Finding Humour in Diabetes

Diabetes is very serious, did you know it is the leading cause in kidney failure and amputation? Also that over 300,000 Canadians live with type 1 diabetes?  COULD YOU IMAGINE if my blog bombarded you with this information daily? Giving you facts about diabetes and what the likelihood of my survival is. Not only would my readers be depressed, but I am pretty sure I would be drowning in tears.

I know the facts and I have seen the consequences of not controlling blood sugar; however, these things should stay on the papers of medical documents and don't belong on here.  No type 1 wants to hear about their possible chance for kidney failure or blindness or that they were the lucky ones that got picked out of 300,000 Canadians - why couldn't I be picked for the jackpot lottery instead - I am sure my chances were similar if not better.

Instead of rolling in money, buying Coach purses and fancy diamonds, I am rolling in OSAP's funds and buying test strips and vials of insulin.    Not exactly the lottery if you ask me.   However, I have accepted that I am not a millionaire, nor a billionaire; rather, I am a diabetic...

And even though I don't want to hear about how your cat got diabetes and now you have to put her down and that guy's great uncle Melvin can't see because of the complications of the Big D - I still hear it daily which I think adds to my humour about diabetes, because without humour I think I would be scared to leave my room and would be sipping on water and soda crackers for the rest of my life.

So,  how is diabetes humorous? If you've ever watched the evening cartoons like Family Guy maybe you could get a glimpse at diabetes humour. It truly is everywhere, but mainly about type 2 diabetes. But diabetics don't get mad at this, well at least I don't think so, we don't get mad at Family Guy for having Wilfred Brimley talk about his aggression while having a high blood sugar instead we get mad at when Dr.Oz doesn't justify what diabetes he is speaking about.

But, I don't get my diabetes humour from t.v sitcoms - I just get it from living with diabetes.  I know that diabetes can cause some damage, but I also know that living with diabetes can be a little funny.  Who else can eat like mad and no one will judge them? Do you know anyone that can lasso a door handle with 23 inch tubing?   These little life moments are hilarious.

I started thinking about this today when Michelle and I were interviewed by the Western Gazette about my blogs.  Michelle and I have been best friends for years now and she pretty much is the biggest diabetes groupie I have ever met.  As we were both being interviewed I began to realize how many inside jokes we had about diabetes or even just moments that involve diabetes that we laugh about.   Why is it funny that time I went low in Wal-Mart - well you had to be there to understand.

Michelle said after to me that she didn't realize how much she knew me. But, I think it is more so, we didn't realize how much we have shared since she knew me pre-diabetes and now with diabetes.  I think since she is probably the closest person to me, especially now being my roommate, she has a good idea about what diabetes is like and finds the humour in it - which a lot of people are scared to do.

Diabetes isn't a joke, but it doesn't have to be taboo. I'll gladly applaud you for making a diabetes joke because that is better than telling me that I might end up like your Great Uncle Melvin...no one wants to end up like that.

Kayla

World Diabetes Day

Every single day diabetics around the world are pricking their fingers, counting carbs and giving themselves insulin.  Despite there only being one day a year titled, "WORLD DIABETES DAY" every second, every hour and every day diabetics around the world are celebrating diabetes, I guess celebrating isn't really a good word for it.

I think that for the most part diabetic's celebrate that they are alive and acknowledge the fact that without insulin they wouldn't be here to enjoy what life has to offer. But, beyond that diabetics are busy enough dealing with their diabetes and working hard to maintain good health psychologically and physically that the whole celebration doesn't take place very often.  

For me on this one day of the year that I get to shove diabetes-ness in everyone's face I would like to point out that when the clock strikes 12:00 a.m it will no longer be diabetes day for the world, but for those that are waking up at 4 a.m to eat a snack or for those that are having to check their blood sugar 5 times on November 15th and every day following that, diabetes day is every single day for us.

So for the diabetics out there that are living diabetes day - everyday, I think that we should celebrate our diabetes. Because like that weird birth mark you have or that lisp, diabetes makes you unique.   Without diabetes we wouldn't have one another.  I know that I would not have had such the opportunity to meet amazing people like Stephanie, Nadine, Chloe, Meredith, and so many more.  

