Humor, with a side of blood

At age 14, within the first 6 months of being diagnosed, I made a "Top Ten list of things to NEVER tell a diabetic." At the risk of embarrassment, I hesitate to disclose that I am not sure where this original list can be found. See, it was saved on ummm...a disk. A floppy  floppy disk, not even a 3 1/2 inch floppy disk. On an Apple II GS computer with a program called "Bank Street Writer" You can start laughing now; I don't mind. Think of all the character building experiences us "old skool" folks have had before the modern conveniences of flash drives, high speed internet, and email.

At any rate, the things on the list included something like the following:

*You can't eat that!
*My great aunt Bertha had diabetes and she had both legs amputated and went blind.
*If I get some of your blood on me, would I get diabetes too?
*You must have eaten a lot of sugar to get diabetes so young!
*You're low! Let me bring you some Diet Soda really quick.
*Sometimes I wish I had diabetes because I want more attention
*Do you have the really bad kind of diabetes?
*Oh, my doctor said i have "just a touch" of diabetes
 *Oh no! Your blood sugar is 100! That is so high!
* I know how you feel, I have had a cold last month and it is miserable to be sick all the time.

The list brought a lot of laughs to a lot of diabetics (or at least a lot of polite people humoring me), and I think making the list helped me process and positively handle some of the stinky aspects of diabetes management. If, for example, I had a negative experience at school with the nurse, I thought "Ooohh...that one is TOTALLY making the list."

Recently, on a popular social networking site (perhaps you have heard of "Facebook"?)  I stumbled across an amazingly awesome thing called "Type 1 diabetes memes." It is full of witticisms, caption contests, and photos that celebrate the culture of IDDM. So, a shameless plug from someone who has absolutely nothing to gain from the recommendation. If you are on FB, have a sense of humor, are a type I or have a close family/friend with type 1, check it out. It is great to find not only funny bits about IDDM, but find a bunch of people who are in your proverbial shoes.

Laughter is the best medicine, right? I find it much more useful than my insulin pump. ;)