What does National Diabetes Awareness Month mean to you?

National Diabetes Awareness Month to me means helping the rest of the world understand my disease.  There are so many misconceptions and so much incorrect information out there.  As a Diabetic my hope is to help get the correct information out there for the general public.

• I have type 1 Diabetes and that means my pancreas doesn't work and never will again without a cure.  
• The treatment for type 1 Diabetes is insulin.  I will die without insulin from a bottle.
• Insulin has to be bought with a prescription from a doctor. 
• You cannot buy Humalog or Novolog insulin without seeing a doctor.  Humalog is what is in my insulin pump.
• Without insurance coverage this insulin is VERY expensive and currently the manufacturer programs to help the uninsured also have income guidelines and these guidelines still leave a lot of people unable to afford their insulin.
• Type 1 Diabetes is not curable.  Websites are constantly spewing cures for Diabetes.  No supplement, Diet or anything else will cure me. 
• Taking insulin and being Diabetic means that my blood sugar levels fluctuate and these fluctuations cause damage to my body and its internal parts.  Kind of like running an engine with too little oil, it does damage over time.
• High blood sugar levels can lead to complications later on in life and some of these complications may come even with good control of your blood sugar.
• Low blood sugar can lead to seizures, coma and death.
• We were not meant to do the work our pancreas does, it is not an exact science.
• Diabetes is different for every single person, there is no one size fits all treatment plan available.  I cannot pick the plan I want out of a book and stick to it and expect it to work. 
• Endocrinologist (the specialists we see for Diabetes) are not all created equal.  I have seen as Endo that used a plan based out of the 50's, I have seen an Endo fresh out of college and wanted me to be perfect (which is not possible) and I have seen an Endo that tried to give me advice on my own life and health and yet was 100 pounds over weight.  
• I wish that it wasn't so HARD to find a good doctor.
• Diabetes is hard, we cannot do or make any decisions without first thinking of our Diabetes and controlling it. 
• Diabetes is a job we didn't apply for and don't get vacations from.
• Diabetes is on our minds 24/7 365 days per year.
• Checking our blood sugar is not fun, we do not enjoy poking our fingers with needles.
• Type 1 Diabetes is not brought on or caused by the person enduring it, it happens because our bodies killed off the cell that make insulin in our pancreas. 
• I didnt eat too much sugar as a kid.
• We check our blood sugar by poking our finger and this number that pops up on our screen of our blood glucose meter is the amount of glucose in our blood stream. 
• LOW BLOOD SUGAR MEANS WE NEED FOOD 
• HIGH BLOOD SUGAR MEANS WE NEED TO TAKE MORE INSULIN
• When someone with Diabetes says they need something with sugar, they mean right now not in 5 minutes.