First: please let me apologize for asking the kind of question I myself hate to noodle on for any length of time.  My typical response is “why does it matter”?  But, this is a blog; it matters because I’m writing about it.  So there.

I downloaded an app for my iphone the other day called “iDBT: Managing Type 1 Diabetes: A Guide for kids and their families”.  No particular reason I downloaded it, but the fact it was free was very persuasive. 

It basically was a little “game” that pointed out symptoms of IDDM, showed the digestion process, discussed things that affect blood glucose levels, and reminded kids they need to learn about their own bodies and their own diabetes. 

Good stuff; it even used the most memorable term from my first day in the hospital after being diagnosed: “insulin is the key that unlocks the doors to the cells so they can use the glucose in your bloodstream”.  A classic!!

However.

The game kept saying “symptoms” of diabetes.  As in: now that you know you have Type 1 diabetes, be aware of the clues for and symptoms of diabetes.  ???  That doesn’t make sense to me.  You’ve already been diagnosed!

Yes; you need to be aware of the symptoms of high blood glucose.  (Notably, this app did not discuss symptoms of LOW blood glucose, which I consider to be more critical for kids to understand.)  You need to understand what in your body doesn’t work, and how that affects you.  You need to understand what external factors are going to change your blood glucose levels.  You need to understand what to do to make your body keep functioning.   These concepts are essential for every person living with diabetes.

But the app kept mentioning the “symptoms of diabetes”.  Made me wonder: where is the division between a symptom and a diagnosis? 

We all know the symptoms include high blood glucose, ketones, frequent urination, thirst, weight loss, etc.  But the destruction of your pancreas’ beta cells is what actually occurs in type 1 diabetes; the symptoms are merely the manifestations of that destruction. 

So doesn’t that mean that diabetes came first?? 

This kind of thinking gives me a headache…

I am always introspective on my diabirthday. This year is no different. I can’t help but look back at the tired little girl who didn’t have the energy to keep up with her friends as they ran across the school playground. I didn’t know what it meant when the doctor told me that afternoon 22 years ago that I had a disease called diabetes.

For me, my diagnosis date is the day I do my annual reflection—more so than any other time of the year. My world didn’t change on my birthday, and my world didn’t change on New Year’s Day. It changed on Diagnosis Day. I don’t think about that sick little girl very often, but I think it is right for me to spend a few days around my anniversary and do so.

My diagnosis number was 591. You can see in my diagnosis photo that I was incredibly skinny (58 pounds at a little under five feet tall), about 7/8ths of my hair had fallen out, my skin was very dry, and I was of course eating and drinking anything and everything all the time. There is no gentle way to say it: I was dying.

Not many people get to a point that they have to face such a realization at such a young age. In fact, I feel like each additional year, as I age and my perspective changes, the realization strikes me anew.

Yet, I feel with each diabirthday a stronger and stronger sense of how fortunate I am. Had I been born a generation before, I would have had a much more difficult road. Had I been born three generations before, I would not have seen even age eleven. My firsthand knowledge of the fragility of life has motivated me to achieve much more than I could have without such inspiration.

So yes, I feel fortunate. I have a wide range of tools to help me keep myself in as good physical condition as possible, and in fact, very few things seem impossible.

If that isn’t something to celebrate, I don’t know what is.