Investigate.Inform. Inspire
October is my diagnosis month. At 14 years old, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just a few weeks before Halloween. I remember thinking, at least I’m too old for trick or treating. My younger sister had been diagnosed six months earlier, however, and at 10 years old, she still loved to trick or treat. To ease her pain, my parents got creative and
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Halloween is the beginning of what many see as the season of indulgence. Candy and costumes lead to turkey and trimmings, to presents and feasts, to binge drinking and late nights. How is a diabetic, or anyone else, supposed to navigate this wonderful, at times intimidating, celebratory season of family and friends? When I was a child, I had a pillowcase full of candy after
Read moreAt 88, Great Aunt Jokie is eight years into the disease that led to her mother’s premature death but still “young” by her siblings’ standards. Nine of her 13 brothers and sisters lived well into their 90s and two cracked the century mark. “I’ve got a long way to go to catch up,” says Jokie, the youngest, who hasn’t been called Josephine since sometime before World
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Sometimes I don’t feel like explaining myself. Sometimes I just want to eat a pastry in public in peace, without the “diabetes police” showing up and giving me their two cents. When that happens, I can usually handle it without my blood pressure rising. I politely explain to these well-meaning people that I’m perfectly in control of my diabetes and that as long as I
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