Gettin' into The Big D...

Don't get all excited. I'm talking about diabetes. Lately, I've been reading a lot of "diabetes" themed blogs and finding it all very interesting.

I've never been really "into" (for lack of a better word) any kind of diabetes group/diabetic club thing. I've never had another person close to my age who also had diabetes for a friend other than that one time I went to a diabetes camp when I was about 9 and was traumatized to be so far away from home. I did make a very nice friend there. But again, I was only 9 and she lived ... well, I dunno where she lived because the camp took kids from all over the state. At that age, and long before the internet-connectivity that we have now, we never gave a thought to trying to keep in touch, so I have lost Erin Idontknowherlastnameeither and relegated her to fond memories from a less-than-fun experience at camp. I hope she's thriving, wherever she is.

I've never been terribly self-conscious about telling people I have diabetes. All through school, people would forget I had it til I happened to mention it or I had a bad low blood sugar in front of them. I like telling people about diabetes, helping them understand it better, but there are always "those people" you wish you hadn't told or didn't have to tell.

There are the Big Deal people who, because Aunt Petunia on her daddy's side had sugar die-beeteez and they know exactly what to do should you, you know, pass out or something. And you get the feeling that it's in your best interest NOT to EVER do that around this person because you might wake up with a new scar or something. Just sayin'...

Then there are the All Out Panic people who start hyperventilating as if you've just told them that in 10 seconds, your head is going to explode and they'll have to put it all back together blindfolded with one hand tied behind their back OR ELSE. Sheesh! CALM DOWN, wouldja? I just like for people to be informed!

There's the I Know Somebody Who Died From That people. These are really awful people sometimes. They're like the women who sit in the OB's office telling every possible horror story to all the first-time moms. They live for opportunities to scare the beejeebers outta someone by exaggerating. OR they are just genuinely so ignorant that they don't realize how totally rude it is. As a fellow online diabetical person said, they would never go up to someone with cancer & say, "Hey, I know somebody who died from that!" I mean, c'MON!

Then you have the Diabetes Police types who will never EVER forget you have it and will comment on every single choice you make, especially when it comes to food. They will say, in that totally annoying tone of voice, "Do you think you should be eating that?" or worse, they will TELL you, "You shouldn't eat that." As if their mere knowledge that you have diabetes automatically makes them qualified to pass judgements on what you do. These are by far the worst of the worst on the diabetic-annoyance scale.

And last, there are the What Did You Do Wrong folks. Now these people are a little different in that #1- a lot of times they are your family members and #2- sometimes they are even your doctor or endocrinologist/diabetes specialist. They KNOW a lot of stuff about diabetes. They know you fairly well in most cases. However, when it comes to realizing that the unexpected still happens, EVEN when you try to maintain as much control as we diabetics do, they just don't get it. Far from it! Just as it's quite easy for anyone to catch a cold, no matter how hard they try not to, it's just a simple for things to go haywire with diabetes control. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, our sugar's gonna spike or bottom out, whether we bolused or checked & rechecked our sugar. Sometimes you simply cannot explain why things go wonky with diabetes. It's just the nature of the beast.

So.. there wasn't much of a purpose to this post other than watching Ginger's vlog made me start thinking about this stuff because I was like, amening her the whole time! ;) Sometimes I forget there are other people out there who deal with the same things I do and it's SO nice to be reminded I'm not really as alone as I usually feel.

Maybe this will be the beginning of more thoughtful posts on living with diabetes 24/7/365 and in turn, help me stay in better control.

Thanks for reading!

G~