A few Sundays back was a good day, let me tell you the story. It started slow for me, I could not move, late we were for church. No coffee for me that comes from my hand, nice and black I make it. I was tired and stiff but I managed to make it out the door with my wife and kids. We made it on time, early as a matter of fact, my own coffee I could have had, grrr. But nonetheless, we made it.

I dropped off Audi first in her room and then Rissy at hers. When I dropped off Rissy a lady ask if she had an ouwee on her arm. “Ahh no, its a sensor for a continuous glucose monitor, she and her sister both have Type 1 Diabetes“. “Oh” she says, two of my niece have Type 1. Connection! We chatted for a few seconds, commented on how she liked Rissy d-bag, yes that what we call our kids diabetes bag, get use to it, lol. I think she watched her like a hawk. Upon returning to pick her up she told me the high alarm went off. I told her it was just the damn breakfast spike (didn’t say it like that but wanted to). I told her it was coming down. It was nice to run into someone who really cares. So many don’t! I thanked her. I’ll see her again and I’ve heard of her nieces, the whole family as a matter of fact.

Later in the afternoon we went to a park to meet up with an old college buddy. Not seen him in 10 plus years. We worked at the same company after college briefly. He is married with 2 kids, his wife is really nice and kids are awesome and about same age as mine. We have talk via facebook about my kids having Type 1. So he knows and asks really good questions, so did his wife. They really wanted to understand, but didn’t dominate the time asking about it and talking about it.

Both d-kids had 2 hypos apiece. So they saw some of the ugliness of diabetes, raw and unscripted, like it always is. I told him I felt embarrassed because I wrote an article for Everyday Health on hypoglycemia and I forgot a piece of advice about giving a snack before play time that had protein and carbs. Me dumb. He told me it was understandable and our live are really be different. He was kind to make me feel at ease. I told him it becomes part of life and you just manage it.

I had a great time catching up with him. Hearing about his life and his family. We shared some funny stories from our college days. We laughed at a story of our buddy (the best man in my wedding) who had horrid roommates. I can’t share it so gross, but funny. Most of all it was nice to talk with someone who wanted to understand and listen. Speaks to his character it does. It was nice that diabetes didn’t dominate our conversation, it was just part of it, like it should be.

Godspeed