A few weeks ago, we were in Venice and I almost walked right into the canal because I saw a lady with an insulin pump on her waist and a CGM sensor on her arm, speaking Italian to the shopkeeper and casually wearing her pancreas on her hip. The flurried rush of emotions – excitement, understanding, the urge to shout “one…
Tips and Tricks: Let’s round out the week by sharing our best diabetes tips and diabetes tricks. From how you organize supplies to how you manage gear on the go/vacation (beach, or skiing, or whatever). From how you keep track of prescription numbers to how you remember to get your orders refilled. How about any “unconventional” diabetes practices, or ways…
The Other Half of Diabetes: We think a lot about the physical component of diabetes, but the mental component is just as significant. How does diabetes affect you or your loved one mentally or emotionally? How have you learned to deal with the mental aspect of the condition? Any tips, positive phrases, mantras, or ideas to share on getting out…
Diabetes Blog Week: Message Monday.
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life Diabetes, RelationshipsIt’s Diabetes Blog Week, a week in the year where diabetes bloggers can rally together and share their stories, following suggested (but not mandated!) themes and focusing on connecting with one another as a community. And who better to closely knit our community together than Karen (who is known in my household as “The Knitter“)? Karen kindly brings us closer…
I missed the end of Diabetes Blog Week, but I loved the prompts and still have ideas trickling in here and there. So better late than never! I don’t like catch phrases. (Forgiiiiiiiive me, especially since I just used a trite turn of phrase up there with the whole “better late than never” thing. Turn the other cheek, please.) I…
Diabetes Blog Week: Kicking It to the Curb.
Diabetes Community, Diabetes Memories, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesWhen I was first hospitalized upon diagnosis, I spent two weeks in-patient learning the new and tangled ropes of type 1 diabetes with my parents. My hospital roommate was a kid named Eddie, who had been bitten by a spider. The other source of comfort was Kitty. This grubby thing has been with me since the beginning. My mom and…
Diabetes Blog Week: The Quiet Parts.
Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Complications, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life Diabetes, Relationships, Robot LifeFeels weird, and slightly ironic, starting a blog post about the diabetes-related things I don’t share here on the diabetes blog I’ve written here on the open Internet about my personal experiences with the disease. It’s been ten years of this – the idea that there’s crap I don’t talk about might seem like a big fat lie. But there…
Decades ago, my body did whatever it did to reroute the purpose of my pancreas, and left me with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes at the age of seven. As a result, I can’t make insulin. Diabetes was presented as a series of “You can’ts” to me, back in 1986. You can’t eat that, you can’t do that, you…
Karen Graffeo is a talented knitter, devoted cat owner, and tireless advocate for diabetes, and I am so proud to call her a friend. Six years ago, she launched the first Diabetes Blog Week, an effort that serves to expand the diabetes online community and embrace the beauty of diversity of voices. Today, Karen is sharing some of the how’s…
I missed the last day of Diabetes Blog Week, but I’m determined to follow through on the prompts, because I love being part of this community. The last prompt is to highlight some of the work we’ve loved reading this past week: “As we wrap up another Diabetes Blog Week, let’s share a few of our favorite things. This can…
D-Blog Week: Change One Life, Change the World.
Diabetes Advocacy, Diabetes and Emotions, Diabetes Community, Diabetes Online Community, Psychosocial Support, Real Life DiabetesMy reasons for sharing my story of a life with type 1 diabetes were few, but definitive: I felt alone. I wanted to feel less alone, because the whole “feeling alone” thing was wrecking some havoc on my emotional health. I didn’t have many peers, in my life, who were living with diabetes, and the Internet offered very little in…