It feels a little vain to think that I might have something to add to an already lively diabetes online community. Chalk it up to my need to obsess on my life as a fairly new diabetic. But honestly, there isn’t much out there about being a LADA, or type 1.5, or my least favorite designation, a person with double diabetes (who thought that name was a good idea?). The learning curve for me has been steep, as I was diagnosed as a diabetic 16 months ago, and identified as a type 1.5 shortly after. All that really means is that my diabetes is really pretty much type 1, but I got it as an adult, not a kid. I may have some insulin resistance, but if so, it is mild. It developed suddenly, intensely and surprisingly.
In addition to the self-care and management of diabetes that I have added to my life, there is a whole new spiritual component. I have been a Christian since I was 13, and have had a relatively trouble-free life, moving from high school to college to graduate school to marriage and children with no big bumps in the road. Diabetes has turned out to be a big bump in the road, and part of what I plan to deal with in this blog is to chronicle what I am learning about my life as a Christian now that I have this chronic disease that makes my life much less safe and predictable. I hope this perspective will add something unique to what is already out there in the diabetes blogosphere, since there are already some great blogs out there for the diabetes online community (DOC). I am thankful for the challenge God has handed me (well, most of the time, anyway) and look forward to seeing how He will continue to complete the good work He started in me (Philippians 1:6).
In my next few posts, I’ll go into some of the details of how diabetes hit me, in the hopes that someone reading this might recognize themselves and find encouragement or at least, relief in knowing you aren’t alone. Hopefully you won’t find it tedious, and it should help you to get to know me a little bit. My experiences will differ from any other diabetics, obviously, and not even all LADAs are the same. Feel free to share how your experience was the same or different than mine, and especially how it has impacted you spiritually.
Life in LADA land 