That is the first line of Andie Dominick’s 1998 memoir, also titled Needles, on growing up with type one diabetes. I read it when I was sixteen,…
Category: Personal
Since September of 1986, when I was seven, I have been living with type 1 diabetes. Day one of diabetes is mostly a blur for me, but I remember that…
Life – particularly with diabetes on board – is a series of choices. Looking back on the 20 years of my daughter Lauren’s diabetes, I can see that how…
Asking what a clear liquid smells like sounds like an oxymoron, although it makes sense. Of course I’m talking about insulin, which was discovered…
The theory in my family is that my pancreas had been dying a slow death for fifteen years. A cow’s milk-related allergy (so the family lore unfurled)…
I adopted my first dog, a scruffy 10-pound terrier mix named Frankie, when I was an adult and fairly clueless about all things canine. I wasn’t really…
Living with diabetes is stressful, frustrating and exhausting, and my general response to people who encourage me to find the bright side of diabetes is to want to slap them. Nonetheless, while I’d take a successful pancreas transplant in a heartbeat, there are certain benefits that diabetes can provide.
There’s another kind of auntie our world needs: this one’s bond with the person comes not from blood, but from blood sugar. This auntie’s advice, compassion, and care comes not from knowing what it means to live with diabetes or care for someone with diabetes.
Although I was diagnosed three years ago, and Jack three months ago, neither of us has taken a speck of insulin. Having Type 1 diabetes but not needing to take insulin is weird. It is nothing to complain about, but it doesn’t make sense in most doctors’ offices, or spark joy among other people with diabetes.
I called my friend Anne from the ER. “Lauren’s in the hospital,” I said. “She was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. And I’m wicked scared.”
Anne is my friend and neighbor. We met pushing baby carriages down the street. While I’m a loud (sometimes overbearing) extrovert, Anne is calm and reserved. I was thrilled she wanted to be friends with me.