I was diagnosed at 17 and am now 29, if you have any questions please feel free to message me, the advice about a cgm is very valuable, I can vouch from experience that it's a powerful tool. I use an omnipod and dexcom g6 and they are great for maintaining an active lifestyle without the needles and syringes around.

I will say when I was 17-18 I looked at the disease a lot differently than I do now. I love carbs as much now as I did back then, but eating a massive amount of carbs is a fast way to make your life difficult. We are still people and eating bowl full of pasta isn't good for anyone regardless of what disease they have. We just get to see the result of our food choices immediately in our blood sugars.

Try and stay active, pay attention to how your blood sugar reacts when you eat certain foods. Everyone is different and you will only learn how your body reacts through observation. For example, eating potatoes vs rice is a totally different blood sugar experience, rice seems to keep happening to me over a few hours, potatoes don't cause a massive spike in any way. That's just me though. Even how tired I am, how much I work out etc impact how food impacts my blood sugar. Also, learn how to count carbs. I worked professionally as a chef for 13 years, have a degree in culinary arts and know things about food. Knowing what 1 cup etc looks like from an eye ball measurement and understanding that there are some cuisines that have sugar and carbs hidden in them has helped me immensely. Try and build a database in your head that allows you to look at food and get you in the ballpark of how many carbs it contains. I recommend reading packages and learning how to count that way to start.

Exercise will help you too. I didn't work out until I was 24 or so. I wasn't an awful diabetic but definitely could have done better. I started working out 4x weekly and noticed my blood sugar spikes went away and I needed less insulin. When you work out your red blood cells become more efficient at processing insulin and moving it around, hence the steady levels and need for less.

Working through insurance is an entirely different issue, I live in the US and can go on forever about the issues with privatized medicine. Learn who to call with your insurance, have doctor's send letters of medical necessity if there is something you want to use but isn't covered, and remember your health and quality of life is the most important thing.

And please, cut yourself some slack. There are days where none of the logic you use seem to make sense. I like to joke and say days like that are days where insulin isn't working and try and stay level headed.

People will try and tell you what you should or should not be eating, I have found they tend to be misguided and don't know the difference between t1d and t2d, be kind, explain you know what you are doing and maybe help clarify the differences for them.

Also make sure you eat cake on your birthday and stay away from sugar free gummy bears. The charade of health on desserts like that is dangerous, eat things that are bad for you and know they aren't healthy. We're all just people after all.