Another year ticks by

On this day in 1982 I was admitted to hospital with a T1 diabetes diagnosis. Ever since I’ve been dependent on daily/continuous administration of insulin to live. Balanced of course with food, exercise, and all the other factors that affect us.

So today (Saturday) is my 39th diaversary!

Some people do struggle with the “Diaversary” concept: why should we celebrate the date we were diagnosed with a chronic (life-long in fact) disease? I tend to instead think of it from a different aspect. For years I didn’t note it at all, sometimes realising weeks later “Oh yeah, that rolled past.” But in recent years it’s become more notable for me, in a variety of ways.

Usually as a celebration of another year of thriving despite having diabetes. Diabetes does add extra complication to life: there are more factors I have to consider and manage, that without diabetes probably wouldn’t enter my headspace at all. Travelling with diabetes is just one example: even when simply heading out of the house I like to be conscious of my approximate blood glucose level and have some emergency food in my pocket.

The technology I write about on this site does take a lot of that mental load away, and I’m not living in fear of my health prospects or diabetes’ effects on my family. But life is still not the same as it would be if I didn’t have diabetes.

Irony-free zone

I can’t ignore the fact that I have diabetes, but choose to embrace it.

Yes there’s a picture of cake in this article. Yes it will have some sugar in it. But diabetes has rarely stopped me from enjoying food. It does sometimes affect my food choices and serving sizes, but has rarely taken something entirely off the menu.

Thanks to Dessy Dimcheva for the cake image.

Not alone

I’m grateful to be part of a wonderful society of people living with diabetes. Locally, and spread around the country and in fact the whole world in lots of intersecting communities. We each cope with our diabetes in the way we can, but we also support each other. My life is richer than it would otherwise be: I have many dear friends I wouldn’t know if not for diabetes.

One of the communities within the “DOC” (Diabetes Online Community) I participate in is #dedoc˚. This week I’ve been honoured to be one of the “#dedoc˚ voices” attending the 2021 EASD (European Association for the Study of Diabetes) conference alongside some of the healthcare professionals working in our field.

In fact in the wee hours of my diaversary I got to socialise online with friends from around the world at #docnight˚! It seemed rather fitting.