Diabetes, Like a Boss

“How’s it going? All right? Up or down?”

This was the question posed to me over the weekend, by one of my well meaning great Aunts. Her husband, who is my great uncle, lives with type 2.

“I need to have insulin injections for most of the foods that I eat,” I began to explain. “Every food is different…”

I began to stumble here, thinking of examples that I could use to explain this. Bread? Pasta? Juice? I hate this question, because there’s never an easy answer.

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I looked at the empty chocolate wrapper I was folding in my hands, and then over to the spread on the table.

All of a sudden, the words just came to me. They flowed, ever so easily.

“The dried fruit will bring my blood sugars up quite quickly, whereas the chocolate will bring my blood sugars up a lot slower” I said, using some of the famous old Italian hand gestures. “But the nuts won’t have much of an effect on my levels at all.”

“So, with the chocolate I might take an injection after the meal, whereas with the fruit I would have an injection straight away. Over time, I’ve gotten a pretty good idea of what different foods that I eat will do to my levels.”

I struggle to explain my diabetes to others. It’s so complicated. There are so many different factors. I often find myself lost for words whenever people ask me.

Yet I surprised myself in that moment, where the words came to me ever so easily. I managed to explain diabetes, like a boss. In that moment, I felt like I owned my diabetes and not the other way round.

And it felt so damn good. Happy hump day!

One Comment

  1. Well done Frank; these days i just say it like it is, if people get offended or don’t get it, then as far as i am concerned it is there problem. After many years i just decided i wasn’t going to get stressed over other peoples ignorance, being outrageously outspoken has got me into hot water but i have yet to be proven wrong about “other people” having the problem of ignorance. When diabetics stop thinking they have to come up to some standard and start realising it is what works for you and you don’t need to prove or explain yourself or justify anything, this is when you really get your confidence and freedom rather then this hype about diabetics needing psychological interventions, the norms need education.

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