Humbled

Have you signed Dr. Frederick Banting's birthday card yet?

I did, first thing this morning. On the card (you'll see it when you click the link above to sign it) there's an area to write a personal message. I wrote, "Thanks to your work, I have an amazing teenager." 

Before Dr. Banting and Dr. Best made their discovery of insulin in 1921, people with Type 1 Diabetes died. Their bodies wasted away. It's humbling to consider.

In 2002, on a crisp December morning, we rushed my daughter to the hospital, and by mid-morning she was receiving insulin. She's now a thriving high school student who is looking forward to this weekend's school play, college in a couple of years, and a career in education.

Had she been born less than 100 years earlier, she simply would have died. Probably by Christmas, only a few days after we'd called the local doctor to stop by on his rounds to examine her.

I'm thankful to Dr. Banting, and his colleague, Dr. Best, for making insulin available so that my daughter can be alive. And I'm thankful for all of the discoveries and inventions that ensued, including modern synthetic insulins, increasingly accurate technology for glucose monitoring, and insulin-delivery tools that have come a long way from regularly boiling and sharpening the one syringe in the household.

Dr. Banting's birthday, now World Diabetes Day, helps put life with diabetes in perspective. There was no life with T1D before Dr. Banting. It's still a daily challenge, and the dangers aren't completely gone, but my daughter is here, and thriving. I couldn't be more grateful.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Banting.

A Test Strip Story for World Diabetes Day

 

"Hey look- it's a test strip. It's not the kind I use."

 

 

This is a zoomed-in shot, and cropped. The test strip was virtually hidden in the sidewalk crack at the busy amusement park. Yet it caught my daughter's eye.

 

Finding a test strip "in the wild" meant that another person with diabetes had been there.

Whose was it? Was its user still around? Did the blood sugar it recorded require a $4 soda from the snack stand or a break from the rides? Was the person local or travelling? Type 1 or Type 2? Newly diagnosed or an old pro? Comfortable with diabetes care on the run or not?

We had a distinct curiosity about, and sense of kinship with, whoever dropped that strip.

Other people with diabetes, even complete strangers, hold a special place in our hearts.

The same sense of connection fuels my interest in World Diabetes Day. There are millions of people around the globe living millions of very different kinds of diabetes lives. But they're all living them because Dr. Frederick Banting, born 126 years ago today, discovered and bottled insulin.

What, I wonder, are their struggles? Successes? Stories?

Do they think about being part of a global diabetes community, and if so does it give them the same sense of hope it gives us?

It's November...Diabetes Awareness Month! My plan for this month involves stories. Simple, everyday, real-life stories about living with diabetes. I plan to tell them here as narratives, like this one, just snippets of a day with diabetes, and I plan to tell them, or stories like them, more often in the 'real world' this month when friends ask, 'How's it going,' or relatives ask what I've been up to.  



 

 

Hope

It's blue circle day. The symbol was adopted in 2007 by the United Nations to represent worldwide unity in the fight against diabetes. Progress has been made since World Diabetes Day's inception, including better technology, increased awareness, and more organizations at work to help people with diabetes. Those building blocks of progress give me hope.

I even catch myself thinking about the end-game for this whole diabetes thing. It's quite possible that within the thus-far elusive 10 year window my daughter will be able to go about her business with little to no concern about diabetes. The advent of a true artificial pancreas now seems inevitable. Smart insulin and other pharmaceutical advances will make life simpler and safer for people with all types of diabetes. There are an increasing number of paths towards biological cure therapies. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I have hope for my child.

Yet for too many people that light is a mere glimmer, if they can see it at all. Parents are wondering how they'll afford the next vial of insulin. Children in third world countries are travelling hundreds of miles to diabetes clinics. Grandparents are choosing between food and prescriptions. Families are suffering physically and emotionally because they do not have access to even the most basic diabetes care: a knowledgeable physician, a glucometer with enough supplies, and the pharmaceuticals they need.

So for me the question becomes, what needs to happen so that all of us are really united in that blue circle of diabetes, so that all of us can have hope? I can't wrap my answer up in a tidy bow for you today, but I can tell you that there is no shortage of organizations at work on behalf of people with diabetes here in the US and around the world:

International Diabetes Federation

JDRF Advocacy

Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition

Diabetes Advocates

American Diabetes Association Advocacy


These organizations and many more (if I've left out one you feel passionately about, feel free to comment below) are finding ways to provide hope for those for whom diabetes is a hardship in ways many of us can only imagine. If World Diabetes Day Resolutions are a thing, then I resolve to find another way to be involved this year in advocating for the basic diabetes needs of all people with diabetes to be met. Everyone with diabetes deserves to have hope.

Hope

Saturday was World Diabetes Day. 

