Advocacy Noodles

For an employee event, I was able to convince a local gourmet food and cookware store to put on a private class so we could make something hands-on. They recommended a pasta making class.

The class was awesome!

I don’t usually eat a lot of pasta and usually I get the carb-friendly Dreamfields stuff that comes in boxes from the top shelf at the grocery store (that’s significant because I’m short!). We made the noodles and sauce from scratch (and of course enjoyed the fettuccine of our labor).

While the pasta was boiling, I decided to test my blood sugar so I could eat it as soon as it was ready. One of the employees noticed what I was doing and asked, “Is that for diabetes?”

I explained that yes it was and that I wanted to test before we enjoyed our pasta. She curiously watched me poke my finger then said, “It’s amazing how far technology has come. That takes so little blood!”

I took the opportunity to briefly show her my PDM and OmniPod. She asked how long I’d had diabetes and I told her about my August diagnosis. “Don’t they normally find that in kids?” she asked. We talked a little more about Type 1 diabetes in adults then I enjoyed some pasta and glorious blood sugars followed me the rest of the day.

That was my first time talking to a real stranger about diabetes. In the past I’ve explained the ins and outs of bg checks and my pump to people loosely connected to me (think: friends of friends). It was pretty cool, and I got lucky because she didn’t even judge me for eating pasta!

Actually, I’m thinking about trying to make my own pasta and sauce more often. I liked seeing the individual ingredients that went into it and knowing how fresh the food was. I also liked the physical connection with cooking, like kneading the pasta dough with the heel of my hand and running it through the rollers and cutters (I used the KitchenAid mixer attachment, but some of my coworkers used the crank).