Connections

I had a different post planned for today, but after receiving a comment on one of my other posts I felt this was a better topic. I hope this helps a few diabetics out there as well as informs everyone else about what it can be like when you're the token diabetic kid.

When I was diagnosed with t1d, I went to a school that had no other diabetics.  None.

Now that's changed over the years and the current group have a fairly strong support network, but I didn't.  Many things were a battle, like getting exam provisions and understanding from teachers.  But all that aside, I had an overwhelming sense of loneliness.  

Those closest to you alleviate it to some extent, but they can't know exactly what it's like, because they have a fully functioning pancreas! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they have a pancreas that does as it's told, but it gets a bit lonely.

You look around at school, in the shops, anywhere and see people eating without a thought of how many carbs were in their food. Running to catch a train without a thought of "I've got to check my level". Carrying a tiny bag because they don't have to carry around diabetes supplies. Your friends can sometimes make ill informed comments, some very hurtful though they weren't intended to be so.

But then I went on diabetes camp to Queensland, and I met some amazing people. A lot of these people had lived with diabetes for a very long time, others were new to it like me. We stayed in the same room and were comparing low blood sugar stories, discussing benefits of the pump, guiltily hiding massive toblerone packets in the middle of the night because we knew they'd cause suspicion when our blood sugars were tested by the diabetes educators. Soon camp was over, and the loneliness returned a little, but then came along the blog world. 

Diabetics like to blog.
A lot.
I'm not too unique here, there's a lot of blogs.

But they can provide a sense of comfort. Reading about someones bad blood sugar day can comfort you when you have one.  When they complain about carrying diabetes supplies like a walking pharmacy, you can identify with it! 

To the non diabetics out there, that doesn't mean we don't love you, and don't appreciate everything you do to try and normalise our diabetes and make us feel better. It's just sometimes you want to talk in diabetes speak (my next post is a diabetes to english translation table) and your non-betic friends and family can't understand. They want to! But sometimes they can't. 

I hope my blog can be your little space of understanding if there's no diabetics around. But give your friends and family a chance, they might surprise you with how much they DO know about living with type 1!