Our family took this picture and posted it on all of our respective social media accounts:



 

 

 

It stood out, it appeared, in contrast to the French flags and Eiffel towers populating our screens. I began to wonder...  Should I have dug up a family photo from our trip to Paris instead?  Should I have kept World Diabetes Day to myself in light of Friday night's terrorism?  Was I being selfish?

 

For two reasons, I decided to leave it:

 

World Diabetes Day is an international call to action to help people with diabetes, particularly those who cannot help themselves.  It's a call to find ways on all kinds of levels, from the United Nations to national governments, to towns, to non-profit organizations to individual actions to bring diabetes education, medication and care to everyone who needs it across the globe.  That didn't feel selfish at all.

 

And the message on our hands?  It seemed appropriate for both occasions and for many more.  In a world where terrorism is increasingly common and where hatred feels impossible to overcome, what more can we wish for the people being terrorized?  The same thing we wish for children who can't afford enough insulin or for places where people are dying all too soon from diabetes: Hope. 

 

 



WDD 2014: A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

That's it.

World Diabetes Day 2013

My daughter is excited about World Diabetes Day this year.   

She made postcards similar to the one above to send to 5 people around the country.  

She's wearing blue from head to toe (almost...she'd now like a pair of blue shoes).

Her second-ever instagram post went up last night.  She posted an image reading 'wear blue tomorrow for world diabetes day!'  

She scrolled through images tagged #WDD this morning, liking and sharing. She was excited to find so many and excited to post her own later this afternoon.

She's intrigued by the idea of buildings lit in blue tonight and other unique events to raise awareness around the globe.

She's planning to do the big blue test in gym.

She likes that there's a day set aside to spread the word about diabetes and why we need a cure.

I love that she wants to do all these things.  I love that she's not embarrassed to advocate for herself and the rest of the people in the world who live with diabetes.

May we learn from her example and find a way to raise awareness today, particularly beyond those who are already well aware of the challenges diabetes brings.

Sick Day Project

Yesterday was a sick day to recover from a cold.  So Ruby and Rufus came out 

to help us with a very important project:

We put together our cards for the World Diabetes Day postcard exchange.

The germs should die off in plenty of time to mail them.  Now if the glue would just dry in time too...

World Diabetes Day

Many of you already know that today, November 14th, is World Diabetes Day. 

But aside from wearing your blue and seeing an extra news piece about diabetes, what do you know about this occasion?

Why November 14th? 
It's Frederick Banting's birthday!  Mr. Banting, along with Charles Best, is credited with the discovery of insulin.  We're honoring his work.

Where is it commemorated? 
When we participate in World Diabetes day, we join with over 160 nations and territories.

Who sponsors it? 
The International Diabetes Foundation coordinates worldwide efforts for awareness.

Why the blue circle? 
It was adopted as the day's symbol in 2007 when the United Nations passed its World Diabetes Day Resolution.  The circle represents worldwide unity in the fight against diabetes.  The blue is both the color of the United Nations flag, and also represents the blue sky under which the worldwide diabetes community stands together.

How do people commemorate World Diabetes Day? 
Health fairs are held in places around the world, from Chicago to Ghana; Jordan to Peru. Schools and businesses hold poster contests, walks, and healthy living presentations.  Famous places previously lit in blue include portions of the Great Wall of China, the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, the CN tower in Toronto, and the statue of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. Human blue circles are formed. 

Perhaps most uniquely, there will be a horse jumping competition near Warsaw, Poland called 'together we overcome obstacles.'  Horses dressed in blue and white saddle pads with blue ribboned riders will compete while spectators are offered a wealth of diabetes information as well as free pony rides.  For so many reasons, I wish I could be there.

So What?
For those of us who live with diabetes in our homes, every day is diabetes day, and every day is a good opportunity to raise awareness.  Yet for me, it's encouraging to know that on this day there are people gathered across the globe raising awareness about diabetes.  The diabetes community goes beyond my personal relationships, beyond people I follow online, beyond those I encounter at the doctor's office.  The diabetes community is an enormous worldwide group of people.  We're all in this together.

All of the above information about World Diabetes Day and much more can be found on the International Diabetes Foundation website, including some really great photos blue monuments.

Blue Fridays!

It's Diabetes Awareness month.  One of the simplest things we can do is to wear blue every Friday, and also on World Diabetes Day, November 14th.

You can find out more about this initiative, and upload a picture of yourself wearing your blue, on the Blue Fridays Facebook Page.

Wearing blue creates the opportunity to initiate conversation about the issues diabetes poses in our lives.  It also creates a sense of solidarity. 

Wear your blue this month to show that we're all in this together.

Diabetes Art Day

The blue circle is the symbol for World Diabetes Day.

 

 

 

The logo was created in 2007 to mark the passage of the United Nations World Diabetes Day resolution.  It symbolizes the unity of all people of the world, under one blue sky, to conquer diabetes.

 

This art was created by my daughter with cardboard, marker,crayon and test strips for:



http://www.diabetesartday.com/