Lived Experience

Once you're diagnosed you begin collecting.  Collecting resources, meters, lancets by the tonne. You collect things that you may never look at or need again, pamphlets about proper injection sites, booklets about healthy eating or log books that never will feel the splash of ink on their charted pages. We collect things because we do not know what we really need quite yet.  We collect things because we don't want to be without.

One thing that we collect that is important and not left to collect dust, are the people we meet along the way.  Whether that is the nurse that first helped diagnose us or the first person you met that lives with type 1 diabetes.  These people come into our lives and stay.  They become a shoulder to lean on, or a listening ear and they also become our resources for lived experience which is one of the MOST important and prized sources you can get.

As I go through life with diabetes, almost at at the ten year mark in 2019. I am always in awe of the people I've 'collected' along the way. Some I don't speak to very much, but I watch on the sidelines as they achieve so many amazing things. PHD's, families, weddings and dream jobs, butI also watch as they pull through the hardships of diabetes burnout, job loss, hospitalization, insurance issues and so on.  These people are the people that make living with diabetes a little easier. It is reassuring knowing that at anytime, no matter what life issue I come across, I have someone to speak to. 

Like many of my readers know, I recently got married (don't worry a blog will be coming!) Having a collection of type 1s to give me advice was amazing, those that have gone through the crazy moment of marrying the love of your life. Next, family planning, leaning into those that are going through the motions before me. Forever, I will hold those friends I've collected tight. 

Kayla