Tonight's the night.
I'm heading to Hamilton after work to present to a room full of doctors, nurses, dieticians, diabetes educators, pharmacists and other folk who support people of the diabetic persuasion.
My presentation is ready and memorized. My Powerpoint (well, actually I did it in Keynote but not everyone knows what that is) is full of pictures and facts and even a video that I was kindly sent a copy of by Sara over at Moments of Wonderful.
I decided to divide my talk into a few sections. I'm going to start off by telling my diagnosis story so that they can get a sense of where I'm coming from. Then I'm going to quickly tell my running story so that they can see that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to exercise and diabetes management.
But the majority of my presentation is actually going to focus on the DOC. I want to tell them how isolating, scary, relentless and frustrating diabetes is and that, even with the best medical support, we spend most of our time dealing with this disease on our own.
We all have questions, fears, scary moments and hilarious experiences and the DOC helps us connect to other people just like us who have the same questions, fears, scary moments and hilarious experiences.
My goal is that some people in that room leave inspired to check us out. To read a few blogs, to see what Twitter is all about and to understand the value in pointing other diabetics in our direction.
Until I found the DOC I had no idea that I was even missing anything. Once I found it, I realized how alone I had been when it came to the diabetic part of me. Now I have running friends, swimming friends, photography friends AND diabetes friends.
Wish me luck on the presentation! I'll write later this week to let you know how it went.
I love this! I'm happy because you are such a great role model to send up there to represent!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see how it goes.
Good luck Celine! I cannot wait to hear how it goes. Thank you for being such a great voice for us all :)
ReplyDeleteHi Celine, I was at your talk and I want to tell you that it was awesome. Everyone at my table was commenting on what a great job you did and how refreshing it was for us to hear your story. (Remember we only get 2 hours of your time a year and we are the ones doing most of the talking!) It was nice to do more of the listening tonight. I think you have reached your goal with at least 1 person because here I am checking out your blog! I work at a pediatric diabetes centre and see children with type 1 diabetes every day, I will be sure to encourage them to get more connected with the DOC. I too am very interested in sports and type 1 diabetes and have written a workbook to help the young athletes I see at the centre. I would love to send you a copy and get your ideas. Thank you for sharing your wisdom you are truly inspirational! Carrie Henderson
ReplyDeleteYeah! Way to go, Celine!
ReplyDeletehi Celine. I was at your talk tonight and wanted to let you know how much I appreciated it. your "so beautiful " video moved me to tears. I primarily work with adults who have type 2 diabetes , but see the occasional person (probably 10%) with type one, so I'm always looking for more information to share with them. I will definitely keep the DOC in mind to share with these folks. thanks for bringing awareness. Esther Lessard.
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