Forward Facing Defense
Its probably obvious by the very fact that you’re reading an open blog written by me that I’m very public about having diabetes. I tell people at the gym that I have diabetes, the people I work with, all my friends – shoot, I even tell the grocery store cashier that I have diabetes whenever they ask me why there’s so few carbs on the conveyor belt. I’ll talk to anyone about having diabetes. I’ve also built a life for myself around this disease – my work, my hobby (this blog), and my volunteer work are all about diabetes. Someone asked me the other day if I ever feel like I need a break from living so entrenched in this subject. Looking at my life and the amount of time I spend talking about diabetes, its natural to think I seek respite from this topic occasionally.
But what people don’t know about my public diabetes persona is that in a way, it’s a kind of therapy for me. When I was a teenager and landed myself in the hospital with DKA, it was because I wanted to hide having diabetes. I was embarrassed and ashamed of it – I didn’t want to be different from anyone else so I just ignored it. And sure enough, being the insidious disease the ole ‘betes is, it snuck right up and bit me in the ass.
After being hospitalized, I realized there was a certain power in beating people to the punch. After my DKA and the summer of recovery that followed, I went off to college and told all my new friends and roommates right away that I have diabetes. That way, we could get the questions out of the way right off the bat. Go ahead, make your jokes about “shooting up,” ask me if I ate too much sugar as a kid, question why sometimes I HAVE to have sugar - get all of those stereotypes and questions off your chest and THEN we can have a real conversation about what it means to live with Type 1 diabetes – and a real conversation about the rest of me.
The outward facing attitude about living with diabetes that I adopted in college has stuck with me. I’m more comfortable putting everything out there before someone else does, and so for me, that’s a way that I deal with and compartmentalize having this crazy disease. It’s not for everyone – if someone is more comfortable staying mum about their ‘betes and that works for them then that’s great too. We all have to disclose the level of detail we’re personally comfortable with.
But for me, I like to let you know about the diabetic elephant in the room, and then move on to just being me.
Diabetic elephant….now that’s a scary thought – how much insulin do you think one needs!?
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Comments
Now that is a good question and an excellent reason to procrastinate at work for a couple minutes!
The internet tells me that on average an adult male African elephant weighs 5400 kg, and a female weighs 4500 kg, so using a complete handwaving average human dose of 0.5 units/kg/day, a male elephant would need ~2700 units/day and a female ~2250 units per day.
What guage of needle would they need to use for that thick skin?
Emily hahahahahaha! That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day , love that you looked that up. Thank you for the laugh 
That means one dose for him would be about four months supply for me! I would hate to see an elephant experience a low.
I wonder, too, if being so entrenched in the subject can be emotionally draining. A few years back, I was active on TuDiabetes in its early days, then I took a break for about a year. My thought was “yeah, I have it… lets move on”. All diabetes, all the time, is a bit much to handle — I wanted my time between meals to be about something else.
Nowadays, I’m kind of on a diabetes-kick. It’s something that I WANT to be involved in – as much as I can. With the growth of the online community, I almost feel like having diabetes makes me a member of a club that only a privileged, select few can join.
Wait a minute… did I just say that diabetes is a privilege?
I know just what you mean. I am the mom of a 10 year old girl with diabetes. I like to talk about diabetes. It is such a huge part of my day and where my brain is all the time, not to talk about it would be weird. The other d-moms in my town are not really into chatting about diabetes. Thank goodness I found the diabetes online community. I’ve made some nice online pals and learn from bloggers and commentors all the time.
I recently had a funny thing happen. In addition to diabetes blogs, I read some style and decor blogs. One in particular, myfavoriteandmybest.com, is one I ready daily. She posts about painting, couches, being hungover, and good stuff on craigslist. I read it daily for two years when out of the blue this blogger posts some pictures of herself and says “oh, by the way, ignore the insulin pump in these pics”. I almost pooped my pants. Never before a mention of diabetes. Not a hint. Not a bitch. This girls is wearing an Omnipod but she was clearly not a person who feels the need to chat about diabetes. I, for one, can’t shut up about it.
She does talk a lot about diarrhea. A lot.
I am so proud of you and your diabetes! You make a difference in so many lives… That’s what your diabetes has been for me..Selfishly, I have seen the powerful good you have done with all of it and for others.. Keep talking, its important for all.. Its a gift as well..
Don’t worry– they have plenty of room in their trunk for insulin.