Day 5 of #DblogWeek: Dear People With Fully Functioning Pancreases - I Need You To Know...

Day 5 of Diabetes Blog Week (#DBlogWeek)  is all about the one thing we'd like people without diabetes to know about living with diabetes.

ONE THING?? That's a tough one!

So instead I wrote a letter to those with perfect pancreases and listed many things~

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Dear People with fulling functioning Pancreases:

Kelly Kunik here - How goes it?

Yes, the rumors are true, I have type 1 diabetes.

I know I don't "look like I have diabetes," but this is what diabetes looks like.

You may not have received the memo, but I want you to know that diabetes doesn't have a look or an age bracket.

Diabetes doesn't discriminate by race, gender or economics.

Having diabetes is NOT a choice.

And diabetes is no ones fault.

I didn't develop diabetes because my mother gave me too much sugar or lacked in the Parenting Skills department, 

and I didn't develop diabetes because I was lazy and ate too many peanut butter cups.

I developed diabetes because I have an autoimmune disease and my body attacked the part of the pancreas that makes insulin.

Simply put: Insulin converts food into energy and every single person on the planet needs insulin to live. You make yours, I inject mine.

There are many different types of diabetes - But let's get one thing straight, regardless of the type - Nobody wants or deserves their diabetes - So lets bust that bullshit diabetes myth, NOW.

Having diabetes doesn't make me fragile or lazy or incompetent.

On the contrary, Because of diabetes I am indeed 32 flavors and then some.

And because of diabetes I work damn hard 365 days a year with no time off for vacations or good behavior in order to live a great life.

Having diabetes means that I am a multi-tasker by necessity and not by choice.

Living with diabetes means that I must always surround myself with the tools to take good care of myself, be it at home, at work, in the car, on the beach, a date or on vacation.

Living with diabetes has made me a Diabetes Savant - And requires me to continually learn about my disease, be technologically savvy, and roll with the diabetes punches - whether I want to or not.

Living with diabetes means that I will run into people who blame me for my broken pancreas and who tell me that if I just give everything white on my plate, I'd be off the dreaded insulin in 30 days.

I have news for those people- The "dreaded insulin" is my elixir of life - And like you: I require it to live.

Insulin is not a luxury item (though you'd think by it's absorbent price) and taking insulin does not mean I lack discipline - It just means I get to live another day.

So when you blame me, or anyone else living with diabetes for acquiring their diabetes, be prepared to be schooled. BIG TIME.

Having diabetes requires me to constantly think on my feet and be prepared - Boy Scouts have nothing on me.
Having diabetes is work - But that doesn't mean I'm incapable of work or success, both personally and professionally.

Having diabetes does not mean I can't have children or have a great life.

Having diabetes does mean that I've learned to pick myself up by my bootstraps no matter what, and diabetes has taught me to laugh at things that continually drive me crazy and plough through the all life's shit no matter how tired I am of living with diabetes.

WHY? so that I can get to the flowers and all the other fantastical things that life has to offer.
Having Diabetes has made me stronger than many because having diabetes requires strength, empathy and tenacity 24 X 7.

Having diabetes has made every person living with diabetes both resilient and filled with resilience.

Finally, 

I NEED you to know and remember this:  
The ONLY thing I can't do with diabetes IS MAKE INSULIN - Everything else is GAME ON.