Every Monday morning my co-employees and managers gather in the conference room to review the week’s production schedule. Each Monday for the past year one person has been assigned to give a brief presentation on a topic of their choice. People have sung songs, recited poems, given slide shows of their recent trips or photography, lectured on a topic of interest to them, and all kinds of things. Today was my turn.
I decided to combine two of my favorite subjects - diabetes and geekdom.
I threw my pump on the table, opened up my meter case and fired up my CGM. I explained how the pump worked and why I used it. I described the function of the glucose meter and that I use it at least six times a day, that it ‘talks’ to my pump to help me calculate how much insulin to give myself. I showed them the nifty graph the CGM makes and explained the goal of linking the CGM with the pump in a closed system, and the holy grail - linking everything to my iPhone. (Angel chorus here.)
Then came the questions.
When did you get diabetes? How did you know? What were your symptoms? Is it true you can’t eat sugar?
Of course, I handled them all with grace and aplomb, and even more afterwards.
To think I’d been reticent about the whole idea (a little) the night before. Fool. I’m not going to be quiet and I’m not going to keep the discussion to my own private diabetes community. It’s time to give a shout out to my diabetic brethren and sistren (not a word, I know). And a shout out to me, too. And my pump and other gizmo’s.
It’s not that I feel like starting the Diabetes chapter of ACT UP, it’s that when someone asks or even notices I’m going to say 'Yup, I have diabetes. What do you want to know about it? Check out my cool pump. Hey, where you going?" Well, you get the idea.
I’ve always been comfortable with my diagnosis, and I don’t mind being Terry ‘he has diabetes, you know’. I’m coming out with a new T-shirt;
Diabetic And Proud
And Can’t Wait to Get Rid of it.
