Well silly me, I kinda introduced myself yesterday. I guess that’s just me in a nutshell. I even posted a picture of myself. Now I need to try to come up with something different again for today. I guess it’s a good thing I am a big fan of MSU (making stuff up). Anyway, I blog and write about life afflicted with severe sarcasm. It is a horrible illness…. Wait, what do you mean this isn’t an illness? Crap. I mean, I knew that. I write about my life with type-1 diabetes. Borrowing from the ADA website, “Type-1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Only 5% of people with diabetes have this form of the disease.” That’s me. I am one of the special 5%. I have had type-1 for over half of my long life now. I came to the realization a few month’s ago that my diabetes is legally able to drive now. That’s just scary.

Living ones life with type-1 diabetes can be hard. There are so many inconsistencies with what is going on, with treatment on a daily basis. The one consistency of living with type-1 diabetes is how inconsistent it actually is. I could do the same thing 5 days in a row. Eat the same five meals, quantities, etc… and each time I would get a different result. That is just an annoying pain in the butt. However, it is something that I have become quite used to or as used to as one can. It is hard, but in my head I know things could be worse.

Five things I want other health advocates to know about type-1 diabetes:

1. Nothing my parents or I did made me get this disease. I mean they did make me, so I guess I can blame them for this.
2. Before commenting on some of the general misconceptions out there about diabetes educate yourself. Technically there are different types of diabetes. Type-1, Type-2, Type-1.5, Gestational Diabetes, and I think I am forgetting one or two others. My friend Sara could tell you all of them. She is much better at this, than I am.
3. People with diabetes can live a normal life, I mean if I wasn’t so tired and lazy right now I could be writing this blog while drinking hot cocoa, eating s’mores, while getting ready to attack a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup sandwich. You heard me sandwich. Granted what we eat needs to be accounted for and we need to take the proper amounts of insulin to keep our sugar levels balanced.
4. There is no such thing as a stupid question. If you don’t get something ask us. We don’t bite, it isn’t contagious, and the only thing worse than asking a “stupid” question, is not asking and remaining ignorant of the truth.
5. I had a great number five, but I got distracted and can’t remember what it is. However, the message I bring that is the most important is that type-1 diabetes is not the death sentence it once was. While we have means of controlling it, there is no cure for type-1 just yet. If you really want to get someone annoyed, talk about cinnamon “cures” or dietary “cures”. That is just ignorance and it goes back to my first few statements.

I have to say it would be great to link you to some of my past posts. The thing with my posts are for newly diagnosed they don’t make much sense. I write about my life, I don’t necessarily talk about what one should have been doing or how to overcome some of the major stresses we may face when initially diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. For that I direct you to some of my friend’s blogs.

Kerri – Diabetes advocate extraordinaire. If you are looking for any info, chances are she’s got it somewhere in a blog post.

Kim – Another amazing writer and advocate. She has two sites here main blog, but also the site for the You Can Do This Project, this is truly inspirational.

Sara and Jess – Also amazing writers and they talk about all sorts of things. I wish I could send you to a favorite post of theirs, but I like them all.

I’m off skiing for the day. See you Wednesday.

(Yes Christina another old picture, sorry!)