Happy World D-Day!

Today is what they call "World Diabetes Day" and so far no one has sent me an email or even a cake.  That is OK because right now I am on cloud nine from this past weekends camping trip.  I think that is where the Diabetic Camper should always be, in the woods. 

We had two groups hiking the Oklahoma hills of Atoka.  This trail was so nice and everyone loved the terrain.  Above you can see my backpack all loaded down before we head out on our two day journey into the woods.  Of course as you can tell I am testing my blood sugars before we leave. 

See my layers above?  Stocking cap, baseball cap (stocking caps make my ears hurt so the baseball cap helps keep them safe) then you see my wicking polyester undershirt and my cotton t-shirt on top.  Then there is my trusty compass I have had since the age of 11 when my father gave it to me.  He even scratched my name in it so no one else would take it.  I love that compass.  Do I look like diabetes has me down in this photo?  No, because I just finished peeing and was getting ready to load up and continue down the trail.

Do you think the spider thinks about life as it crosses the trail?  Getting out and about in nature like this my diabetes seem to be far behind.  I test regularly, and as my friend Ken says I suck down glucose tablets at a pace of one for every fifteen minutes of hiking.  This place had all sorts of hidden nature.

I wanted this fender so bad.  We had lunch down the trail from it and if I had seen it earlier this rusty gold would have been tied to my pack.  I wonder how long this has been in the woods.  Was I thinking about my diabetes at this time?  No, I was not because finding cool stuff like this takes priority.

These pictures were my attempt at getting a small milk snake that had crawled into one of the boys packs as we rested on the trail.  It took him a little bit to be convinced that it was not venomous, dangerouse, or that another snake did not crawl into his backpack as well.

I tried for five minutes to get a good photo of this guy and he just kept right along moving and crawling in the foliage.  Was I wondering what my blood sugars were at this time?  No, I wanted a good photo darn it.

At the end of each day, and well I guess during each day I do always think about my diabetes.  I had an old doctor once tell me that if you did not think about your diabetes at least seven times a day you are doing something wrong.  I would adjust that to at least 20 times a day and even then I am usually doing something wrong.  What do they say, just keep it between the lines and everything will work out in the end.  I think that is how diabetics do it.  We just keep it between the safe lines and check, test, and do it all over again the next day.  It is a depressing disease because it is not seen on the outside and I would non-scientifically say that 90% of people think that you just don't eat sugar and all is well. Then throw in the non-scientific 80% of diabetics are type two and well the rest of us just deal with it the best we can from childhood to the end.