You're hired!

Maybe I should check my agenda and count the times I have been asked to talk about my life with D. This afternoon isn't any different. I'm going to speak for a group of people who are not familiar with diabetes. People that are prepared to hear more about the subject. It is my job to inform them on what a life with diabetes is like. I'm no schooled nurse or educator on diabetes. All I can do, is speak for myself and share my experience. I have accepted my condition a long time ago and I am not afraid to look into the future. For I am convinced that I am doing the best I can. And for the things that are not going that smoothly yet, I'm working on finding solutions, together with my diabetes team.

I'm looking forward to this afternoon. It's always a bit exciting to say the least. Sometimes I recognize faces from previous lectures, but mostly the group is a group of total strangers. You never know how attentive the audience will be. Will I be able to draw their attention? Will they ask me questions I can't answer? I'm not afraid to tell them I don't know all the answers. I can't inform them about medication. That's the task of the doctors and educators. But I can tell them about the symptoms. I can tell them about the consequences if they refuse to get their heads out of the sand. I can make them aware of what diabetes is and how common it occurs. And that's exactly what I want to do today. Spread the word on diabetes and get people mobilized to have their annual check up. It's really not much of a hassle to have your bloodwork done once a year. If you can benefit from it by getting to know your own body, why wouldn't you do it? Some people are more likely to develop diabetes. To them, it's even more important to get informed on what the numbers mean and what they can do to remain healthy and sound. If they are likely to develop diabetes because of a genetic predestination, there's not much they can do to prevent it from happening, but maybe there's a way to delaying the verdict. Why would one not want that?