Type-1 Diabetes: the 34-year diaversary
Katie Bartel’s type-1 diabetes turns 34 today. In this “diaversary” themed post, the registered dietitian takes time to reflect on the achievements she’s had with type-1 diabetes constantly at her side.
diaversary
Type-1 Diabetes: Year 32
Hello Diabetes, are you still there? Yep. Still here.
29 years: “Perfect storm for an eating disorder”
Apparently furniture is to be given for the 29th anniversary, but for me, all I got was guilt. There’s a part of me I am not fond of; a part of me that scares me; a part of me I’ve feared, hated, fought and succumbed to; a part of me I don’t like discussing much, but a part that is very much there – always. It is something I have lived with for 29 years. My relationship with food. The other day I was chatting with a pediatric dietitian who works with young diabetics at a local hospital, and so much of what she said to me resonated. We were talking about the different methods of treatment specifically with diet, post diagnosis. There’s the Nazi-like conventional method: no sweets, no treats, you best be perfect or you’ll die. And then there’s the flexible method: make it personal, make it healthy, do …
29 years: “Perfect storm for an eating disorder” Read More »
26 years of Dear Diabetes
About 30 years ago I had a dream. In my future, I wanted to be a doctor and an author. The author part was natural; I loved reading and I loved making up stories. But the doctor, well, that was the more the evil meanderings of a younger sister 😀 You see, my big sister Jules is nine years older than me, and back then (and sometimes still) she was always the boss! Jules, at the time, had great notions of becoming a nurse, and me, at just five or six years old, already knew doctor trumped nurse. Finally I’d be the boss. Mwahahaaaa! Fast forward a few years to the day I got diabetes. It didn’t take long to change my mind about wanting to become a doctor, what with the long hospital stays, trips to the ER, endless amounts of blood-sucking needle jabs. No thank you. Thanks for …
The silver diaversary
Twenty five years. Wow. That’s most definitely worthy of a Tiffany’s bracelet, don’t you think … say, one that looks like this 😀 I still remember it as though it were yesterday. It was my sister’s 18th birthday, and I was super excited for the black forest cake (her favourite) we’d surely be having later that day. What kid with a sweet tooth like mine wouldn’t be excited? But first, I had a doctor’s appointment. I’d been dealing with a nasty flu virus that just wouldn’t go away. Everyone else in my family had had the same virus, so my parents didn’t think much of it – at first – and given that I’d always been a sick kid, the fact it was taking me longer to overcome the flu nasties was no big deal – at first – but I was losing a lot of weight, I was skin-and-bones, …