Diabetes gives us reasons to not eat gross food that people make for us because we can just insist that it has too many carbs.  It also gives us the reason to eat whenever we want, we NEED that chocolate bar because our sugar is low (wink, wink).    Diabetes gives us something to talk about when we are in an awkward situation and topics on the weather have already been discussed.  

Not only does diabetes give us random knowledge on insulin and our body it also gives us random nutritional information that we can brag about to girls who think they are doing a good job at avoiding sugar and carbs.   Having diabetes shows others that we are strong and can handle whatever life has to throw at us or in our case take away.

Diabetes has allowed us to separate our friends from true friends to friends that don't want to deal with your diabetes as well as introduced us to non-diabetics that wish they were diabetic because let's face it, diabetes is cool.

Let's not forget that diabetes has also provided us with pretty cool gadgets like insulin pumps and that USB meter. Not only can we get excited about colour choices, but we can also get excited about graphs even if the line is all over the place!

But, most of all we should celebrate that diabetes isn't that bad. Yes the neighbour is going to tell you that they know someone who knew someone that lost their leg from diabetes, and the doctor is going to tell you that you need to tighten your blood sugar or else, but I know and you know that living with diabetes is second nature now and that there are a lot of good things that can come from diabetes besides free glucose meters.

Kayla

Feeling Good

Since my sugars are all over the map during the day I often wonder what it is like to just feel 'good' or if I feel 'good' what is my range?   Because even though doctors say that when your blood sugar is between 5-7 you are within a good target sometimes even though we are now at a 6 we previously an hour ago were at a 15, so that 6 doesn't feel 'good' rather we are experiencing headaches or grumpiness to get really medical.

There are some parts of the day that I feel better than others, but for the most part I wouldn't say that 100% of my day is spent on cloud 9.  Sometimes I just know that diabetes is causing my day to be full of drowsiness, cloudiness and overall crabbiness.   I know that everyone in the world has these days, but just relating back to diabetes is it possible to just feel great 100% of the time... is the only solution to watch our blood sugars 24/7 and make adjustments every minute?

I think this also links to how we feel doing daily tasks or even exams to be specific.   If we go into an exam at a 7 are we more likely to succeed instead of going in at a 12 or higher.   Sometimes the stress of having to do an exam can really take your diabetes control out of your hands.  

Either way it makes me wonder what feeling good (mentally/physically) is all about.

Kayla

University Bound

More and more I am starting to realize how different college is from university.  In college I had more time to get my things done and really I had more spare time than I knew what to do with. Now, I have spare time, but it is what I like to call illegal spare time - meaning I don't really have spare time and I should be doing something I just have chosen not to.

In college my professors for the most part were 100% approachable and this still stands except for the 100% part.  I have some professors that are approachable while others not so much. In fact some are terrifying and I would hate to be on their  bad side and I am hoping not-so-good marks doesn't put me on their bad side.


In college my multiple tests were pretty straight forward there was none of this "which one is the BEST answer"  we either know it or not, why do we need to be challenged on it? In the real world, if someone asks us a question the answer is not going to be hidden instead we will just go onto google and search it if we don't know the answer - so let's be more practical okay?

I guess the list of differences could go on and on and there are some advantages the other way around as well such as not having to have early classes if I choose not too!  But, really when it all boils down to it, University is really difficult compared to College for me.

What does this have anything to do with diabetes you ask?  Well, basically with University I have caused myself a little bit of unneeded stress.  Being a not so stressed person (because I know it's bad for me) I have tried my hardest to keep my focus and avoid stressful situations, but I have started to realize the biggest fact of all University = poor diabetes management.... just kidding I really am not going to blame University for diabetes related problems, but it's something to think about right?

I am curious to know if University students with diabetes have a  harder time dealing with their diabetes in comparison to other students of different academic levels or those who are in the work force?

Kayla

Talking Diabetes

One thing that I am highly educated on is diabetes.  Not so much the  medical side of diabetes, more so the everyday things that diabetes brings (stuff that no doctor or nurse could ever explain unless they in fact were diabetic themselves.)    The one good thing about being so knowledgeable about my diabetes and being very aware of what diabetes is all about is that when people ask me questions (because everyone asks me questions about my diabetes) I can give them clear, truthful and good answers.

More and more Vince has been asking about diabetes and we've actually had really good conversations revolving around diabetes.  He really does think about it on a different level than most people I talk to do. This could possibly because he spends a lot of time with me.  I don't think he fully understands it yet. I think that what would really be beneficial is to take him to a diabetes event and expose him to my million diabetic friends.

