D-Blog Day...The Diabetes Online Community

Today is D-Blog Day and this years topic is : Why you feel the Diabetes Online Community is so important? especially to you personally? Give examples of other diabetes involvement may you have, on or offline, how it helped you etc… How do you think “we” as an online community can band together to reach broader audiences to help even more people living with or affected by diabetes.

I recently wrote a blog What You Don't Know, What I Wish I Did about the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes.  In this post I used a side by side comparison of a picture of Cara 1.5 months before her T1 diagnoses and a picture of Cara 1.5 months after her T1 diagnoses.  The difference is staggering, as you can see...

The before picture has long haunted me.  How can a mother allow her daughter to look like this and not know what was wrong with her.  We knew something was wrong, we went to many doctors, they gave us antibiotics, they told us to let the virus run it's course, they sent us on our way with a sucker.

The before picture brought me nothing but feeling of sorrow and failure every time I looked at it, so it was hidden away and not to be seen.

One day I was thinking of some way to bring awareness to type 1.  I was thinking of posting a cute, happy, adorable picture of Cara with some sort of saying "This is the face of type 1 diabetes" or something like that.  As I was looking through my photo album, trying to find the cutest picture, I opened up a photo of Christmas morning back in 08, 1.5 months before we knew anything about diabetes.

Looking at that picture I was disgusted in myself, but I thought this is the true picture of diabetes.  This is what diabetes does to our bodies, this is what happens when we do not produce insulin anymore.  I wanted to educate people, that is what the DOC and diabetes awareness month is all about.

I wanted people to know the difference between living with type 1 diabetes and the disease type 1 diabetes.  As far as I'm concerned this has been a major confusion with the general public. 

I want people to know this is the face of hard work, sleepless night, amazing technology, scientific advancements, education and hope living with type 1 diabetes.

and this is the face of a child with undiagnosed type 1 diabetes.  This is what diabetes looks like.    

So I made the before & after picture and posted it on facebook with the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes.  I wrote a post about the picture and shared the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes on facebook and twitter.

I won't lie, I was nervous of the reaction the photo would get, is it too much? it is too dramatic? will I receive negative comments about my ability to care for my children? will people question my mothering skills?  But instead of what I feared I got acceptance, I got love, I got understanding and belonging and that is why the DOC is so important to me.

And I also got this comment on my blog post:

Maryam said...

thank you for sharing this information, actually a friend of a friend was just talking about how her daughter is losing weight drastically, so this actually made me tell her to go to the ER, i hope they find out what is wrong with her, but i think it is diabetes. You probably saved her life. More people need to be informed. I new about the being thirsty and excessive urination, but actually did not know about the weight loss. Thanks again. Maryam =) 

and then I got this update on facebook:

A friend of a friend shared a post What You Don't Know, What I Wish I Did  on her fb page and now there is an 8-year old child at Children's Dallas that is now 1 of today's 24 diagnosed with T1D.


So why is the DOC so important to me?  It's my family, it's my understanding, it's my courage and my hope.


Why is the DOC important to others? Because we can make a difference through sharing our stories and educating.


And with this experience I have realized the power in the truth.  Things don't need to be sugar coated, you don't need "cute" for people to pay attention all you need is the truth and the raw hard facts, people will listen.

Thank you Maryam for reading, and seeing the truth in the picture.  My heart and thoughts goes out to your friend, their family and of course that extra sweet child.  May they find a support system as wonderful as I have in the DOC.