Saturday, April 21, 2012

Beyond Your Pump

I haven't ever counted, but I can only imagine that I know more than two hundred type 1 diabetics.  By saying know, I mean that I can list off names or find them on my Facebook friend list. I was extremely lucky to be introduced to so many diabetics as soon as I was diagnosed and it has grown enormously over the past three years. I am so thankful for such a strong support system.

However, as I was sitting doing the usual Facebook search I realized that out of all my type 1 friends I really did not know that much about them at least as much as I wished I knew.  Of course I knew that they were type 1, and if they were on an insulin pump or injections, using a USB meter or a one touch mini and if they used Nova Rapid, but really I hadn't quite figured out their lives yet. 

Now, it would be a little hard to take the time to get to know everyones story and by story I don't mean how they got diagnosed, but really their life story. But, I do really want to know so badly what makes them who they are today and I am sure that story somehow coincides with their diagnosis. If you're wondering what really led to me wanting to know more about my fellow type 1's - it is that I watched the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and as much as I did understand the message and the movie, what I took from it was to examine lives and learn from them.  The main character met so many people along his journey and had something to remember them by - I couldn't simply just remember my type 1 friends as... that girl that had diabetes since she was five, wore an insulin pump, used a contour meter and used 30 units of Nova Rapid a day.    

So, this is the next task at hand alongside many. I want to know YOU! I want to know my type 1 readers, face to face friends, online friends, diabesties, hardworking diabetic mothers and fathers - I want to know you for what makes you, you beyond diabetes.  Things that you find interesting, books you would recommend, your idol, your favourite song anything that you want to tell me. So please, please tell me!  Write in the comments below, I want to see beyond your diabetes, your insulin pumps, injection pens and insulin because diabetes does make us into the strong girls, boys, men and women that we are today, but we are so individual and unique - that's what makes it amazing.

Kayla 

5 comments:

  1. Hi Kayla :) I've recently found your blog and I really like what you write here. I'm from Portugal and I'm 16. I was diagnosed when I was eight... Keep up the great work you've been doing! Laura

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  2. I am RLP (aka Ruta) mother of Elena (11 years old). I am a writer (IT) and I have a passion for gardening and severe weather events - would love to go storm chasing one day :) Elena is a happy girl in grade 5. She loves to sing and dance and hopes to design clothes one day. Thanks to the Pen Pals group you formed on Facebook, she is now corresponding with a girl in Indiana.

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  3. Kayla! I found you through Kerri and I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading your entries! I am a mommy to a T1D 9YO. She was D'ed at age 6. My father was also T1D and lost the fight in his 40's. I'm in Nursing School, married almost 15 years and also have an 11 YO Non-D son. Keep up your writing... it is INSPIRING!

    Hubby forced me, after E was D'ed to find POSITIVE stories, since all I knew was my dad - with every complication and surgery (including 2 transplants) imaginable.

    Feel free to "friend" me on FB - I would love to see your updates daily! I'll request you if I can find you!

    Love, Jenn

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  4. I just found your blog of of the You know you're a diabetic when... group on Facebook and this seemed like a good place to comment.

    Anyways, you wanted to know stuff about other T1's, so here goes: I was Dx'd in 1990 at the age of 5 and have been living with diabetes ever since. I am using a Bayer Contour USB and am on Humalog and Lantus, which I give both by insulin pen.

    I have a couple different jobs, but neither of them have benefits, so no pump yet. I work in a mall food court selling German food and I am a freelance web application developer.

    Other than that, I went to a camp that was tailored to diabetics through my childhood and so I met a few people there, although I now only seem to know other diabetics online. I am in Saskatchewan and it seems like no one here wants to let others know that have it. I, on the other hand, just tell people if they ask what I am doing. Sometimes I get an answer that is just "makes sense" and other times they tell me how sorry they are.

    I try to blog at www.tylerparker.ca but I am bad at being consistent.

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