About Last Night

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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19 January 2012 ·

• Tags
• diabetes
• MTV
• True Life
• Type 1 Diabetes
• Diabetic
• Life
• TV

My Hectic Week

Well last week was definitely been a crazy one. I guess we’ll start at the beginning. Well two weeks ago my little sister had an upper respiratory infection. So of course last week I got my lovely little sisters germs. So this last week I have been so sick. One thing that really sucks about being sick now that I am in college is that sometimes I have to go to school even if I feel so horrible (diabetes related included). But it’s even worse when I stay home from school. I missed one class last week to go to the doctor to get medicine, and I had much homework this weekend. It was crazy. 

Speaking of crazy let’s go back to last week when I was going to the doctor. When I was headed to school afterward I got pulled over. Yeah, that was spectacular. I’ve only been pulled over twice in the 5 years I have been driving but it is never that fun. Now I didn’t get ticketed or any of that but I was late for school and I missed my first class.

Okay enough of the whining, when I got home from school that day I had something awesome waiting for me in my mailbox. I walked up to my house and instinctively reached into the mailbox to find a nice large envelope with my name printed on it. I ripped it open to find that this envelope held my acceptance packet to my transfer university. I was so excited I read through the whole thing twice. However the excitement of the packet was softened only a little when I discovered how much work I have yet to do.

See I was accepted to the school, and the college of art and communications. Now I just need to be accepted into the graphic design sequence. Which means that I need to send in my portfolio. I also have to petition to graduate from my current college and get my next semester of classes ready. I have quite a bit of time still but I just feel overwhelmed by it all, and I just can’t wait.

I cant believe this is finally happening. It feels like I’ve been waiting and working so hard. When I graduated from highs hook it seemed so far away, and I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. I am so happy that I found my passion and that I found my school. I am going on a great journey now and I’m ready for my next step in the journey. I can’t wait!

Well that’s been my week. I’m so sorry, but I really needed a break last week from blogging and what not. But I’m back! Diabetes related blogs will be back this week!

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17 October 2011 ·

• Tags
• life
• college
• diabetic
• diabetes
• type 1 diabetes

Freedom with D

First of all I just want to thank Kim V. over at textingmypancreas.com for interviewing me and featuring me on her blog yesterday. That was beyond awesome for me!

I have been thinking more recently of my diabetic childhood for creating humablog videos. One thing I’ve noticed is that it has been making me much more emotional about it all. Not in a bad way of course. It really feels odd to say but I think I am finally getting into these feelings that I’ve suppressed for so long.
Anytime I listen to stories about people growing up with diabetes I feel so emotional. I know what it feels like. I can recall being at Diabetes Camp this year as a staff member and seeing all of these kids being applauded for learning how to care for their diabetes. It makes me feel so happy, it’s so sweet. I can remember when that was me. I probably acted like I didn’t want the attention but I know for a fact that I was so proud the day I learned to give an injection in my abdomen for the first time. I feel like I get to relive the moments of my past through these young campers.

Recently I’ve been into reading some d-blogs (which are all way awesome by the way). I came across a blog post that had me in tears this morning. It was written by Penny over at A Sweet Grace. She’s a D-mom with a daughter (Grace) who is 9 and has type 1 diabetes. She wrote about a day when Grace went to a pool party and she got to have a taste of “freedom”. If you haven’t read it yet I would suggest you do right now. It’s such a great little story and I loved it. It had me in tears because I can remember when my mother began giving me this “freedom” on my own with my diabetes. Reading this blog gives me another opportunity that I got to relive a moment in my childhood. When I think about my childhood and growing up I can recall when my mom was slowly giving me my “freedom” with D. I may not have succeeded every time I had these opportunities to be alone with D. But I know that I learned something each and every time. I look back and I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished with this “freedom”.

I can’t help but to wonder what my childhood would have been like without diabetes. Diabetes makes children grow up so fast I know that, but what kind of person would I be today? I actually feel that diabetes helps me understand people more personally sometimes. Am I crazy or can I thank diabetes for somethings in my life?

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Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @rachellynnae

Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube: humaBLOG

Kim V.’s Blog Texting My Pancreas 

       Her post yesterday about humaBLOG

Penny’s Blog A Sweet Grace

      Her Blog post about “freedom” with D

26 July 2011 ·

• Tags
• juvenile
• health
• diagnoses
• childhood
• camp
• life
• thankful
• responsibility
• diabetic
• diabetes
• type 1 diabetes