Living with diabetes<\/p>\n
Murphy was misdiagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2001, a common problem for adults with Type 1 diabetes, which accounts for up to about 10% of diabetes cases<\/a>. <\/p>\n Both types share many of the same key symptoms and stem from body\u2019s inability to properly regulate blood glucose levels due to problems with insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas.<\/p>\n Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for over 90% of cases, occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin or doesn\u2019t produce enough of it.\u00a0Type 1 diabetes, a rarer autoimmune disease, happens when the immune system destroys insulin-producing cells. Though previously thought of as a childhood disease, a growing share of cases are diagnosed in adulthood, researchers have found<\/a>.<\/p>\n Following her diagnosis in 2001, Murphy was told to manage her weight and prescribed medication to manage her blood sugar.<\/p>\n She initially felt better, but as years went by, Murphy started to notice that she was losing weight quickly, feeling constantly thirsty and experiencing unrelenting fatigue. After lunch with friends one Sunday afternoon in 2006, Murphy could hardly walk without needing to catch her breath.<\/p>\n She was admitted to the hospital with diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when your body doesn\u2019t have enough insulin, most commonly associated with Type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n Murphy was treated and re-diagnosed with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), a slower-progressing form of Type 1 diabetes. That\u2019s when doctors told her that her body was producing little to no insulin on its own.<\/p>\n The obstacles that came with the diagnosis \u2014 meal planning, portion control, administering the right amount of insulin \u2014 were immensely challenging, Murphy said. She also had to accept that the constant management and mental load that accompanied the disease would never end.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gone through my own periods in the last 20 years of burnout and being frustrated with a disease that doesn\u2019t stop,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is nothing I can do to give myself a break from it. The break doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy previously spent 22 years working for the City of San Antonio in a variety of roles, including with its Metropolitan Health District.\u00a0In October, the health department\u2019s director, Claude Jacob, announced that its Diabetes Prevention and Control Program would lose 72% of its funding amid the expiration offederal Medicaid funding<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The longstanding program offered workshops and education to residents on healthy eating and other lifestyle changes to prevent and manage diabetes. Murphy said she was dismayed by the news.<\/p>\n \u201cBudget choices are hard and as a former employee of the city, I don\u2019t wish the current budget crisis on anyone in any department,\u201d she said. \u201cI have high hopes that someone might pick up the Diabetes Garage program<\/a>, which is an innovative program focused specifically on men with pre-diabetes to teach them the skills to keep it at bay.\u201d<\/p>\n A decade of advocacy<\/p>\n \u201cThis is my pancreas \u2014 without it, I would die,\u201d Murphy said, retrieving her insulin pump out of her pocket. \u201cHaving the technology that we have today saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy\u2019s advocacy efforts have in recent years been focused on securing funding for research toward improvements in such technology. She\u2019s worn her pump, which provides a continuous supply of insulin, helping to maintain consistent blood glucose levels, since 2007.<\/p>\n In 2012, she also started wearing a continuous glucose monitor, offering detailed blood glucose level data without the burden of daily finger pricking with fingerstick tests.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-C2C.jpg\")
San Antonio diabetes advocate Deirdre Murphy in Washington, D.C. during the American Diabetes Association\u2019s most recent Call to Congress. Credit: Courtesy \/ American Diabetes Association<\/p>\n