The words we casually use as people with diabetes continue to make me giggle. Like when I was a kid, my mom would casually tell me to go “shoot up,” (instead of “go take your insulin dose”) … the looks we received in public settings included a lot of arched eyebrows. Or how, during days when I have my insulin…
The Words We Use as PWD
Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Healthcare, Real Life DiabetesMan Cold Diabetes
Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes and Family, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesThis video is older, by Internet standards, but I remember first seeing it and laughing out loud. “Laura … I called for you, I said ‘Laura!’” (And for the love of God there’s a Wiki entry for it. The Internet is forever an amalgam of chaos and delight.) Over the last few weeks, I’ve been running through my older posts…
Making it Work
Blood Sugars, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Mental Health, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesSometimes, I see things and I think they are a wonderful visual representation of diabetes, like the game Perfection. And this pot. My blood sugars are a heavy pot of boiling water. A rolling boil, the ones where you look at the water and see the bubbles coming up like predictable and methodical pewter poetry. Scary if I were to…
With My Whole Heart (and What’s Left of My Pancreas)
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Mental Health, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesWhen I was a lot younger, I thought about my 40th birthday as so far in the future and potentially scary. I didn’t know how I would feel. I didn’t know if I’d still be healthy. I didn’t know if I would be happy. Also, what the hell middle aged?! Today is my birthday. I’m turning 40. I feel pretty…
In prepping for a chat I helped facilitate for the team at The Patient Revolution, I came across this quote in Victor’s book: These words really build a visual around the effort of diabetes management. There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes on behind-the-scenes of diabetes – so many individual threads and colors on this particular patient loom –…
Diabetic Health Journal GIVEAWAY
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Products, HealthcarePOST EDIT: The giveaway is closed and the winner has been notified. Thanks!! Lauren Bongiorno is a virtual diabetic health coach, entrepreneur, and author of the Diabetic Health Journal. Lauren coaches and creates resources for people with type 1 diabetes all over the world to achieve optimal diabetes management and feel strong and empowered. Lauren’s practice is rooted in her…
I used to wait on that cure. Not openly, but quietly. Every time a five year mark come and go and I’d be confused and feeling like my disappointment was silly, yet pervasive. After a few years, I stopped feeling bad about it. And after several decades, I stopped thinking about it at all. My hope lives in a different…
Goals: Wake up. Avoid shit that makes me feel crummy. Surround myself with people who make me feel like I’m understood. Drink just enough coffee to keep my eyelids pinned open but not so much that the room feels filled with bees. Check in on my blood sugars. Care about those numbers. Care about myself enough to care about those…
Advice for “Newbies”
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community(This prompt was pulled from the #happydiabeticchallenge over on Instagram. To check out that hashtag, click here.) I feel weird giving advice because even after 32 years of diabetes, I’m still trying to figure things out. A lot of the time, I have “no eyed deer” what I doing. But the main thing that I keep circling back to is the…
You might also like: World Diabetes Day 2013. World Diabetes Day 2016. Perspectives on Diabetes: Why Children with Diabetes Matters. D-Blog Week: Change One Life, Change the World.
The Bright Side
Blood Sugars, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes and Family, Diabetes Complications, Diabetic MommyMy daughter, randomly, asked me what a seizure was. (Turns out someone had talked about it at school as a result of a student with epilepsy.) We talked about it, and then she asked if diabetes could cause seizures. She doesn’t ask me complicated questions about the longterm effects of diabetes very often (barring that one time she asked me, when…
Blue Lagoonabetes
Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life Diabetes, TravelingWe made plans to go to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland before we had left for our trip, so I knew I’d be a little bit jet-lagged and a little bit moody about missing the kids, but I was excited to see this “wonder of the world,” where geothermal hot springs pool to create a steamy, cyan-colored bath. When you…
I’m not brave. … and man do I hate admitting that. But I’m not. I’ve known this for a long time but I realized it again two weeks ago when I was at the Connected in Motion/Beyond Type 1 SoCal Slipstream event. There were people there who will pick up and run 10 miles without giving it too much thought. Or…
Rewind: Voicemail for my Pancreas
Blood Sugars, Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Memories, Relationships(I’m traveling this week, with limited access and desire to visit the Internet, but while I’m on an adventure, I’m rewinding the blog to showcase some older posts. So don’t freak out if you see some older post about being pregnant or whatever because giiiiiiirl I am not pregnant.) “Hey, you. This is awkward. Voicemail. I hate voicemail. But I…
Rewind: Ordinary but Extraordinary
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Exercise & Fitness, Psychosocial Support, Real Life Diabetes(I’m traveling this week, with limited access and desire to visit the Internet, but while I’m on an adventure, I’m rewinding the blog to showcase some older posts. So don’t freak out if you see some older post about being pregnant or whatever because giiiiiiirl I am not pregnant.) I will admit right here, right now that I admire people…
Rewind: These Boots Were Made for Talking
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes and Family, Diabetes Community, Psychosocial Support(I’m traveling this week, with limited access and desire to visit the Internet, but while I’m on an adventure, I’m rewinding the blog to showcase some older posts. So don’t freak out if you see some older post about being pregnant or whatever because giiiiiiirl I am not pregnant.) At the airport two weeks ago, I was coming home from…