Thanks for that, ‘betes…
Anyone with diabetes knows that you spend hours upon end thinking about your disease: counting carbs, dosing, crunching numbers, treating lows – there’s a lot of time dedicated to diabetes. But what surprises me is how having diabetes has directly affected where I spend my time. Both my job and extracurriculars are more often diabetes-related than not.
I work at a pharmaceutical company that makes diabetes drugs, and I’m often tapped to give the “patient perspective” on living with diabetes and using our company’s product. Just this week I gave two such trainings, and was asked by a representative to come out for a field ride for more of this exchange. On Tuesday, I got up in front of 1500 people at our all-employee meeting to promote the Tour de Cure San Diego. Later that night, I went to Tour de Cure Committee planning meeting. Thursday I’ll help with corporate team recruitment for the same cause, and this weekend I’m hitting two diabetes events in my community. In just one week, I’ll have dedicated 14 hours to diabetes-related activities – not counting managing my own!
The fact is, diabetes is 24/7. Because of the dedication this disease demands, it can’t help but shape decisions and pathways in your life, including career and hobbies. It’s no mistake that I work at a company that makes diabetes products – it makes my day to day more meaningful to me even if the individual tasks don’t seem related. I volunteer with the ADA because it increases my network of support, and allows me to have an impact in the fight against diabetes.
I suppose one might think that since I already have to manage this disease all the time, I’d be more inclined to choose activities that weren’t so diabetes focused, so I could take a “break.” But the opposite is true: entrenching myself in the diabetes community, allows me more control over the disease by offering support and purpose to my life. In fact, I feel lucky that I have a passion in life – there’s plenty of 20-somethings out there trying to figure out what gets them amped. Having diabetes certainly doesn’t define everything I am, but it has given me a certain identity and in turn the opportunity to make an impact – and in that respect I am so thankful to have diabetes, to have this opportunity and purpose. It’s nice to say “thank you” to diabetes today, isn’t it? 
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
I LOVE hearing that stuff Matt! Way to turn a negative into a huge positive – and BMX is such a cool sport to use to raise awareness! Let me know if you ever need help to promote activities etc, happy to help here on the blog or in any other way I can
Hey Matt – if you’re still reading this entry, you can use your BMX to raise awareness by riding with Alexis, me and 100+ other diabetics as Red Riders in the Tour de Cure. Lexie and I are Co-Captains of the San Diego Red Riders. For more info go to http://www.diabetes.org and look for the San Diego Tour de Cure – it’s a diabetes fund raising bicycle ride April 17 that will have over 1700 riders and raise over $425,000 for diabetes research, treatment and education.
I would love to ride with you guys! I am in Phoenix so San Diego isn’t too far away. Let me check my schedule to see if I can make it. If I can attend, what does it take to ride with your team? Speaking of teams, I am starting a BMX team called Type 1 Racing to promote diabetes and inspire others to pursue their dreams. I am looking for diabetes related companies for sponsorship. If you know of anyone who may be interested let me know. I raced my 2nd national event of the season this past weekend and I got my first national win since my diagnosis. It goes to show that diabetes doesn’t have to slow you down!!
Its super easy to ride with us Matt – you are required to raise $150 for the charity, but other than that its simply signing up! Just follow the instructions Rich left below about navigating to the site and I will get to thinking about any companies that might be interested in sponsoring you. The BMX team is so awesome! Happy to help in any other way I can.
Thanks Alexis. I wil see if I can make it out there for the ride. I appreciate you thinking about companies that may be intersted in sponsoring my team. I am really excited to get it going!
I feel the same way. I’m a relative newbie to the big D. I’m 29 and I was diagnosed 1 year ago. I work in the health and wellness industry and my background is in exercise/personal training. I am in the process of going back to school so I can get my CDE. I also want to utilize my sport (BMX) to raise awareness about type 1 and inspire others to pursue their dreams. It’s funny but diabetes has given me a new mission in life and I think that’s awesome!