Type 1 Diabetes looks like...

A blond boy who just finished third grade and has been losing weight. His parents think it’s from a growth spurt, but he's pale. Something isn't right.

It’s a 23-year-old woman who is starting her career in journalism and lately, she is always thirsty.  She keeps extra sodas in her drawer at work and a water bottle with her everywhere she goes.

It looks like a 6-year-old poking his finger at a birthday party, squeezing out a precious droplet of blood and then laying that blood on a test strip…waiting for the countdown, 
3…2…1... 
He wants cake. It all depends on that number.

A blond boy who just finished third grade and has been losing weight. His parents think it’s from a growth spurt, but he's pale. Something isn't right.

It’s a 23-year-old woman who is starting her career in journalism and lately, she is always thirsty.  She keeps extra sodas in her drawer at work and and endures the embarrassment. She likes to stay in the background. Diabetes doesn’t let her.

It’s a 50-year-old man in the middle of an important meeting, and he has to pee. It cannot wait. He forgot to give himself insulin for lunch and his body is insisting on purging the extra sugar. He has to leave the meeting for a moment. His clients are unimpressed.

It’s a school principal injecting glucagon into a student who is on the ground, unresponsive from a low blood sugar. His hands shake violently. He was shown how to give the shot once. He’s scared.

It’s a 15-year-old boy at halftime, running to his parents on the sidelines for his stash of Gatorade so his body can sustain him for the second half.

It is a thousand people wearing blue at a stadium, raising funds and walking together for themselves, their family, and their friends. They desperately want a cure. The news stations aren't covering it this year.

It’s a widowed father setting his alarm for every two hours to make sure his child is safe during the night. His son has the flu. He’s contemplating going to the emergency room.

It’s the ADA offering legal services to a family whose school refuses to let their child attend because they have diabetes. It requires oversight from a nurse. They don’t have funds for a nurse.

It’s an Endocrinologist, looking into the eyes of devastated parents, telling them that their child’s body doesn’t make insulin anymore. They will have to give him shots for the rest of his life. The future they imagined for their child has changed. They mourn deeply because of it.

It is a 32 year old mother sitting on the floor in a grocery store, singing to her baby until the banana does it’s job and brings up her blood sugar up so she can walk again.

It’s a 21 year old college student injecting insulin before he eats a candy bar and another student standing next to him saying, “Isn’t that candy bar the reason you have diabetes in the first place. Should you be eating that?” The student is too tired to explain it’s autoimmune. They probably won’t understand anyway.

It looks like a father, who after being told of his child’s diagnosis, was also told that cure will most likely come in the next five years. He winces because he was told the same thing 25 years ago when he was diagnosed.

It’s a 38-year-old woman going back for yet another eye test. She’s worried about the complications from having diabetes her entire life. She’s scared to death she might be losing her vision in her right eye. She can’t talk to anyone about it. She feels so alone.

It’s a group of children traveling to Washington D.C. to personally ask the government to help fund research for a cure. They are poised. They are eloquent. The men in the offices have 10 minutes for them.

It’s two parents hunched over their checkbook. It’s either buy insulin or pay their mortgage this month.

It looks like regular people living regular lives. But nothing is regular. Every moment is touched by this disease. No days off. What is eaten, what is done, where is traveled, it is all touched by blood sugars and insulin.

The truth is, Type 1 Diabetes looks just like me.

And it looks just like you too.

But if we’ve been taught anything in our lives it is this: You can’t judge a book by its cover.

Some diseases seem invisible.

 But the effects on people’s lives are anything but.