A New Outlook

At first I didn't know what this blog was going to be about. I figured that we would get a weekly prompt from class and I wouldn't have to be creative or anything. But after setting up this blog and designing it I had an idea. I was sitting in my dorm room trying to figure out my astronomy homework when the all too familiar shaking began. I walked over to my fridge and got out a bottle of grape juice. And that's when it hit me. I have been a Type 1 diabetic since I was three years old. I'm not a fan of talking about it, and my parents tried to get me on blogs and chat rooms with other kids but I didn't want to talk about it. We even went to a huge conference in Florida to meet other kids with this disease and learn about all of the new technology. Maybe this blog could help me express what I'm feeling and hopefully help some other person out there struggling with the same thing.
I've always felt like no one understood what I was dealing with everyday. The constant testing and shots, always having to watch what I'm eating, and fighting low and high blood sugars. Dealing with the other kids at school who went out of their way to torment me. Some days it seems like it is all too much.
Diabetes is a hard disease to live with some days, it seems like it has a mind of it's own. Diabetes is an auto-immune disease that affects an area in the pancreas. This area controls the creation and usage of a hormone called insulin. Insulin helps break down the food you eat and turn it into glucose, your body then uses this glucose to fuel it's every day functions. When you have diabetes, for some unknown reason your body attacks this area in the pancreas and it stops working. Your body can no longer turn the food you eat into the fuel it needs. There are two types of diabetes; Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 is more common among  adolescents and usually the pancreas completely stops working and insulin therapy has to be used. Type 2 is more common in adults and can be treated with certain prescriptions and dieting. With the invention of insulin, you can either take insulin injections, as in shots, or use an insulin pump. I use an insulin pump, and yes it is pink.
Hopefully this blog will be a place for me to talk about living with this disease. I hope that anyone who needs a place to talk about their diabetes of even another disease or illness can feel free to talk here and express what they are feeling.