A Day in The Life: 2012

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Out with the Bad, and In with the Good

I think so many times, I focus on the negatives with diabetes. Which is INCREDIBLY easy to do. It's a tough disease. We have to do math every time we eat just to make sure our blood sugars are regulated. We perform surgery on ourselves every 3-4 days, some times more, to keep our pancreas hooked up. And it hurts some times. We prick our fingers upwards of 12 times daily to figure out what our bodies are doing.

At my last job, I was seen as weak almost because some times the diabetes took over. Whether I was in the hospital, or I had to stop and eat, or I'd get confused, a few select people would say things about it, not understanding what I was going through. Which I get. They don't understand.

I have met so many people this past week and a half at my new job. They are very particular about how we appear, so I clip my pump under my arm, right to the side of my bra. But, I am doing taste testing every day, so I find myself digging it out. I try to be as discreet as possible, but it's not easy.

My boss walked past me the other day and asked what I was doing. I explained it to her and the first words out of her mouth were, "It's that bad that you'll never get off the pump?" Trying to be respectful, I explained the differences in the types of diabetes. I had done taste plate in the morning, which is our way of tasting everything in the restaurant to make sure it's good enough to go out for the guests. She asked, "How did you deal with Taste Plate?" I explained to her that I guessed the carbohydrates, and i did pretty well because two hours later, my blood sugar was within range. She was truly excited for me!

"How awesome! It must feel like a personal triumph and victory every time you have to just guess, and it works!"

It's totally true. And I had never had a non-diabetic think of it like that. It was just nice to hear someone really get it. For a moment, I felt like she was empathetic. And that's not a feeling I get very much.

It's these kind of people that make it so much easier to go through this. It's the people that root for us that make us realize, we can do this.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Have you ever felt a pain so powerful?

In less than a year, diabetes has helped me connect with the greatest people I've ever known. People that are empowered to help other people. These wonderful souls have gotten me through some tough times. They brought me out of dark corners and told me I could do this when I was positive I couldn't. I could never thank them enough.

Unfortunately, knowing these people also means knowing their tragedies. Last week, we lost one of them very dear to us in our community. The Schumachers lost a father, a husband, a partner, and a friend last Sunday. Four out of the six of them have T1 diabetes. Could you imagine? Having one person in the family is a big enough test!

Everyone in the Diabetic Online Community got together and prayed for them. Prayers were sent from all over the world. The ones who don't pray, sent positive vibes and good feelings, hoping for a miracle. Our prayers were laid to rest when Ryan died peacefully in the arms of his family.

I wish I could do more. I wish I could hug Meri and tell her I will take all of her pain away. I wish I could nanny for them and take care of everything so they don't have to think about all the mundane things that you have to think about, even though tragedy has struck their hearts. It's a trial to have to deal with diabetes on a normal basis, then throw a death of the most important person in your world in the mix, and it must seem damn near impossible.

I continue to pray for them in hopes that my small little prayer will touch them in bigger ways. I ask that anyone reading this do the same.

They've been calling this the Schumacher Family Miracle. The real miracle is knowing them, knowing their strength, and them letting us be a part of their lives.