It’s Diabetes Blog Week thanks to Bitter~Sweet Diabetes. This week, over 150 diabetes bloggers from all over the world are taking part and sharing stories about their lives with diabetes. This is the second year I’ve participated and I can’t wait to read what everyone else is up to. So, here we go with Friday‘s topic……
I’m afraid that I have no desire to swap type 1 diabetes for another chronic health condition. I’m not interested in starting all over again and becoming an expert in something I had no real desire to learn about in the first place. ‘At least it’s not cancer,’ I’ve had people tell me in an excellent example of apple/orange comparison. I’m sorry, but I don’t like the idea that one condition is a consolation prize. Diabetes certainly may be a manageable condition but, unless a transplant is involved, there is no opportunity for remission. It’s also a condition that doesn’t understand the concept of taking a break or letting up on the care required to look after it as best I can.
For me, the silver lining in this whole diabetes palaver has always been the people I’ve met.
The DOC has been an amazing source of support– there is never a time of day when I can’t log onto something and find another PWD up and ready to shout out a word of encouragement. There have been many times a middle-of-the-night low has been accompanied by someone from the other side of the world chatting away and then checking in on me. Feeling alone when you join the DOC family is impossible.
One recurring theme in the DOC is annoyance aimed at people who don’t get what we’re going through and those who say stupid things. I see this again and again and it is one of the reasons that I am a lot more careful about what I say to people I know, or meet for the first time who are living with a different medical condition to mine. I have no idea what someone living with a condition like Parkinson’s or cystic fibrosis goes through, so it would be ignorant of me to think I could understand and start offering advice on how they could better manage. I like to think that I am far more sensitive to the sensibilities of living with a chronic health condition and while I will never say ‘I know what you’re going through’, I can appreciate the frustration of having to consider your health at times when you would rather just be enjoying a cupcake.
I do wonder if my approach to other people with health conditions is because of my personal experiences or just plain common sense and good manners. The things people say are sometimes insensitive, thoughtless and plain stupid. But you know, you can’t cure stupid; which is certainly one chronic condition that I wouldn’t trade diabetes for.
Follow Diabetes Blog Week on Twitter by searching the #DBlogWeek tag.
Diabetogenic 
1 comment
Comments feed for this article
May 18, 2013 at 8:48 am
Julie McCalpin
“There have been many times a middle-of-the-night low has been accompanied by someone from the other side of the world chatting away and then checking in on me. Feeling alone when you join the DOC family is impossible.”
I’m not the PWD, it’s my husband (14 years) and my daughter (2 months). But I have only really joined the DOC since the advent of my daughter’s dx. I too have found that when I’m awake at night responding to an alarm on her Dexcom, or just doing a midnight check, or perhaps just trying to stay awake to do the midnight check before I go to bed, there is always someone out there to talk to.
I think there are two sides to the sensitivity issue. I’ve had some people say some insensitive things, but I try not to hold it against them. If I look beneath their insensitive ignorance, there is usually well meaning good intentions under the surface, and I do try to give them the benefit of the doubt. That’s when I take a moment to explain, rather than just leave the ignorance. My little daughter is also beginning to explain to her friends what’s going on with her, and in doing so, those friends will go into the world understanding just a little bit better.
LikeLike