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| Tracy Thomson www.tracythomson.com |
November is a bitter-sweet month for me. I am, at once, full of the spirit of advocacy and full of the knowing self-awareness that I have lived exactly six years with this disease. I look over my own body, as if taking inventory of its various parts. For a woman with a lot of freckles, this can sometimes border on hypochondria and paranoia. Ultimately, I suppose… I am scared of what may come, but I am also thankful that I am still healthy to enjoy friends and family, festivities and the occasional piece of leftover Halloween candy.
November is also like one of those Halloween ghost stories, for me – the ones where people claim an apparition repeats the same ‘ritual’ over and over again. The one where she again, clamors for awareness of her condition, and then remembers how her happy moment came tumbling down by that other moment that changed her fate – that moment of diagnosis.
November is also like one of those Halloween ghost stories, for me – the ones where people claim an apparition repeats the same ‘ritual’ over and over again. The one where she again, clamors for awareness of her condition, and then remembers how her happy moment came tumbling down by that other moment that changed her fate – that moment of diagnosis.
November 11th is my birthday.
November 14th is World Diabetes Awareness Day
November 17th is my diagnosis day.
So why is diabetes advocacy so important to me?
Hi Lizmari,
ReplyDeleteI just happen to have the same birthdate as you :-).
Thank you for your posts - I just discovered that you are writing regularly at T2D.com after not getting many posts in recent months. So I signed up, though I'm not sure I'll get your posts there - any info you can give me?
And while my chronic illness is not T2D (I have chronic fatigue) I have long been exploring the research in the fields of T1D and T2D as well as other chronic diseases (I look at the role of stress and trauma, not as psychological causes but as important underlying factors that affect risk and development).
I couldn't believe reading in your post above that doctors don't always believe you if you go to an office visit with good glucose control. Say wha? I find this is certainly true for many with CFS and have also been surprised to find it is true for many with rheumatoid arthritis if they have no visible symptom. Thanks for all your efforts and education about T2D. Keep up the good work.
Wishing you an early Happy Birthday.
I had also taken a wee bit of a break there, too. I don't think they send an email with specific posts from me, but will send an email with links to various posts written, and mine will be included.
DeleteI will strive to write a bit of a summary here, so people can see I am still writing. I don't to get as personal on that other site, because it tends to be a more formal place... but any time I want to get more down and dirty, or even cuss, I will choose my own blog. lol
But yeah... I have had that experience. Again and again I am grilled to prove that I have diabetes, and given a lot of 'are you sure?' remarks -- with patronizing condescension that I must be either exaggerating, or don't know what I have, or whatever. One of them even put 'mild diabetes' on my chart.
Stress is challenging to quantify -- but some things which are linked with stress definitely trigger type 2 diabetes, such as a lack of sleep, and mental health disorders (as well as medications for it.) Type 1 seems to have a myriad of potential triggers as well, particularly physical stressors.
Hey, thanks for the comment, and for being a loyal reader... and a Happy Birthday to you!
Thanks so much for your detailed reply Lizmari.
DeleteMay this week of anniversaries be kind to you.