Your pancreas is not dead! Diabetes type 1 is when the immune system destroys part of the pancreas that produces insulin, but leaves the rest perfectly intact. Type 2 is when nothing is destroyed, but for some reason, you're either not producing enough insulin, or the insulin that you produce is not efficient enough. There's a clear distinction between the two, as type 1 is autoimmune 'disease'. In all cases the pancreas is still performing all the other functions correctly.