The JDCA team is made up of people passionate about a type 1 cure. We each have a personal relationship with the disease (either having it ourselves or having a close family member with it) and understand how it transforms your daily life, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are going to try some personal posts on Fridays to share our experiences with you and let you see just how dedicated to a cure we really are. Our first post is by Blog Manager, Stoyan. Hope you enjoy!
View from the top of Mt. Phelps:
I actually was not a big “out-doors” person until about a year ago. A friend got me into hiking and eventually camping (sleeping overnight at a mountain in tents and sleeping bags, building a fire, the works.) It was all new to me, but I enjoyed every trip we took out of New York and into the forests and mountainous regions upstate. It was an amazing escape from the bustling life in the city.
When winter came and that same friend suggested we head on up the Adirondacks (with the proper gear and equipment), which is roughly a 5 hour drive from New York…I had my reservations. The temperatures would drop to below -20 F up there, and I had to think about the condition which I easily kept under control and mostly forgot about during our summer and fall trips – type 1 diabetes.
Sometimes it is easy to forget, when you have lived a number of years with this condition and have managed it fairly well, that diabetes can indeed be and is a life-threatening disease. It takes less than a day of not using insulin for you to lose all your strength and become heavily sick. Just one or two missed insulin shots sometimes.
This was something I had to consider and think about when deciding if I should come to the trip or not. My friends, who are aware of my condition, warned me that I would indeed be taking a risk with my insulin. I would take all precaution to make sure it didn’t freeze (frozen insulin is ruined, from what I read), of course, but if anything were to happen to my supply when we were up there, it was uncertain how long it would take before we can reach help.
I had three separate supplies, all wrapped up in insulation foam and packs – one I kept in the car, the other in my bag-pack, and the third inside my coat, closest to my body. The hike would only last a day, but we planned to start from very early morning and come back down at night – we would be out there for longer than 12 hours in those dreaded -20 F.
As this is not a hiking blog, I will not go into the detail of the trip itself -but safe to say it was a great, yet challenging experience and all of my insulin supplies were fine – the bigger problem was unzipping the numerous layers and removing my gloves for even the minute needed to give yourself a shot – you freeze very fast up there. We could only take short breaks, and had to snack often – meaning I had to always have in mind how much insulin I would need for each meal and snack and get my shot in quickly.
The trip was one of the few occasions that, ever since I was diagnosed 6 years ago, I really felt a difference between me and non-diabetics. Especially that morning when me and my friends were gearing up (quite the adventure itself), the prime concern was with my insulin – I tried to downplay the issue, but they insisted on making sure my medication was wrapped up properly, and that the back-up supplies were at hand. Their concern was definitely appreciated – but I won’t lie, I did think about how freeing it would be if I did not have to think about my condition, my supplies, my food (in terms of counting carbs), and possible solutions to any diabetes – related emergencies that might come up.
As we all know, only a Practical Cure can achieve that. Nothing else. We can never be free of diabetes by relying on the latest technology in treatments and supplies, no matter how good they might make them. We will always need to take the disease into account into everything we do, especially in challenging physical activities such as winter hiking, or whenever taking your insulin supply with you might pose an obstacle.
This experience was a great achievement for me, it helped me clear and open up my mind, as hiking always does, but more than ever it also served as a reminder of why continuing to search for a cure is so important.
Me below:
Thanks for reading,
– Stoyan
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