Days Are Getting Shorter, Climbs Are Getting Longer

Summer has just begun in Seattle.  No, really.  There was a depressing article written about how there had been very few days of summer “so far” in 2011 and that article was written in mid-July.  It is fair, then, to say that the last two weekends–which I have not taken for granted!–have been some of the first actual full days of summer in Seattle.  And now it’s Labor Day, which means summer is over.

Do not lose hope!  Everyone loves fall!  I, however, would love for the summer sun to stay just a few weeks longer (and by “few” I mean “few thousand”).

When I went climbing with Karmel a few weeks ago, before summer had really begun, I was struggling with V-1 problems and couldn’t get my hands to stick to the wall.  The long, sunny days we’ve had here recently have persuaded me to give up my indoor swimming and running for almost-outdoor climbing.  It’s amazing how adding just a few more sessions of climbing in the last month has helped me get back to where I was in the spring, before I gave up the climbing work-outs to focus on training for my upcoming triathlon.

Here is my favorite problem in the whole gym:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VewH839yZyk[/youtube]

And here’s my new favorite V-2:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nmWV36_MXc[/youtube]

You’re waiting for the diabetes relevance, aren’t you?  Well, here’s the thing:  in the past few weeks, amidst all these climbing victories, I have had a few diabetes victories, too.  For one, I learned how to give myself injections in the back of my arm, something I had never learned in the first 18 months of injecting.  Also, I went out on the town without my meter; another “first” for yours truly.  And, lastly, I checked off scheduling my next endocrinologist appointment.  To the outsider, these things seem small and unimportant.  To me, though, they are the steps we take that allow us to continue to climb on.  There are no unimportant parts of my diabetes care; every aspect of my life is affected by diabetes and, therefore, every thing I do to take care of myself matters.  I have often equated my diabetes journey with climbing, and these parallel experiences confirm it.

Climb on, everybody.  The days aren’t getting any longer.

Emily Patton

Emily Patton is one of those not-diagnosed-until-age-27 people with Type I. She is currently living in Seattle, Washington, where she admires Mt. Rainier from her car window during daily commutes. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio, but has since lived in Berkeley, California, Austin, Texas, and even served short stints in a small village in the Cascade Mountains.