This message originally appeared as a part of Rob's Friday T1D Feels email newsletter.
Friday T1D Feels. Volume 1.2
Happy Friday,
Thank you to everyone who reached out last week after my note, I'm grateful to have such an awesome community of friends, T1D and muggles alike ;)
I've been thinking a lot about how special the T1D community is and how fortunate we all are to not have to fight this ongoing battle against T1D alone. For me personally, I hit a rough spot with my insulin supply last week, where my backup insulin source (during my brief stint without insurance) fell through. I made an Instagram story showing an inside look at the "startup life" of a T1D to show that there are challenges that often go unseen in the life of a T1D.
Fortunately for me, I've gotten to know so many of you over the last year and a half, that two strangers reached out cold and offered to give me some of their extra insulin, a good friend pointed me to the Lilly Insulin assistance program and even Derek Theler asked if I needed insulin after our Diabetics Doing Things interview.
I was blown away by the generosity of complete strangers, and it really reinforced that the Diabetics Doing Things mission is still intact. I set an intention at the start that if DDT helped just one person, it would all be worth it. I just didn't know that I would be that person one day. So thanks to all of you, I now have enough insulin to make it through my insurance onboarding process (cue sigh of relief).
But I wouldn't have had those options if I hadn't gotten involved. That's important to me, because I know there are a lot of T1Ds out there who don't want to call attention to their disesase or get special treatment. I used to be one of them. My quality of life (and A1C) has significantly improved since I started getting involved and telling the stories of other T1D friends. So what are you waiting on? If you are afraid, or come up with reasons why not to get involved, feel free to email me. I'd love to talk about them with you.
In the meantime, there's a lot of great stuff happening in the next week in the world of Diabetics Doing Things:
- JDRF Dallas' Brew for the Cure event is Tomorrow from 2-5p. Yours truly will be speaking and volunteering so if you're in Dallas come say hi!
- The next 5 episodes of Diabetics Doing Things are going to be EPIC! (Dave Mina, Dana Howe, Derek Theler, Mary Adams & Libby Russell)
Hopefully I can get all those done this weekend!
What's been on your mind this week? I'm dying to know because I'm putting together a program on T1D and Mindfulness. What are some everyday T1D issues that you could be more mindful about?
Loving this new email format, grateful to have such a great group of people to chat with.
Until next week!
Rob