Meet Kevin H.

I was 21 years old when I was initially diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I had unknowingly been presenting symptoms for a few years: I was always thirsty, always tired, and needed the bathroom a lot. It never occurred to me or my parents that there was something serious going on. 

I was long overdue for a physical in 2007, and the clinician found sugar in my urine and brought me in for a blood test. The night before I consumed an entire two-liter of pop, a fairly common thing for me at the time. When we tested my blood glucose the next day, it was over 600 mg/dL!

No special testing was performed despite the fact that I did not match the phenotype. I was young, barely weighed 120 lbs., and was otherwise fairly healthy. Relatively speaking, my lifestyle was anything but healthy. I smoked cigarettes a lot, I drank a lot, I didn't exercise, and my diet was not what you would call balanced. I wasn't the only one in my family to have diabetes; I had grandparents and uncles that live/lived with diabetes but no one really talked about it and everyone developed it much later in their lives. It was quite a shock and definitely a scary time for me and my immediate family.

Several years later, I think four or five, I was re-diagnosed as having type 1. Again, no c-peptide or antibodies tests were performed, just a dramatic change in therapy which did not work out very well. Eventually, an endocrinologist intervened and suggested I might have MODY (maturity-onset diabetes of the young). A thing I had never heard of and would routinely encounter clinicians who hadn't heard of it either. I was poor and didn't have great insurance, so I could not afford to get any genetic testing. We resumed treatment as though I was type 2 and I held on to this possibility for years.

As I got older, it became clear to me that drug treatments and diet weren't going to be enough to even maintain an A1C status quo. I decided to pick up running as an accessible way to get some exercise. I discovered a quick love for the trails and was soon running trail 5ks, 10ks, and half marathons. A couple of years in, I dipped my toes in the ultramarathon scene and haven't looked back since. The physical and mental challenge coupled with the additional obstacle of living with diabetes has become a tremendous source of pride. It's a journey I'm still navigating. I don't finish almost as many races as I do, but my ambition never wanes. I am motivated by continuing to show diabetes that it can't stop me.

Fast forward to present day and I have financial security and great insurance which has allowed me to build a medical team at the wonderful Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. We're currently hard at work investigating MODY and better tailoring my drug therapies—and I'm gearing up to run my next ultra marathon in a few weeks!