I wish people knew that diabetes means that sometimes you’re in a full out war with your body before 9am.
I wish my co-workers knew that the pleasant smile I have on my face when walking through the door this morning is a mask. I wish they knew how hard it was to stay calm in traffic while sucking down a glucose gel pack, then checking my CGM every few moments, praying for my arrow to start trending up. I wish my co-workers knew how lucky they are to only have the worries and anxieties of work deadlines mulling around in their heads for the first portion of the day, while I’m still reeling from that unexplained low, and trying to pretend I can function like a normal person at my desk.
I wish people knew that diabetes means that sometimes you have to do a lot of pretending on those days when you FEEL SO DIABETIC you really cant focus on anything else.
Asha Agar Brown
[email protected]
Your post really rang a bell with me – on those occasional days when I’m rushing to get ready for work and then find my blood sugar is extremely low at the time I should be out the door, I have to stop, eat, check my blood sugar again to make sure it’s OK before I can walk to the station. I head off feeling like I just need to lie down and recover, rather than leave the house with a light head and a little confusion. Fortunately it’s a situation I can usually put right fairly quickly, though I then up up being unintentionally late for work as a result!
I’ve had type 1 since I was 9 and am now 37,
Kate,
Thank you so much for the comment. It makes me feel so much less alone to know that other T1Ds feel this way and that others have to deal with the awful feeling of trying to take care of our demanding chronic illness while at the same time being a “real person” with responsibilities. Somehow we always find a way to manage, but I hate those days where its just really hard and no one else gets it except for people like you 🙂