North Korea, Kim Il Sung, and Diabetes

About a month ago I spent four days in North Korea. I went with a friend on a quick long-weekend trip through Koryo Tours. It was an incredibly interesting experience and a unique glance into a place which is entirely different from anything we know.

One of the strangest experiences was the Kim Il Sung Mausoleum. In North Korea, Kim Il Sung is treated as nothing short of a deity. Every foreigner who goes to North Korea is required to go to his mausoleum and see his body. They tell you from the outset that if you have objections to that, you shouldn’t go to North Korea.

Before going to the Mausoleum, I checked my blood sugar: 200. So I gave myself a shot of 2 units of Humalog. My Dexcom sensor wasn’t working at the time. While I had candy, I later learned that at the Mausoleum, you are not allowed to bring anything in your pockets. So at the entrance, I had to turn over that candy as well as my diabetes kit. I could have discussed it with our guide (I was the first type 1 she had ever met) but didn’t want to deal with it. 

Little did I know, the walk to the actual Mausoleum was almost a mile. There is then a walking tour around the area for about 20 minutes. It was enough walking that I kept thinking about the insulin I gave myself when I was at 200 and was worried I might get low.  Without Dexcom, I wasn’t sure if I had already been falling when I gave myself the shot.  My worst-case scenario internal alarms started going off.  If my blood sugar fell too quickly, I wouldn’t know what to do: I had no sugar on me, there were soldiers all around, and doing anything other than quietly following the person in front of me seemed like a really bad idea. 

This fear peaked when we got to the actual body. The Mausoleum is a darkly lit room, with red floor lights, soldiers all around, and somber music playing.  Ahead of us, there were North Korean women weeping as they walked by and bowed to the body. All I could think about was my blood sugar. “Please NO hypoglycemic reactions.” I had a bit of a panic but couldn’t let anyone notice.

We finished seeing the body, and the tour continued through different exhibits.  Before long, we were walking back that long walkway.  About 15 minutes later we got back to where we could pick up our things. I checked my blood sugar and was still at 200.  All my fear had been for nothing.

The experience showed me that I have a sixth sense about knowing where I can get sugar is at any time if I need it.  Every now and then, if I don’t know what I would do if I got a hypoglycemic reaction, that sixth sense starts to panic. In North Korea, that moment was at Kim Il Sung’s Mausoleum.  While everything turned out ok, talking to my guide about keeping the sugar with me have probably would have been the best idea.   Even in North Korea, just like nearly everywhere I’ve been, people seem to be understanding when it comes to diabetes, and I’m sure she would have been able to help.

Outside the mausoleum

The Mass Games

Sam Gellman

After growing up in Wisconsin, Sam Gellman spent his junior year of high school in the Netherlands, about half way through the year he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He finished his year abroad, learning the ins and outs of diabetes in a combination of Dutch and English, which is now the Dutch vocabulary he remembers best. Sam spent his college years at Stanford, playing for the Stanford squash team during the year and leading bike trips in Canada in the summers. He spent six months of college in Chile, worked in Tahoe, and then got a job in finance in San Francisco, before moving with his job to Hong Kong in 2006. Now 29 and in his fifth year in Hong Kong, he spends his free time trying to learn Chinese and taking pictures.

Sam Gellman

After growing up in Wisconsin, Sam Gellman spent his junior year of high school in the Netherlands, about half way through the year he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He finished his year abroad, learning the ins and outs of diabetes in a combination of Dutch and English, which is now the Dutch vocabulary he remembers best. Sam spent his college years at Stanford, playing for the Stanford squash team during the year and leading bike trips in Canada in the summers. He spent six months of college in Chile, worked in Tahoe, and then got a job in finance in San Francisco, before moving with his job to Hong Kong in 2006. Now 29 and in his fifth year in Hong Kong, he spends his free time trying to learn Chinese and taking pictures.