Diabetes In The Wild At The Harvest Moon Party~

Friday night I received an invite via text to a Saturday night Harvest Moon party, promising good people, good fun, and a beautiful view of the moon.

Sidebar: Tonight (September 24th,) is the official Harvest Moon for the Americas - but it’s pouring buckets in my neck of the woods so I’m not sure I’ll see it. 

But I digress. 

Cut to Saturday night. I drove over to the party, parked my car and with pumpkin bread in hand, walked through the front door and into the kitchen - where I was immediately greeted with hugs and by people I haven’t seen in ages, while simultaneously being introduced to new faces. 

Thanks to kismet, I had two “diabetes in the wild,” encounters with two kick-ass women with personal and professional connections to diabetes. 

"Diabetes in the wild," encounter number one occurred outside on the deck - where my friend was talking to a young woman. I didn't know anyone out and the deck and felt like a dork. My friend motioned for me to come over. I did, he introduced us and mentioned that I wrote a Diabetes Blog. 

Turns out she was a grade school teacher who had a student with t1. 

She told me how she’d become aware of all things diabetes related and was learning more everyday. 

We talked about growing up with diabetes, she asked me about my low and high blood sugar tells and I told her.

Two weeks into the school year and this woman knew a lot about t1 and clearly wanted to learn more. Quite frankly, I WAS IMPRESSED. 

And IMO, her t1 student was lucky to have her as both a teacher and a friend. 

I gave Teacher Lady a few resources including CWD and Coco The Monkey.  

HELLO KISMET. As soon as I mentioned Coco, I remembered that I had a set of Coco books in my trunk. 

Sidebar: I was going to give the books to a local t1, but she already had them - so the books had been living in my trunk for a month.

I went out to my car; searched my trunk and found the Coco books, went back inside and handed them over. Teacher Lady couldn't wait to check them out over the weekend and then read them to her class!  

We exchanged numbers and I told her to keep in touch.

Later on in the evening, when I was bolusing via my Omnipod PDM for some crazy delicious autumn leaf sugar cookies, Teacher Lady walked over and said to me on the sly: You good? 

I told her I was and we both laughed. Girlfriend had my back and didn’t blink twice about me bolusing for cookies.

The second “diabetes in the wild” moment occurred later on in the kitchen, when I met a mom of a t1. dMama's daughter was now a mother herself and had lived with diabetes for over 3 decades. 

Like magnets to steal, we started talking about all things diabetes related. 

We discussed surviving the Diabetes Dark Ages, and dMama told me that the very first glucose meter her daughter ever used cost over a thousand dollars and wasn’t covered by insurance.

And I could totally relate. 

We discussed scar tissue, diabetes idiosyncrasies, the cost of insulin, and everything in between. We talked about diabetes challenges - back in the diabetes dark ages and ones we struggle with in real time.

I told dMama about the Diabetes Online Community and peer support and gave her some links and info I thought her and her daughter would find helpful. 

Once again I found myself exchanging contact information with someone who “got it.” 

As I put the key in the ignition, I looked up at the moon, partially hidden by deep purple and navy night clouds, and thought about how we are all connected - and how once again, diabetes proves it. 

The amazing kick-ass women I’d met both live near me, each with personal and professional connections to diabetes, and I’d never met either one of them until now - even though we shared mutual friends. 

Bottom Line: The universe is big, the world is smaller than we think - the world of diabetes - even smaller. The moon is magic, the universe knows what it’s doing - and we are meant to meet exactly when we do.