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Last night MTV aired it’s premiere of “True Life: I have Diabetes”. I have seen quite a few “True Life” episodes in the past, and I was more than excited to see this one. But actually I forgot it was on until I saw someone on Twitter mention it. Then of course I flipped the TV on and opened up Twitter to see the DOC was all over this!

Overall I was pretty disappointed in the episode. Out of the three interviewees one was showing responsibility. But as someone said on twitter last night “I guess that is ‘true life’”. At any rate I was trying to imagine myself as a preteen or teenage newly diagnosed diabetic and I was watching this show as my only outlet. If that were the case what I would get out of the show was that drinking in college while being diabetic is bad but you can just wait until college is over to worry about it, and that there is almost no way that a diabetic can have a healthy baby. Seriously I felt that the MTV producers were watching too much “Steel Magnolias”.

The three interviewees were Kristyn, Matthew, and Jen:

Kristyn- Kristyn is a girl who recently moved back in with her parents in order to catch up on debt. We find out that Kristyn’s insulin pump (a purple Medtronic Minimed) was malfunctioning and she no longer had a warranty. Kristyn who was already in debt had to buy a new pump and push herself further into debt. Later Kristyn decides to pick up an extra job and we see her struggling to work two jobs and find time to sleep and be social. Kristyn’s mother is shown as controlling about her living situation and demands Kristyn begins to pay her debt so that she can move out. Despite it all Kristyn manages to make a large dent in her debt and knock her A1C down. (You go Girl!)

Matthew- Matthew is a college student with type 1 diabetes and an OmniPod. Matthew is struggling with balancing a social life and diabetes. We see Matthew drinking large quantities of alcohol and disregarding very high blood sugars to keep his “rep” (now I sound like RUN DMC). Toward the end of the episode Matthew states that he is struggling with thoughts like “Would I rather my disease be better, or my life be better?”. It was really heartbreaking that I couldn’t reach out and tell this boy that there are people who KNOW WHAT IT LIKE! (DOC for LYFE!) Eventually Matthew seemed like he was getting to be “on top of things”. He decided to go to a party but only drink Crystal Lite because he was not feeling well and his blood sugars were out of range. But he began to feel better and started drinking. At the end of his segment it was stated that Matt decided to continue drinking until he was done with college. (sigh) One thing that I do get out of this is that I am so so so grateful that I have a bunch of diabetics to help me out. I mean I am not much of a drinker party goer anyways but its really helpful to know not only do I have a fantastic family support system but that I have tons of friends online and off and that I have people who look up to me to make correct decisions. I love you DOC. I love you Camp Granada. I love you Mom, Sister, Dad and everyone of my awesome friends who try their best to understand what I am living with. 
 

Jen- Finally Jen. Jen was first diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic but at the end of the episode was diagnosed with Type 1. (I’m thinking LADA type 1.5 or a misdiagnoses what do you think?) Jen was pregnant with her first child. Left and right people were telling her that diabetes causes this and diabetes causes that and high blood sugars can KILL your baby. I am sure all of these are true to some extent but I am so sick of hearing that diabetics can’t have children. I know many many people who have diabetes and had happy healthy children. Times have changed and we have better ways of seeing what is going on with diabetes and child birth. (We can have children GOT IT!?)

Now that I have had a fury of information whirring through my head I am glad that I got to put it out there. Please, please, please share your thoughts below in my comments section! I really want to hear your ideas about these topics!

Below you will find a synopsis of the episode as well as a link to the “Check-Up” where MTV interviews these three PWD’s after the show.

“True Life: I HAVE DIABETES”

Airs Wednesday, January 18 at 11:00PM

On this episode of “True Life” you’ll meet three young diabetics faced with the challenges of managing their condition. Kristyn is forced to move back in with her parents because her health care costs are spiraling out of control. Matthew is determined not to let the disease compromise his partying lifestyle at college – despite the fact that drinking alcohol is dangerous for diabetics. And Jen is finding it difficult to control her symptoms while pregnant — which is putting her baby’s life at risk.

“True Life: I Have Diabetes” is Executive Produced by Patrick Holbert of Miscellaneous Media.

MTV’s Check Up

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I love to learn. Which is why I love school. Truly I don’t know what I’ll do when I graduate. I love to seek out and learn new things

But school is not the only place I learn. I learn at home, I learn online, I learn from movies, books, TV, and people I talk to. But there is one thing in my life that I have learned from more than any of those listed above. 

Diabetes. Diabetes has taught me endless lessons about life. I had to learn to grow when I was diagnosed at 8 years old, along with every child who has been diagnosed with D at a young age. That wasn’t where the learning stopped. 

Below is a list of what I have learned from Diabetes in the 12.5 years I have been living with D.

• Being “high” has more than one meaning.
• Just getting out of bed late can completely throw my body off.
• Weird looks come from patrons of McDonald’s when your Mom orders you a happy meal with a diet soda. (Well when I was growing up it was weird anyway)
• Candy can have more uses than just rotting my teeth. It can save my life.
• Yes I can have cake, ice cream, soda, doughnuts, candy, muffins, and other various sugar filled items.
• The smell of insulin is a very unique smell.
• When you’re in 3rd grade and you’re testing your blood glucose level, EVERYONE wants to test.
• Diabetes camp is AWESOME!
• The connection between two people with diabetes is a pretty cool experience.
• Carbohydrate counting is not just for crazy fad diets.
• Low blood sugars always show up at the most annoying times. 
• Believe it or not I don’t want to know about your Great Aunt’s Diabetes complications. 
• There should be a Hogwarts esque school where only People with Diabetes attend. We could do our magic with sugar and insulin. (Yes, I have given this much thought. Don’t judge me)
• Diabetes is an invisible disease but that doesn’t mean it NEEDS to be hidden. It’s okay to take an injection in public and its okay to test my blood sugar at the lunch table. 
• Kids can be mean, and words can hurt.
• Insulin can freeze in the refrigerator. 
• Substitute teachers sometimes don’t want to believe that I need to leave class right NOW to take care of my diabetes.
• Not everyone knows everything about diabetes. I must be patient.
• Yelling at someone for incorrect diabetes information solves nothing.
• High blood sugars make me grouchy.
• Getting out of bed while low is much more difficult than it needs to be.
• Getting independence from parents is really cool and also really nerve racking.
• Walking down stairs can drop a blood sugar faster than walking a mile.
• Puppies like to chew on insulin pump set tubing while sleeping is occurring. 
• Insulin Pumps love doorknobs. They love them so much that at any and every point the insulin pump will jump toward said doorknob. 
• Driving while low is not good.
• Creativity must be used when finding a location for an Insulin Pump in a prom dress. 
• Dogs can sense when something is wrong. I knew one dog that saved a life.
• I am afraid of my mother and sister having lows and I am not there to help.
• Low blood sugars that are not my own genuinely scare me. 
• While low I feel that if I ask for help I failed.
• Some of my closest friends are from the diabetes community. (Online and off)

I will be making a blog post about everything on this list. I don’t know when. I don’t yet have these posts written, or even thought out. But I will be working on sharing these stories.

Diabetes has been a very large and important thing in my life, which is why this list is very large.

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