D-Blog Week Day 3 - Clean it Out

Today's topic challenges us to look for diabetes-related things that we are holding on to. It might be physical belongings or it might be emotional stuff that we can't seem to let go of. What are these things, why are we hanging on to them and what are we going to do about them?

Yesterday I struggled a bit with the blog topic and today I seem to be doing the same thing. 

In a physical sense, I really don't hang on to too much diabetes stuff. I have my diabetes cupboard where my supplies are stashed and there is usually a pretty good supply stashed. But I use it all and I feel better when there are weeks of back up stuff stashed in there because one just never knows when that pesky zombie apocalypse is going to hit. 

But other than having a good supply of things I use, I really don't have a lot of extra stuff kicking around for no reason. 

Oh wait, that might not be true. 

Actually, when I think about it, I may still have every single glucometer I have ever used tucked away on the bottom shelf of that diabetes cupboard. 

I may also have boxes of lancets for each of these devices that are still 3/4 full because, let's be honest here, you don't go through too many lancets when you only change them one per season. 

Oh dear. Now that I think about it, I may still have all of the start-up information for my Medtronic pump. The pump I used to use before I switched to Animas several years ago. 

And, since we're being honest here, I may also have gotten into the habit of saving the little pump plug thingie that I use when I am unhooking my pump for a shower. I keep one in the bathroom, two in my toiletry bag for when I'm traveling and a few in my swim bag for the pool. And then, for about 5 years, I used to toss every new one I got into a plastic bag in my diabetes cupboard, just in case. And when you consider that I get a new plug thingie every four days when I put in a new site, I have a lot of them. 

I'm proud to stay that, in the last year or so, I have stopped saving them. But I did post this picture a few years ago and it might be worth looking at it again. 

By the way, this is one of those gimmicky wine glasses that holds an entire bottle of wine in it. There are a lot of those plug thingies in there. 

Ok, so maybe I really do need to take a look at my diabetes cupboard and toss a few things out. 

As for emotional baggage that I am dragging around, since we are all being honest here, there is one thing that does make me kinda crazy. 

I am finding it increasingly difficult to respond respectfully to people who say things about diabetes (be it T1 or T2) that are ignorant or hurtful. Most of the time I am able to hold myself back because I know the person and I know that they are not saying these things to be hurtful, they just really don't understand. So instead of snapping at them, I try to patiently educate so that, hopefully, the next time they think something negative about diabetes, they hear my voice in their head saying "don't judge. Just don't. You have no idea and what you just said is very hurtful. If you're curious, ask the person. But for heaven's sake, don't judge." 

But I have to say that, after 12 years of this, there are days when it's really difficult to put on my nice girl pants...because what I really want to do is give them a good smack and say "oh for heaven's sakes, you have no idea what you're talking about, you are spreading negativity and you sound incredibly ignorant. So how about you stop spewing inaccurate information and making things worse for everyone."

Sigh. 

But you and I know that the second response does not make the world a better place. Only the first one does. 

And I'm all about making the world a better place. 

So while I am getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of accurate diabetes knowledge out there, I am also committed to changing that when I can. 

But let me tell you, there are days when I want to toss all of my pump plug thingies out and check to see if that wine glass really does hold an entire bottle.