Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Meet-ups.

There's something delightful and familiar about meeting someone else with T1 for the first time.  On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting up with fellow T1 and erstwhile diabetes blogger Kay while she was in town for the football game.  My husband and I joined her and her friend downtown, as they were on their way to pick up their tickets. 

Is it just me, or are people with diabetes some of the most friendly and awesome people on earth? 

Kay and Kim.
We walked around UNL's campus for about an hour or so, and never ran out of things to talk about.  Kay brought up, and I totally agreed, that there always seems to be a sense of familiarity among T1's; even if you've just met, you feel as though you've known the person for some time.  There seems to be an undercurrent of understanding among us.

We talked about her insulin pump scare the day before; how others are never as excited about the straight line on our Dexcom graphs as we are; what our favorite flavor of glucose tabs are (fruit punch for me; grape for Kay); her meet-up with Lorraine in NY, and my meet-up with the TCOYD Des Moines folks in September.

We also discussed another point.  As I get to know more and more PWDs, I find that there is a segment of the population who seem to have it all "figured out" - or, at least they sure make it seem that way.  They do the same thing every day, and get the same results.  I asked Kay, "Is it like that for you?  Because most of the time, I feel like the numbers have the lead, and I'm just chasing after them, not the other way around.  I mean, everything works sometimes, but it's definitely not all the time."  It's as if my whole regimen has to be rehauled every few months, because what worked before just doesn't anymore.  While I am so happy for others who have an A1C significantly lower than mine, or who don't experience the fluctuations I do, some part of me feels a little bit left out.  Knowing that others deal with this too gives me some encouragement and motivation to keep at it.

It was a pleasure meeting you, Kay!  (And Go Big Red!)

5 comments:

  1. Horray for d-blogger meetups! I love seeing people's digital relationships manifest into in-person ones.

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  2. Great to see that you were able to meet IRL. Speaking as someone who's had D for a long time, I do not have it all figured out. Some of my challenges are due to a warped relationship with food - similar to what Scott Johnson recently described on his blog.

    You may find the book Think Like a Pancreas helps in improving your control.

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  3. Thanks, Bernard! That one's been on my "I Should Get Around To Reading That" list for quite a while. Maybe I should move it to the top. :)

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  4. It was absolutely WONDERFUL to meet you! We must meet up again.

    One of my favorite parts of our meeting was when I was talking to my brother and he didn't have any plan or time frame for the next couple of hours. Then I said, "Ugh, I always like to have a plan and this is not working for me right now!" Then you and your hubby just started laughing and I think he chuckled and said, "We don't know what that's like at all." Haha, we just had so much in common right away!

    What a great day and a great game!

    Unrelated: I kind of lost my voice after that third quarter goal line stop. It's just now almost back to normal. Haha. :)

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  5. Sounds like another great D-Meetup...! Of course, aren't they all?!?! I think so. As someone who's been my own pancreas for a little bit (26 years), I'm certainly not someone who has anything figured out. Once a while, the stars align... If I'm lucky, I might notice - but that happens about as often as Halley's Coment strolls by and lets me get a glimpse. I'd love to be in the 6 or under range for A1c, but fail miserably on that note (now hovering at 7.8. Anyhow, thanks for the wrapup and looking forward to hearing of more D-Meetups!

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