Diabetes Days & Diabetes Moments ~

There are days and moments after 30 plus years with diabetes, that diabetes is second nature - Like being left handed.

Days where I test automatically and without thinking and can immediately read the carb count on an unfamiliar meal. Days where I am indeed a Diabetes Savant. For a brief moment in time, life with diabetes mimics others whose pancreases are in working order view as normal.

And then there those days where I’ve rushed out the door sans my insulin pump, tune out my pump’s “low Insulin” alarm completely until my diabetes well is damn near dry, or have my infusion set in a spot that unbeknownst to me, has become useless and dead.

Days where my numbers go either north or south for unexplained reasons. And others where I do something stupid, like forget to bolus for coffee, and then wonder out loud why I’m blowing a 240 a few hours later.

Then there are those “diabetes moments” that are public and at times uncomfortable. Moments where all of a sudden I feel the low and think that others can feel it to. Like everyone in the Diabetes On-Line Community, I’ve become an expert at downing glucose tabs in record time and sucking down a juice-box in one gigantic gulp. Hey, I wonder if I should write that on my on-line dating profile??? But I digress.

Much like “Senior Moments,” these “Diabetes Moments” happen and I acknowledge and accept them, and at times laugh out loud at them - or cry in frustration. But I continue to plow ahead - because I see others doing the same.

And then I remind myself that I’m not the only one who has these diabetes days and diabetes moments - Others stand where I’m standing and that’s a great comfort. Realizing that others like me, live and embrace this diabetes view of normal, not only helps us live our lives, it also saves lives. It is a wonderful and empowering thing.

And then I remember shared diabetes moments, in the form of DMeet Ups, blog posts, twitter chats, emails, phone calls, letters and the likes there of and I'm once again remember that you can speak the language of diabetes in real life and on-line, without ever having to utter the “D Word.” But that it’s more than OK if you do. And that is also a wonderful thing~