More Than A Label of Type 1 Diabetes

Recently I had the pleasure of travelling to London to attend a patient reference group with some fellow diabuddies, new and old, with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. I had a little time spare from the meeting when I arrived and the meeting was located near to Oxford Street, so I ended up wandering into one of the fashion stores on the famous street. As I was leaving the store, a jewellery stand caught my eye, because it advertised that you could personalise items with a name of your choice. Well, as you can relate, diabetes is never far from the mind and strangely enough I'd been thinking that I'd like a modern and updated version of a medical identification piece of jewellery. I am fiercely independent with my diabetes as my husband likes to remind me. But I do think it's worth having one just in case you find yourself in a strange place, or in a situation where you're with new people and they don't know you have diabetes. With all of this in mind, I stopped the nearest assistant to me and said that I'd like to have one made.

The person I stopped asked me to write down what I'd like to put on the necklace, I decided on 'T1 Diabetes' and handed over the slip. The lady responded that this was an unusual name and asked what it meant. I explained that it was a medical condition and that I planned to use the necklace as a medical alert piece. To my surprise she responded that growing up her uncle had type 1 and she was always fearful for him when he was doing his injections. She also said that her Dad had very recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and she was petrified for him because she didn't want anything bad to happen and because she didn't think that his diagnosis had sunk in. I talked a little about how it was possible to live a good life with diabetes and that there was lots of help, support and information out there.

The lady then made my necklace, it turned out great but she was really nervous about the finished result. But the thing was, it had already become more than a piece of jewellery, as it meant so much to me that someone who had been touched by diabetes in her family had made it for me, because what were the chances, of all of the people in this super-store that it should be her that created it. After I'd paid and was leaving, she asked me one last question, which was that she'd heard that people can be cured from diabetes. To which I thought she was talking about her Dad, so said that it was possible for some people (with T2DM) in the right circumstances to put their diabetes into remission. But her response brought a tear to my eye because she said that she was asking because she wished that for me, that I would be cured from my diabetes and that I wouldn't have to be dealing with it for too much longer.

Now, I can hear what you're asking- did I correct her that I couldn't be cured currently? But no I didn't and I think it was because she was so sincere in her wish and hope that I would be better. That I didn't have the heart to say that a cure wasn't likely any day soon, despite having come to terms with this fact myself. So here ends the story of how a chance meeting became a wish set in stone (well gold plated metal anyway).