Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Are you in the cool kids club?


I think it’s because I grew up at a diabetes camp that I think of diabetes as just a part of life. Summer time to me included glucose tabs and stale nabs in a fanny pack, as much as swimming and hotdogs. It’s just the way it was. I’ve ever hid it nor been ashamed or embarrassed by having diabetes. It’s just like the fact that I am right handed, to me. I always say that I have a disproportionate number of friends with diabetes. And I guess I am egocentric enough to think that everyone is like that as well. Why would you spend the energy to hate and loathe something that in the end, you can’t make go away. You can try and pretend that you’re left handed, but eventually you realize, that it’s more effort than if you just went with the flow.

I tend to snicker and mumble something that is not appropriate when I tell people that I have diabetes and they respond with something like “oh my cousin’s sister had a dog that convulsed in the living room because of that” We all have had to live through those wretched tales of people dying and losing various appendages to this disease. Or when someone says, oh, Bill Smith in Ohio has diabetes, do you know him? Oh ya, I’ll look him up in the secret diabetes directory. I mean honestly people… it drives me crazy.

That’s why it strikes me funny that every time I see an insulin pump or a medic alert bracelet I get this little rush. Like an excited 4 year old, I often will walk up to total strangers and say, hey, I have a minimed too… like we are all part of the special cool kids club. Maybe the OC IS like a secret yellow pages directory.

The woman that taught Ryan and I to dance for our wedding had a pump. I always assumed that if I can see it, you don’t mind answering questions about it. So I asked, how do you like the pump? The woman looked at me like I had 4 heads and was less than interested in talking about the pump, diabetes or anything of the sort. I quickly explained all about having diabetes for 24 years and how I was thinking of going on again etc…. I really was surprised at her reaction. Isn’t a pump on your waist band a secret decoder ring to invite you into the club? Is it too bold for me to assume that everyone is as interested in other people with diabetes as I am?

I think that’s why every day at work I sneak a few moments to check in on you all in my secret club. To make sure that everyone else is keeping on keepin’ on. Somehow it makes it easier for me to remember that I can only do the best that I can.

I admit that I miss those days at camp. When sitting out for a few minutes as you wait for your bood sugar to come up was totally normal. Making designs with lancet caps and syringe tops was a sign of status and creativity. Where there was a deep unstated understanding of all that you have to do everyday to make diabetes look easy on the surface. It still gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to think about it. I love that I can get some of that virtual support everyday that is just a few mouse clicks away.

So my secret cool kids friend, today’s password is: combo-bolous…. I’ll meet you at the tree fort after school.

11 Comments:

Blogger Not Your Type 1 said...

I really liked this post. The last time I flew the person I was sitting beside looked over while I was bolusing and said hey, we have the same pump. She then pulled her pump out of her pocket and we talked diabetes all the way from Dallas to Mexico. It is nice to meet people that are part of the secret club!

1:01 PM  
Blogger floreksa said...

Oh, ya...If your pump is in plain view, I will beeline right to you and start asking questions.

I love our secret club and am always on the lookout for new members.

1:14 PM  
Blogger Lyrehca said...

I love talking to people about their pumps--had a long chat with a cop on Nantucket one summer because of our shared 508s. The Club rules!

1:42 PM  
Blogger George said...

I am on the lookout for Fellow pumpers all the time. I love the club!

2:06 PM  
Blogger Fred (Nic) said...

It is sooo nice to know that I am not the only one who gets excited by pumps and medic-alerts. I always want to run up and say "Oh, oh!!!! I have a pump too!!!" It makes me soooo excited.

So glad to be a member of this club! It's an honor.

2:42 PM  
Blogger Erica said...

LOL about the 'secret diabetes directory'!

I've only seen one person with a pump - we were driving in OC NJ & saw a teenage girl riding her bike down the street. She had it clipped to the back of her shorts. I got so excited too and pointed it out to my friend who was driving. Needless to say, she just didn't get it.

2:50 PM  
Blogger Lili said...

Just before I got my pump, I saw a pumper at a restaurant at the table next to us. Since I don't see many I was excited, but when she saw me getting out a syringe, she made a face, made a somewhat rude remark that could have been about me to her friend, and left the table abruptly. It was kind of odd. I want to believe in the secret club, too!

3:41 PM  
Blogger Christine said...

I love this post! I totally can relate. One of my friends is also a pumper. We'll be talking about something totally unrelated, then get coffee and be like, "1.2?," of course we know the other is talking about how much to bolus. It's like our secret language. I met her because I saw her pump clipped to her pocket at school.

I also consider pump visible: open to talking, tubing trailing out of pocket: not open to talking. I've met a person who hid his pump but couldn't wait to tell me the benefits of pumping before though, and I remember one person who was surprised I dared to mention the pump who's was visible. So go figure. I feel like I know a lot of pumpers now though.

4:27 PM  
Blogger Kassie said...

This is an excellent post :)

I have been lulled into a false sense of comraderie by other PWDs - a mom testing at a restaurant, a woman next to me at the checkout. I much prefer the four year old family weekender who spotted my medic alert bracelet and cuddled up next to me in recognition of something in common.

Now all we need is a handshake...

6:23 PM  
Blogger Shannon said...

We were at my nephew's birthday party when there was a boy with type 1 there. Jeff and I were so excited to talk to his mom about it...sort of commiserate and trade notes. She couldn't get further away from us and made a point to leave whatever room she was in when we entered.

I thought it odd that she didn't want to talk and relate.

I guess as a parent, I belong to an offshoot of the club :)

9:05 AM  
Blogger Scott K. Johnson said...

Great post Caren!

I think it's one of those things where so many of us are very open about it, and others are very private about it.

I think we need a ring, like the dude in the picture. That way, if you see the ring, you know it's cool to approach and chat!

That, or maybe some type of semi-discrete hand signal...

:-)

3:44 AM  

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