I’m fired up. Fired up about the health care system and helping people. The health care system is messed up. I don’t have the answers on how to fix it, but I do know that something needs to change. But I don’t want this to turn into a rant. I want this post to be about helping people.
When I, ...became, ...was diagnosed, ...turned, diabetic, I was scared. Nothing scares me. Ask my family. The stuff I do physically, the travels, the risks finacially, nothing. There is nothing to fear... Right? Why should we fear, really anything? But when I became diabetic, it scared the snot out of me. I was an adult, living by myself, no family, no wife or girlfriend, no kids, I was on my own. I didn’t have anyone to lean on, nowhere to turn. I did not have health insurance. I’ll repeat that, I didn’t have health insurance. I was on my way to work at a kid’s camp back East, I had quit my job, and had about 200 bucks in cash in my pocket. And now I had a disease. A permanent disease. Not a cold, or the flu, that I could get some generic Nyquil for, but something that killed people. And a disease that I didn’t know the faintest about. Diabetes.
And not only did I not know very much about it, but neither did the doctor’s office I went to. They treated me as a Type 2, or adult onset, diabetic. Because I was 31, I was an adult, I must be Type 2, right? Well, no.
But that’s not what I’m fired up about either. I’m fired up to help people, because people in a similar situation need help. They need information, they need a shoulder to lean on, they need a crew to be part of, they need a community to cry with. They, need us. And we need them. Because I was them. I was the person not long ago who desperately needed a shoulder to cry on and help me understand that this was not they end of the world. Boy, when I was sitting in that white, stark, doctor’s office, all by myself, a minute earlier I learned I had a potentially life-threatening disease, well, I was all alone. And I really needed this diabetic community that’s is around. It may have been around then, it just took me a while to find it, but find it eventually I did.
I finally met a girl who was diabetic (she was a lot of other things) and I learned from her. And I met her friends, diabetics around the world. Climbers, mt. bikers, skiers, ski mountaineers, trail runners, skate skiers, racers. All diabetic. It was awesome. They were doing the things I wanted to do, regardless of whether I was diabetic or not. This was incredible. I wanted to do it all. They traveled, they spoke different languages, they took pictures and made movies. They painted, they ate delicious food, and drank rich red wine. The raced in every sport you can imagine. And kicked some serious ■■■. They climbed the highest mountains in the world. They did it all, and I wanted to be part of that club.
This isn’t to say you have to be all those things if you have the ‘betes (although I try to be). This is to say that you can be. You can do, and you can be anything you want. You have to do it a little bit differently, but that’s OK. I always like to think I was specially chosen by a higher power, because He knew I could handle doing things a little differently. Yeah, you can do anything at all. It’s quite an empowering feeling, knowing that you have some serious muscle behind you, and with you, this diabetic community.
Some of the places I go to a lot, and people I look to for inspiration, and piece of mind. TuDiabetes. Six Until Me. Team Type 1. Type 1 Rider. Mad Idea/Friends in High Places. Triabetes. InsulinDependence.
I want to help. I want to inspire, push, prod, instigate and compel people to live. I want diabetics to know that they will get through this, and they will be better off for it. I am.
If you know someone, especially between 16 and 40, who was recently diagnosed with Type1, or Type2, diabetes, and they want info, they have questions, they need a shoulder, send ‘em my way. Call, email, tweet, Facebook, whatever. We’ll get through it together. Please pass this info along to wherever you like, or to whomever you see fit, they more that know about it, the better.