What's Big, Blue and Awesome? World Diabetes Day!

Good evening everyone!

I finally have an evening to relax and reflect on Diabetes Awareness month as well as the whirlwind of World Diabetes Day.  It was my very first Diabetes Awareness month.  I think about myself one year ago and I remember that I was already beginning to feel ill from what turned out to be Type 1 Diabetes.  How far I have come in just one year!  

November started off with a splash of tweets from all of my beetus buddies talking about The Big Blue Test, the artificial pancreas project, education and even blue hair dye.  Every time I would open up twitter a stream of diabetes topics would pour out.  It was wonderful to see such support for diabetes and we’re only halfway done the month.  Facebook friends shared gorgeous photographs of blue fountains and buildings lit with blue lights all over the world.  We are truly a global community.

The Big Blue Test is a special event that allows Diabetics as well as non-D folks to check their blood sugar and get as active as humanly possible.  By logging the results donations are made to help serve those who need it most.  The more active you are, the more times you can log and the more donations you can get.  Sounds like a win-win to me!  For more information about the Big Blue Test check it out!  http://www.bigbluetest.org/

So when my very first Big Blue Test arrived I wanted to greet it in style.  I painted my fingers and toes with an old shade of blue polish that I found deep in my makeup kit.  I seriously think the last time I wore it I was 12 years old!  I pulled on blue shorts, a blue tank top, my insulindependence t-shirt (it wasn’t blue but close enough) and a sweater.  I was a walking smurf ready to share the diabetes love with any poor unsuspecting soul I came in contact with.  I even decorated my window with a blue circle I got crafty with.  I used some ribbon and christmas lights and made a huge mess, but I'm a grown up so it was ok.  My ballet coaches were good sports as well as my physical therapist.  They took photos and tried to feed me their old halloween candy...which I may have used to treat a low or two!  

The best sports of all were my boyfriend and mom.  I made them honorary diabetics for the day.  They didn’t ask to be but come on, who wouldn’t want to be a diabetic right?  My boyfriend showed up on the dime covered in blue and I handed him my emergency test kit so he could check his own blood sugar as well.  We decided to go trail running as our activity.  The leaves were falling and crunching under our feet as we tried to race each other.  Turns out that both our blood sugars rose when we checked afterward!  His by 6 points, mine by 30.  All that adrenaline and excitement got the better of us but it was still a blast.  Adrenaline does this for me for ballet class and especially for performances.  As a matter of fact I rarely reduce my basal for ballet class.  That’s my only exception though.  Any other activity makes me drop like the jaws of diabetics when the FDA finally approves some cool technology for us.

The next evening I decided to make my Mom my next diabetic victim.  She pulled forth her blue wardrobe and we took my little doggie Max for a walk.  There wasn’t much blue I could dress him with besides my Bands4Life pump band so we went with that but he wasn’t too excited about it.  Sure enough our walk gave us a drop.  Well...ok, it gave mom a drop 8 points and I just stayed there at 93 but I’ll take it!  It was really interesting to see what the blood sugars of my non-D loved ones was and how they behaved in comparison to mine.  Brings us a little closer I think.

I have never felt so plugged in to my diabetes comrades.  We are all together in this fight.  I think next year I will try to attack even more loved ones and friends to become honorary diabetics for the day and have them join me on my quest to keep active.  After all you know what they say, “Fingers of a feather, bleed together”

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