D Blog Day
Scott Benner
Today is D-Blog Day and this is my addition to the blog topic that everyone is writing about...
Topic: Six Things You Want People to Know About Diabetes.
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1. Everything
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2. See Above
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3. See number one
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4. Refer to number two
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5. and on
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6. and on...
I want (rather wish) that everyone knew everything about diabetes even though I realize that isn’t possible. Heck in a world where I can’t trust that everyone knows how to merge into traffic, walk on the right side of the grocery isle and not spit on a sidewalk, asking to be as immersed in this world as we are is, of course, ridiculous - doesn’t mean that I don’t wish that it was possible.
If you read this site you know that it has a few goals; pass on what we’ve learned, be a friend to those in doubt, raise money and awareness by supporting the JDRF but mostly I want to bring transparency to type I diabetes - it’s my way of sharing 6,000,000 things that I wish people knew about diabetes.
In my mind there are a ton of D-Bloggers making these lists today and they will all likely make them better then I could. So I want to take this opportunity to say this...
I don’t feel as though I have the right to be disappointed when a stranger asks Arden if she, “should be eating that”, angry at the school lunch lady that referred to the rest of the student body as, “the regular kids” or expect the Superintendent of our school district to be completely versed on type I the day he meets us. It’s just not reasonable to expect. My best friend (when I was younger) had type I and I quickly realized when Arden was diagnosed that I didn’t understand diabetes half as much as I thought I did. I wondered why I didn’t know more and soon realized it was because he didn’t want me to. All of this is not to say that I can’t hope that the people in our lives will take an interest but trying to “teach’ them is a plain waste of time, I’d rather show them. I treat diabetes education the same as parenting - I teach by example.
We test in public, speak openly to anyone that is interested and generally just don’t hide any aspect of this disease. What I’ve seen is that people start to catch on when they are exposed a few times. That exposure builds interest, the interest spurs understanding and just like that I’ve created an advocate for Arden (and hopefully your children too). Moreover, the exposure creates another person with the knowledge of how to fight a low blood glucose, choose a healthy meal, look for signs and symptoms and all of the rest of the stuff that comes with having diabetes.
That’s all I have - be transparent even if it’s embarrassing, even if it breeds “stupid” questions. You never know, one day Arden may need help and one of the people that this fantastic community touches may be there to lend a hand.
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I'm really grateful that you took the time to read my post. I understand your reaction and I'm glad that you are reconsidering it. I've had it myself in the past but it's so emotionally based that it does no one any good. Best of luck to you and your daughter!
Thanks for the D-Day post today!