EN

N=1 – My Journey

Contents

Foreword

2026

Janina Brechtel laughing into the camera, blurred greenery in the background.

Foreword

Dear reader,

before you read on, I’d like to pause for a moment:
If you are reading these lines, you are meeting me first and foremost as a person, as a mother and as someone who lives with type 1 diabetes herself – not as a distant company spokesperson.

On this N=1 page you won’t find polished marketing copy or advertising promises. I simply want to share my very personal experiences, highs, lows and insights as someone affected by diabetes.

I want to tell you openly why Diabakus is a project close to my heart, what vision drives me, and take you along on this journey. Because everyday life with diabetes is a path we master best together.

To understand why I do what I do, I’d like to share my own story with you. A story that didn’t begin in a lab or at a desk, but in the hardest weeks of my life.

I’m glad you’re here.

Janina

  • The Turning Point

    Illustration: A woman with long curls, seen from behind, stands at a fork in the path in a vineyard. A signpost points left to “Rebell” (rebel) and right to “Analyse” (analysis).
    Image: AI-generated

    In spring 2011, my world fell completely apart within just eight weeks. Twice I had to fear for the lives of my daughters.

    Read more

    First my elder daughter was fighting a severe pneumonia, then my second daughter barely survived her birth. Shortly afterwards she stopped breathing and suffered a severe brain haemorrhage. No one could tell me whether she would survive.

    That fear of losing what you love most in the world changes you forever.

    Almost two years later I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. I fought my way through everyday life – sometimes angry, sometimes rebellious, sometimes resigned.

    But the real turning point came in 2016 with my separation. The children’s contact with their father broke off abruptly, and suddenly I alone was responsible for two little girls (aged 4 and 7).

    There was no one left in the house who could help me in an emergency, during a severe hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar). Should I really show them how to give me the emergency injection if I lost consciousness?

    There they sat – two little souls whose world had just been turned upside down, and I was their only anchor. But to burden them with the fear that they might lose me, too?

    No. I knew all too well what that indescribable fear feels like. My children had already lost enough. I didn’t want to add the fear of losing their mum as well.

    From that moment on, I could no longer rebel against my diabetes. I could no longer ignore it – I had to stay one step ahead of it. Become my own expert, understand my body and find ways to keep my life as safely under control as possible.

    Years later, this silent promise to my daughters and the wish for safety gave rise to the Diabakus project.

  • And Suddenly Nothing Was the Same

    Illustration: A woman with long curls, seen from behind, sits at a wooden table in the evening, working on a laptop with program code on the screen. Next to her lies the book “Programmieren für Anfänger” (programming for beginners). On the wall hangs a framed picture with the saying: “Manchmal musst du einen gewagten Schritt machen, um zu erkennen, dass hinter der Furcht die Freiheit wohnt.” (Sometimes you have to take a bold step to realise that freedom lies beyond fear.)
    Image: AI-generated

    It was one of the biggest decisions of my life. Everyone around me argued for security – single mother, responsible for two daughters, chronically ill and officially recognised as severely disabled. On paper, I had done everything right.

    Read more

    But inside I was dissatisfied. After so many years I had reached the top pay grade – no more professional or financial development. And yet almost half of my working life still lay ahead of me. Well, so I simply quit. Because for years, this one project had been stuck in my head …

    At first I wanted to learn everything properly, so I tried to get the employment agency to fund a retraining as an IT specialist. My caseworker saw things differently and turned me down at first. In the meantime, of course, I wanted to prepare as much as I could and started dipping my toes into programming.

    I bought a beginner’s book on programming, which I opened for the first time on 1 March 2025. Weeks went by as I worked my way through it: variables, if statements, loops and so on.

    Because I’m pretty stubborn, I didn’t give up after the first rejection, of course, and made two more attempts with my caseworker – which unfortunately also ended in rejection.

    Well, how do I put this. When I got the final no, I was pretty fed up, and that’s when I decided to skip it and push my project through without the retraining.

    At the beginning of August the time had come – I had booked an initial consultation on self-employment at the Chamber of Commerce (IHK) and was able to show my project on a computer for the first time. I was so incredibly nervous, I could barely use the mouse because my hands were so shaky and sweaty. Yes, I was really scared.

    Ms Gopp, the start-up advisor, was so kind and genuinely impressed by how far I had already come with the development. She immediately told her colleague, the expert for health topics, to arrange a meeting for me. He in turn put me in touch with a project manager from a start-up centre and told me I absolutely had to go to the MDR Forum – an event all about the EU Medical Device Regulation.

    Selfie of Janina Brechtel wearing a name badge reading “Start-up Gründerin” (start-up founder) at the 9th MDR Forum.
    My first MDR Forum (9th MDR Forum, 2025)

    From then on, nothing was the same …

  • One Year Later

    This is where it all began. I was incredibly scared – especially because I was a career changer and turned up there all on my own. I met so many new people and was completely overwhelmed. One of them was Chris.

    One year later we were partners – and of course the 10th MDR Forum was a must for both of us 😊

    Selfie of Janina Brechtel wearing a name badge reading “Start-up Gründerin” (start-up founder) at the 9th MDR Forum.
    9th MDR Forum, 2025
    Janina Brechtel and Chris smiling in front of a wall with the logo “MDR-Forum Rheinland-Pfalz”.
    10th MDR Forum, 2026

  • Why We Can Only Do This Together

    Bird’s-eye illustration: A group of people stands on a dirt path in a vineyard, smiling up and waving. In the middle, a woman with long curls. Four people hold up sheets of paper that together read “Wer wenn nicht wir” (who if not us).
    Image: AI-generated

    We all know: diabetes is individual. What works for one person sends another’s blood sugar completely haywire. Every day is different, every body reacts in its own way. That’s exactly why this page is also my very personal “diary” – and a place for N=1 experiments, my own observations, insights and progress.

    Read more

    As unique as each of us is: we are all subject to the same biochemical and physical laws. The basics of how things work, the challenges of everyday life, the constant need to think ahead – we all share these patterns.

    I started to bring together all my diabetes experience since 2013, my intuition and everything I would have wished for as support in difficult moments. To digitise my own “diabetes self” and pour it into software. A digital companion like the one I would have wanted for myself: one that thinks along in the background and finally gives me back the freedom to focus on what really matters.

    I was diagnosed at 33. I know life as a healthy person and life with diabetes. My greatest wish is to regain a little of the lightness I knew before my diagnosis. And my goal is to pass this on, because none of us should have to reinvent the wheel over and over again.

    This is exactly where you come in.

    My own diabetes self was the starting point. But to create something that helps more than just me, that’s not enough. We need to understand the fine adjustments that make each of us different.

    For that I need your experiences: How does your body react to pizza, to exercise, to stress? What has worked for you – and what hasn’t at all? Every one of these stories helps us understand the patterns we all share. That’s how my N=1 becomes a we – by people with diabetes, for people with diabetes.

    If you’d like to take part, just send me an email at mitmachen@diabakus.com – I’ll get back to you.

    I’m looking forward to hearing from you! ❤