My Journey Through Type One Diabetes

14. How Summer Vacation of 2022 Went

I went on vacation with my family to Tennessee and it was pretty awesome for many different reasons. I had a lot of fun with my family, we stayed  in a cabin up in the mountains, when we got there it was night time and it was like a picture from a horror movie. We were going around all these bends, pitch black, it was so hard to see anything and to top it all off there was this weird chirping sound and I had no idea what it was, I legit thought something was going to come out and attack us. Yeah funny thing is that the next day I realized it was just cicadas! We  have cicada up where we live but these things sounded so different and they chirped throughout the whole night. Where I live cicadas usually stop making noise by like eleven pm but these things did not stop and I know because one night I ended up staying awake till two in the morning.

Okay now I have to explain the picture because it is funny too. So I guess I do not know if any of you guys have heard of the jokes that are made about diabetics not knowing what a butter compartment it but yeah people poke fun at us because a lot of us put our insulin in the butter compartment. The funny part is that I put my insulin in the butter compartment on vacation because that is where I normally put it at home but then it basically turned into a joke because we ended up having butter and it still did not get put in the butter compartment. That picture is actually mine that I took while on vacation. Me and my mom thought it was pretty funny, even if you do not think so.

Now, on to the main story

While on my trip to Tennessee me and my mom spotted quite a few diabetics. A good portion were most likely type two diabetics but we were able to spot at least two type one diabetics. I feel like the trademark sign that you are a diabetic is if you are wearing a CGM, it is a dead giveaway, but ever since Dexcom was approved for type two diabetics to use it has been hard to determine if someone is type one or type two. So now when I see some who has a CGM I also look to see if they have a pump.

I was able to find two people who had pumps. The first time I was about ready to race my family in go-carts when I look over and see this mom wearing a pump that has tubing. It was super cool to see her enjoying life with her family. 

The second person I actually heard them before I saw them. My family and I were eating at a McDonalds and I heard the noise when you are low but I had just checked my Dexcom and I was fine which made me panic a little bit. Then my mom asked if that was me and I realized that I was not going crazy. I told her no I do not think that was me and I looked around the restaurant and did not see anyone with a Dexcom so I gave up after a few minutes. As we were heading out the door I saw this little girl with a omnipod on her arm and I got so excited.

I thought about going up to her and telling her that I have one of those pumps too! I took a solid two minutes to think everything through. I always have a hard time deciding if I should talk to other diabetics because what if they reject the idea of having diabetes and I make it worse by bring it up or what if they really just do not like talking about it. I may other think it a little bit but I do worry. After I had thought about it I decided that it would be good for her to see someone else like herself with the same thing as her.

I went up to the table with the little girl and I told the girl and her mother that I had the same device as her. I showed them where my pump and CGM were at and. The mom was like oh cool and chuckled cause it was kinda awkward and I never saw the girl's reaction because I was worried while also panicking that I had made the wrong decision. After that I quickly said goodbye and left because my anxiety was going crazy and my family was leaving without me. 

I have to say that I did not get the reaction that I was hoping for but I was so proud of myself that I had the courage to go up to them and talk about my diabetes. I know I did not say much but it is a good step in the right direction because I have wanted to do this to every diabetic I have seen but end up not saying anything. I just always overthink it and freak myself out.

Author's Note

Chapter Started: 7/18/2022 @1:22am

Chapter Ended: 12/15/2022 @11:21pm

Hello everyone!! I hope you liked my story and found parts of it to be funny. I am honestly surprised that I got this chapter posted today, I figured that I would need a couple days to write it but I actually had a lot of fun writing it. I also wanted to say sorry for changing the cover photo on you guys again but I really disliked the colors on that last one. This time I am pretty confident on the cover, I really like it, it's pretty :D. Have you guys noticed that I have been finishing these stories at appropriate times?? I am so proud of myself, lol.

Do you guys like the updated cover photo? Have any of you been approached by or have you approached a diabetic before?

I know everyone goes through their own challenges with T1D so please no hating on me or anyone else, thanks!