Talking about diabetes is obviously something that I do on a daily basis just like in my blog.  But, in everyday life I often stumble upon someone who wants to know about my diabetes or something to that nature.

One thing that Vince said last night  that stood out to me was along the lines of, "I guess I never really thought about how many things you need to think about or go through during the day living with diabetes.  Like you have to worry about going low or having a high blood sugar or just feeling crappy because of your blood sugars...a lot of people don't have to think about any of this..."

It's nice to know that despite feeling sometimes like we have a 'disease' and that we are 'different' from everyone else that the people around us and that love us know us for who we are no matter what the circumstance.  Although the non-diabetics around us will never truly know what it is like, we have to give them the biggest hug to let them know we appreciate them.  After all look at what we make them go through!

Kayla

Speedy Low Syndrome

I am not sure if this is a common side effect of going low, but for me it seems to be the highlight of all my lows. The feeling that I am in a rush and that everything in my life needs to be completed in a matter of seconds and one of the missions is to find food and not just any food, but the best food, the food you don't even have let's face it.

I feel like I am on speed and honestly I have never done speed so I am just assuming that it would have similar effects. It's like my body is going 100 kilometres an hour and despite psychologically knowing that I don't need to rush since there is no time limit on life in general I still want to do everything as fast as I can and everything that I am doing or trying to do is really unnecessary at the moment. I am going to go ahead and call it "The Speedy Low Syndrome" because we all know that no non-diabetic doctor knows what we are talking about and will then in turn never have a chance to give it a creative name like I just did.

To be honest, right now I am in currently feeling the Speedy Low Syndrome and it is really making me get this blog entry produced fairly quickly minus the fact that I am doing a whole slew of spelling errors and feeling 'frustrated' having to right click and find the correct spelling.  Another symptom of the Speedy Low Syndrome - bad grammar and spelling (please feel free to use this excuse next time your professor hands back a bad grade on your Essay due to spelling errors...)

I really do hope there are other diabetics out there that feel this rush and sense of anxiety when they are low.  Really my brain is going out of control, "I want chips, 1 or 2 handfuls, I want Marshmallows, I hope there is Marshmallows left, where is that chocolate? Ugh I wish I had chocolate. I am glad I am getting pizza tonight, but why does it have to be tonight why not now? I think it's a good time to count my money, oh wait I should write in my blog, oh! what's happening on Facebook? Oh my gosh, is that who I think it is? Wait, do I have chocolate milk? No, no, okay is my cellphone dead?"

I know that all the diabetics right now are probably nodding their head, someone has to be agreeing with me right now and for all the non diabetics that are reading this you probably are wondering how any diabetic that is low ever pulls through - but we do! Oh yes we do!


Kayla

Happiness

Today in Personality Psychology we discussed happiness.  Which really instantly made me think about my blog because not only does it project my happiness, but it makes others happy as well.  At the same time I received a Facebook wall post from a fellow diabetic friend that wrote: "I love reading your blog so much. You are such an awesome writer. Just thought I would let you know"  To me, that shows that what I am doing is not only making me happy, but making others happy as well.

Happiness comes in such a wide variety of forms and way to often we hear about people saying their ultimate happiness would be if they won the 5 million dollar jackpot. But we all know that with that we would have friends and long lost family coming out of nowhere to borrow your money and if you didn't share your money with the poor or donate to charitable causes you would be labeled. Either way I don't think the whole lottery thing would bring complete happiness, but I don't doubt that you would most definitely would be happy. 

For me, I find happiness around me every single day. I have horrible days of course, but there are simple things in life that make me happy. Like on Mondays when Vince picks me up from school or when someone compliments my shirt.  These little things that don't require me to buy a lottery ticket or get 100% on an impossible exam.

Despite having diabetes I have learned to adapt to my disease and more so make it apart of my life; rather than letting diabetes take over my life.   I have gotten used to sitting on a hard piece of plastic for three hours or digging through my backpack for the 'three amigos'   more or less I have made diabetes apart of my happiness.   I would never, ever say that I am ill or not well and with that I think that accepting diabetes as a part of me and not as a disease I have caught I can  gain so much happiness from just that. 

Kayla