A Diabetes Blog Excerpt

This weekend I stumbled upon a European diabetes teens site with a tagline that stopped me in my tracks. Under the site header, the text reads: “We wish that people would understand that diabetes is more than an illness. It is a way of life.”

What an awesome statement. This is exactly what I’ve been wishing that people around me would understand, but I somehow hadn’t formulated into such a concise statement. It IS a way of life, and a complex one at that. We are ill, without being sick; disadvantaged without being disabled; and chronic without being terminal. We don’t “look sick” but we’re burdened with intense management of our bodily functions in a way that non-diabetic folk can hardly grasp.

As Mary Tyler Moore points out in her recent “coming-out party” on the ups and downs of 40 years of living with Type 1 diabetes, there’s little chance for spontaneity in life:

“You’ve got to always plan. It is a fact of life that if someone invites you out to dinner you have to think, ‘What are they going to be doing when they serve you dinner? How quickly are they going to get it on the table from the time I arrive? When should I take my shot? What should I eat of what’s available?’ ”

Don’t we know it? And this ever-present burden of planning and managing is what people around us don’t “get.”

Last Christmas, a very good friend of mine who spends a lot of time with me these days gave me a teeny-tiny party purse as a gift. It is covered with mother-of-pearl, and has a shell handle. It kind of broke my heart, because the purse is simply exquisite, but as long as I have diabetes, I will NEVER be able to use it. In a pinch, I could fit maybe a pack of glucose tabs in there, but not even the smallest meter and lancing device would fit alongside a sugar source. Forget it. What makes me so sad is that despite all my juggling of various purses and travel packs, it has somehow escaped my friend’s notice that my way of life now requires me to schlep certain life-saving supplies with me at all times. Even at fancy parties.

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I found this excerpt from a blog about diabetes today. It pretty accurately describes my daily required mindset about my health. Sigh... The planning gets monotonous (and I love planning, believe me) and the inability to be spontaneous gets annoying (and spontaneity usually makes me nervous).

And... I've recently discovered that I need to avoid two of my favorite meals: pizza, and cereal and milk. DRAT! I just can't figure out a way to balance them with insulin. Pizza stays in my system way longer than my mealtime insulin does, thus giving me sky high blood sugar (the last one was 252). Cereal and milk sends my sugar way up and then it crashes pretty fast, usually resulting in a scary low (the last one was 46).

Oh, and just to clarify, no one has been insensitive with gifts. In fact, when my parents came to visit right after my diagnosis in the fall, they bought me a very stylish larg purse in which to hold all of my necessities. I just carry my "diabetes diaper bag" around with me wherever I go. When we go to weddings or fancy parties, Nathan stuffs all of his coat and pants pockets with my supplies (meter, strips, lancets, needles, insulin pens, napkins, juice, etc.). What a guy!