H Friends and Family!!
If you missed my first email or wanted to hear it, I made a video you can watch here which introduces you to what I am up to! This is my second email where I am sharing more info about my experiences with Diabetes and why this trek is important to me! Most of you know I love baseball (go Jays go!) and I play softball with the Field of Dreamers cooperative Baseball league (they’re awesome!). So I am sharing a diabetes + baseball story below.
SO, imagine this… You are putting on your uniform to go to your softball game, and, your alarm goes off, reminding you to pack your glove, your hat, a baseball and water. You pack it all up and head to your game, making it in time to warm up beforehand! Yay You!! You play a great game, your team wins, and then you head home after saying congrats to everyone!
Now reimagine that, but you are Type 1 Diabetic – so an alarm goes off (in my case) – 2 hours before the start of your game, to remind you to change your insulin settings to temporarily give you less insulin – for a 1.5hr game – you program it 2hrs before, 1.5 during, and 30min afterwards, for a total of 4hours. You had hoped to walk to the game, but forgot your 3hrs in advance alarm, so you have to take the bus. You eat something 1 hour before game time to ensure your blood sugar does not drop during the game, and you pack not only your baseball supplies, but juice, sugar, snacks and all your extra diabetes supplies. You get on the bus, and start to feel a bit woozy, and notice your blood sugar has started to drop, so then you start downing your juice in the bus ride and hope you feel better by the time it is your stop. When you get off, you are still too woozy, so you have to sit for 15 minutes until you feel better. You arrive at the game but have no time to stretch, and your team is up to bat. Luckily, you are near the bottom of the order, so you’ll likely not go up this inning, but then by a miracle, your team hits a bunch of singles, and it’s your turn. You decide to ask for a pinch runner as you still feel woozy to run, and a teammate helps you out. You get a hit, and your teammate runs for you. When it is your turn in the field, you ask to sit out as you still feel unwell and weak. Finally, by the second inning, you feel a bit better and manage to play the rest of the same, but not at your best. By the last inning, your insulin pump is beeping, as your blood sugar has shot up because of the rush of adrenaline of the game being so close, and while you finish (and win!) the game, your blood sugar is now spiking upwards, and you feel like you will vomit. Friends bring you some water and sit with you, but you know it will take at least 1 hour to feel better, so you decide to take an Uber home to rest, even when you had planned to stay and umpire the second game – you have to cancel. You also won’t be able to eat anything, and it’ll take some time to get to sleep.
I share the above story to demonstrate how many different decisions in a a 4hr window I sometimes have to make, way more than anyone without T1 diabetes has to, and way more than most of the people in my life understand that I have to make each day. I can do the exact same thing, every minute of every day – eat the same things, same exercise routine, and same schedule – and no matter what, my blood sugars will always be different and cause me to make choices to keep myself alive. I am a fighter, and I will always fight to keep myself alive – but it can be really draining and difficult some days, and while I have 33 years of experience in this, it’s not easy. Especially when it feels like no one understands, and I often feel like I can’t share this with anyone.
That is…. until I met and made friends at Connected in Motion, who all have Type 1 Diabetes. I did not know how important having a T1D community was – and how sharing this condition with others who also have it could help me garner confidence, and understanding where I needed it. And because of Connected in Motion, I knew I could apply for this week-long trek in Newfoundland, and feel safe hiking for a week with a group of other Type 1 Diabetics. Fun facts for you: my team consists of others living with type 1 diabetes from Washington, Connecticut, Michigan, Beamsville, Sault Ste. Marie, North Carolina, California, Germany and Australia. We are collectively trying to raise $90,000 for CIM, my goal is $4500. We will trek a total of 37km of the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland from Petty Harbour to Bay Bulls. Now this may not seem like a difficult distance over 4 days, but when you factor in the size of the team (12 total), each of us carrying a pack weighing approximately 40-55lbs, frequent stops to treat low blood sugars or high blood sugars, difficult terrain (lots of rocks, uneven ground as well as steep inclines, inclement weather and rolling hills) etc., it starts to become a bit more daunting. We were told it takes the team approx. 1 hour to complete 1km as a group. And I have been practicing walking the streets of Toronto with a 50lbs bag, and sometimes, when visiting home, I get the opportunity to hike with my adorable nephew on my back, for a practice weight of about 35lbs.
I would love to keep you in the loop on my progress and share more about my life with diabetes, but if you don’t want to receive my emails anymore, just let me know and I’ll remove you from this list!
For those wondering how they can help me reach my fundraising goal you can donate via the following link: https://www.zeffy.com/
Victoria
