig osv. Jeg har ingen problemer med det, men det kom ligesom ikke mig ved, synes jeg de første dage. Det gik vel snart over det hele, var min reaktion.
Lægerne var overraskede over at mit blodsukker kunne være helt normalt for bare 1 måned siden. Det taler for type 1.
Efter 5 dage var jeg hjemme igen med hele udstyrspakken, og der var kaos i en tre ugers tid. Jeg målte i mange uger mit blodsukker op til 14 gange.
Nu er jeg så heldig at jeg alene har brug for den langtidsvirkende insulin, som jeg tager om morgenen. Er sikkert i en honeymoon fase, så det er super nemt.
Kommentarer fra andre: “nå, men så skal du bare tage insulin, ikke? “, “så må du ikke få kage” og den slags, møder jeg tit. Jeg gør en stor dyd ud af, og bruger tid på at forklare dem, nej det betyder at jeg nogengange skal vække mig selv om natten og checke mit blodsukker, at jeg indimellem skal spise natmad, selvom jeg ikke er spor sulten, at jeg skal spise kulhydrat og hurtig sukker når jeg cykler, at jeg skal huske al apparaturet samt juice og frugtstænger hvor end jeg går, at jeg tager blodsukkeret inden jeg kører bil osv.
Så får de det rigtige billede.
Men jeg er ved at komme ind i en rytme og er ved at være mere tryg ved det hele. Jeg har set et billede på diabetes 1. En mand der går på line, og bagved går manden med leen. Det synes jeg er meget sigende. For mig er det mest senfølgerisikoen, der optager mig i mine tanker. Og ønsket om at gøre alting så korrekt som muligt for at undgå manden med leen.
De var min foreløbige historie. Tusinde tak for din.
Kære Ulla
Mange tak fordi du har taget dig tid til at fortælle din historie. Du har delt en meget personlig historie – af hjertet tak.
Jeg tror, at de fleste personer med diabetes kan nikke genkendende til dit afsnit omkring hvad andre tror, men du gør det helt rigtige ved at oplyse omkring hvordan det i virkeligheden er!
Vi kan forhåbentligt, ved at leve et så velreguleret liv som muligt, skubbe manden med leen foran os, indtil han rettidigt skulle være ankommet – og ikke som konsekvens af vores følgesvend.
Endnu engang tak for din historie.
Bedste hilsner
Peter Lucas
Gik ledig på det tidspunkt, (efter en meget svær tid på det daværende job, med Ja humør svingninger, sved ture osv. Som jeg først har tænkte over bagefter) men jeg gik rigtig mange lange ture for at komme af med energi, elsker at lave mad og undgår gerne stivelse. Så da jeg tabte mig 25 kg på ingen tid tænkte jeg ikke mere over det, var godt nok utrolig tørstig og sku også derfor på toilettet hele tiden, det begyndte faktisk at blive lidt pinligt at ha mig med i byen? min mor og en veninde snakkede om jeg måske sku tag til lægen, men er jo ikke hypokonder og lidt tørst Hehe, begyndte at måle mit væske indtag og det chokerede mig meget at jeg drak ca 8liter vand om dagen uden jeg havde tænkt over det ? til lægen jeg tog, og ingen tvivl i en alder af 26 fik jeg diabetes type 1 som den første i min familie! Og det har været en kamp lige siden ??
Hej Anne-Mette
Dejligt at du vil dele din historie.
Det er helt vildt hvad du tabte dig samt indtog af væske. Imponerende at du magtede at føre log.
Ingen tvivl om at livet med T1D har sine ups and downs – Hvis du spørger mig, så tror jeg det handler om, at finde sin personlige måde, at navigere rundt med T1D som følgesvend også bare finde ens egen måde at nyde de fristelser og andet godt livet har at byde på ☺
Endnu engang tak fordi du delte.
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Hi there, my father and brother were diagnosed type 1 around age 30 and my nephew was age 6. I thought I had beaten the curse having got to age 66. Like you I had blurred vision, thirst but no weight loss although I have always been slender. I went to the doctors with blurred vision and she tested my blood sugar and it was 26 and water sample revealed 2 ketones She told me I had diabetes!.She rang hospital and my husband took me there where after further tests I was given insulin and all that goes with it and went home. The diabetic nurse rang me the next day and a couple of time’s in the coming week and that was it. After what I think was slack treatment I now have the best. I have freestyle libre and before covid I went to see nurse every 6 weeks and consultant every 3/6 months. I attended the DAFNE course a couple of years ago and found it helpful. All in all I manage quite well and I am now 70. I just wish that my brother was still here because I didnt realise how relentless diabetes is and I didn’t support him as I should have. My father passed away aged 52 in 1966 and all I remember him having was a long glass syringe and dipsticks like litmus paper to test his water. I became a grandma 2 months after diagnosis and worried that I wouldn’t be safe with my grandson but everything is ok. It was good to read your story and hope you are well.xx
Dear Catherine
Thank you so much for writing us and sharing your story.
I think it’s really important that we all share our stories, and that these
stories can help us empower eachother.
Congratulations on becoming a grandmother – I am happy to hear that everything is ok.
All the best
Peter from Hedia