The common thread . . . .

Tuesday evening we held our second Adult T1 Outreach event with my local JDRF chapter.  The gathering was a bit smaller than our first event - probably due to summer schedules and rainy weather - but we had a nice sized group of ten.  Once everyone arrived and settled in we went around the table and introduced ourselves.  We shared how long we’d been living with diabetes and what d-stuff we use.

We were quite a varied group.  Diagnosis ranged from about 2 years ago to over 50 years ago.  We had Animas, Minimed and Cosmo pumpers, along with MDI-ers.  We had Dexcom and Minimed CGMers.  We had Accu-Chek, Freestyle and OneTouch meter users.  It made for some great conversations.  We all talked about the pros and cons of whichever d-equipment we each use.  It was interesting to see how things some considered an important pro were not of much consequence to others of us.  And some features (or lack of) that people hated, others didn’t mind.  It really comes down to figuring out what is important to you and what works best with your lifestyle.  Personally, I’m less concerned about a meter taking the smallest blood sample needed and more concerned with the convenience of my meter being all-in-one.  It would be nice if my pump was waterproof, but since I don’t do much swimming I’m happy to trade that benefit for the convenience of having my CGM read right on the pump.  It was pretty cool to hear the reasons why others love the d-equipment they use and to compare and contrast our choices.

As I drove home that night, I thought about everything we discussed and I realized it wasn’t our differences that were foremost in my mind.  Instead it was our common thread.  I thought about my conversation with the woman next to me, diagnosed about five years ago, and how she said she sometimes wished she could just eat the same thing every day.  And how relieved she was hearing about the time my endo reminded me that I can’t shoot for “perfect all the time” blood sugars because that will never happen.  I thought about one of the ladies, who like me has been living with diabetes for over 30 years, saying something along the lines of “I really feel like it's just constantly trying to figure things out - I'm adjusting and reacting on a daily basis”.  Those words really stuck with me.  Because our common thread was this:

None of us, whether we’d been living with diabetes for two years or fifty years, none of us had it completely figured out yet.  Diabetes is constantly changing.  What works today might not work tomorrow.  We are all just trying to do the best we can every day.

And to me, that’s what a support group is all about . . . .