Not a Word of a Lie: I'm Lucky to Have Diabetes.

Okay. I know that title might sound a bit weird to some, but it's the truth. I actually feel LUCKY TO HAVE DIABETES, and here's why.

I just came back from a snowy weekend in Haliburton, Ontario, which I spent with 42 other people living with Type 1 diabetes. This is the third year I've attended the Winter Slipstream put together by a most awesome organization: Connected in Motion. Basically, Winter Slipstream is a weekend long bonanza filled with everything from an Inuit blanket toss to playing a life-sized Diabetes Cranium...Diabetium to be specific!

A few other things that went down this weekend: sleeping in bunk beds, reaching way down and pulling out my inner musician while sitting in a drumming circle, learning what not to do while belaying someone on a high ropes course (sorry for dropping you Mike, won't happen again!), testing my blood sugar while snowshoeing (using the glucometre in mouth technique, thanks Michelle!), waking up unnaturally early, lots of high fiving, a night ski across the lake (final destination: campfire and hot chocolate) and a discussion of diabetes topics that taught me a truck load of interesting tidbits. All of these moments are fresh in my mind and I'm still high off of the fun and physical activity. In the forefront of all these moments are the many people that I shared my time with.

I got to spend my weekend with some old friends that I've met through past Connected in Motion events, as well as some new people who came out to see what Winter Slipstream is all about. Every time I walk into a room filled with friends and strangers alike, all of them with Type 1 diabetes, there's something that happens that's really hard to describe. I feel a mixture of nervousness and apprehension, sandwiched between comfort and familiarity. I can feel my walls coming down and my guard wavering. People usually tend to retreat when this happens, but in my case it's a bit different.

Instead of the impulse to retreat, I can physically feel a burden being lifted off my shoulders and disappearing into thin air. All of these people, the one's that share the same full-time job that I have, make me feel like I'm me. Wholly and completely, diabetes and all. I have something in common with these people, something that those without diabetes couldn't ever possibly understand, no matter how much they may know about the disease. I felt like I could be entirely comfortable in my own skin, every second of every minute of every hour over the weekend because I knew that every other person there was dealing with a non-functioning pancreas. All of us were testing our blood sugars a billion times a day, constantly monitoring our food and trying to count carbs, thinking about how much insulin to take throughout a physically active weekend, dealing with lows and highs, and trying to keep our pumps and glocometres from freezing in the cold winter air!

Every time I take part in a Connected in Motion event, my positive attitude is fed to the point of self combustion. I get so excited and pumped up to live my life; the wheels turn in my head at exponential speeds and I want to experience anything and everything that I can. Connected in Motion inspires me to take part in my life and to be open and accepting of new experiences. It makes me want to be around healthy and happy people that are challenging themselves physically and mentally, pushing their limits and living on the edge of their comfort zones. I aspire to be one of those people and I truly believe that I'm on my way there...or maybe I've already arrived. With the help and support of these fantastic people who live their lives every day with diabetes, I'm aspiring to be the best version of me that there is. Winter Slipstream gives me the annual dose of motivation that I need to become a better person. Without diabetes I would be going through life on cruise control. With diabetes my life is infused with colourful people and I'm challenged to reach for the best parts of what life has to offer.

Things Said and Done, Betes Style.

Being a person that has diabetes, I've discovered many things about myself that put me in a category of my own. These are a few things that I've experienced over the years that a non-diabetic would probably never see (or do) during their lifetime:

1) Watch your finger spray a line of blood across your best shirt (this is after taking a blood sugar of course, my fingers don't just spontaneously combust).

2) Chug a HUGE glass of water mixed with about a cup of sugar.

3) Out of nervousness, tell your skydiving teacher (just before jumping out of the plane) that you're diabetic and that your sugar may drop severely while in the air and expect him to be okay with it.

4) Eat everything in the fridge in the middle of the night due to a low blood sugar, while staying over at your friends parents' place.

5) Pee in your bed (and I mean really pee your bed, like a litre of pee) in the middle of the night due to a high blood sugar. I was 21 years old when this happened and my boyfriend at the time was sleeping soundly next to me. Let me tell you, it was mortifying.

6) Tell your dentist you have diabetes and that's probably the reason why you have a cavity (didn't get away with that one).

7) Use your diabetes to get out of an oral presentation in boarding school and then have to sleep in the infirmary for two days so the school nurse could keep an eye on you.

8) Argue with your university professor about his use of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes terms in front of everyone during a lecture. He was actually embarassed, and I felt bad...after the fact.

9) Become acutely aware of the amount of carbs in a banana, a pancake, a bowl of pasta, a slice of pineapple, a Starbucks hot chocolate, a cube of fudge (changes depending on size of said cube), anything really. I'm a whiz at carb counting yet I failed grade 9 math. It's still a mystery to me.

10) And last but not least, karate kick a co-workers chair while yelling "NO FOOD!?!?" after having run across the office to a department that usually has some snacks on their filing cabinet. It was very inappropriate and I got a few grumbles after doing that. Sometimes I get a bit aggressive and mouthy when my sugar is low.

All this to say that my diabetes has added a dash of colour to my life. 18 years of having diabetes can get tiresome at times but I keep on trekking and karate chopping, and I'm just fine. There are many more things that I've said or done while under the influence of too much insulin or too much sugar, but the ones listed are some of my favourites.

And for all of you non-diabetics out there: the next time you ask me if I'm going to go into a 'diabetic coma' right before I bite into a lovely piece of 'Death By Chocolate' cake, please watch yourselves. My sugar may be low right in that very moment and I won't be able to refrain from calling you a dolt and then eating my piece of cake, and yours too.

My insulin pump has been wrongly identified as a beeper among other things, on more than one occasion.