What They Should Know

Diabetes Blog Week Post #5

Today’s Topic: What they should know

I get to do what I usually do when I blog about diabetes, I get to say what I think everyone should know about diabetes.

I want people to know everything about diabetes. Actually I want to know everything about diabetes, but there’s too much information all around to cram into people’s brains during the maybe two minutes of their attention I have.

There are too many things to pick from, but I think I’ll select the umbrella… a definition.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic medical condition, caused by an autoimmune reaction that attacked the insulin-producing cells in my pancreas and I will live with it for the rest of my life.

(Also see: My immune system ate my pancreas)

I’ve been asked a lot of questions after telling people about what type 1 diabetes is. Including:

• Can’t they just take out your pancreas?
• Will you always be on insulin?
• Aren’t you too young/old/skinny to have that?
• Can you still eat ____?

But when I really think about, it’s more and more apparent that I just wish people would come at diabetes with an open mind. Forget the things they think they heard one time and listen to someone who lives it.

I’ve encountered people who have tried to teach me about my own medical condition because they once knew someone who had diabetes. We live with this condition day in and day out. We work with medical professionals to decide our care. We are in charge of our own day-to-day treatment.

Diabetes blog week

Post #1: Find a Friend

Post #2: One Great Thing

Post #3: One Thing to Improve

Post #4: Fantasy Diabetes Device