November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and today, November 14th, is World Diabetes Day (WDD). So, why all the fuss? It seems there’s a holiday for everything now-a-days…National Milk Day, Kiss a Ginger Day, National Selfie Day (WTF, get a life), National Inner Beauty Day, National Cheese Day (okay, this is one I can get behind)… there is a day for virtually everything, so I get why it might be hard to take WDD seriously. 

WDD was around before making everything into a holiday was trendy. WDD was established in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the WHO (World Health Organization). Okay, so why November 14th? This day marks the birth date of Frederick Banting, who is one of the two gentleman that discovered insulin back in the 1920’s!

Before insulin was around, a type one diabetes diagnosis was a terminal diagnosis. People got sick, went into DKA and died. That was it. There’s this classic black and white photo of one of the first children treated with insulin; he is grossly malnourished, reportedly in DKA and on deaths’ door; he received insulin, and fast forward to a few months later – he was a completely different looking kid – healthy and plump. 

People, including myself, use the phrase “I couldn’t live without (insert object/person/activity)” so flippantly; most of the time when we use this phrase, we truthfully can live without it. It’s different here – I would not be alive without insulin. I hate saying it, and I hate writing it. It is one of the scariest things for me to think about. My life is dependent on a medication, and this dependence is such a challenge to my ego and to my incessant need for control. I often think about natural disasters, being stranded, insulin pump failure, closed pharmacies and the like; anything that threatens my ability to have access to insulin is terrifying and threatens my sanity. 

Fears and egos aside…how blessed and lucky am I? To be lucky enough to have a refrigerator full of Humalog vials. To live in a time when there is not just one option for insulin treatment, but many. To imagine that insulin has been around for less than 100 years is actually unimaginable to me. 

Mr. Frederick Banting and Mr. Charles Best – I owe you my life.