That Stupid Pancreas!

Let's get one thing clear right off the bat: I'm a Scout. When I say camping, I do not mean staying in a trailer with heat/air conditioning and having a microwave where its easy to heat up frozen food with carb counts. That is called  glamping. I'm talking about sleeping in a tent, where the weather doesn't cooperate and you can't adjust it with a switch. I'm talking about cooking food over the campfire, doing your business in the woods (or an outhouse if you're lucky), and unplugging from social media. This is REAL camping! I like to go camping because it is fun to disconnect form devices and reconnect with nature. It feels awesome to climb trees, go for a hike, take nature photos, and paint beautiful scenery. However, camping can be problematic when you live with T1diabetes. There are a few key things to remember. Depending on what time of year you're camping, there are different things you might be doing. In my six years of Scouting and goi...

Sorry I've been kind of MIA for the past few weeks, but life has been pretty hectic! Along with working through a few Grade 9 courses and volunteering at two day-camps, I was just diagnosed with celiac disease last week, so I just haven't had the time to write a blog post. However, today I am officially back in business with a post explaining all about celiac and how to live with it safely! First thing's first, celiac is an autoimmune disease just like T1diabetes is. Oh, one second: A Brief Moment in Anne's Diabetic Dictionary T1diabetes; noun short-form Pronunciation: type-won-dye-uh-bee-tees 1. A short-form for the term "type 1 diabetes." Other variations of the short-form "T1diabetes" include: "T1diabetic" Antonyms include: "T2diabetes" (type 2 diabetes) Used in a sentence: "T1diabetes and T2diabetes are very different things." This Has Been a Brief Moment in Anne's Diabetic Dictionary ... ...

Note from Anne ~ This post was written by my lovely mother who was more than happy to share some of her experience of parenting a T1Diabetic teen with an active lifestyle in summer. Many thanks to her and please enjoy! We are two and a half years into this adventure, now, and we have just begun our third summer of fun with type 1! Now, I can only speak to our own specific experiences in dealing with the extra activity, the effects of heat, and the excitement of more time with friends that summer brings because every person’s response to these factors is different. I will focus not on specific advice but rather the guiding principles I use to make sure we continue to follow our golden rule – kid first, diabetes second. Anne is one busy person, in general, but summer brings new opportunities to be out in the world, and she takes advantage of as many as she can - volunteering at different camps, going out with friends, camping out in the “boonies” of Haliburton with her Scout tr...

I have been a Boston Pizza Youth Ambassador (which, for the rest of this post, I am going to refer to as a BPYA because that's considerably shorter) for JDRF since November 2018, and I am loving every minute of it! As a BPYA, I have two main jobs. My first job is advocating for Type 1 diabetes and raising awareness through JDRF (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). At each JDRF event I volunteer at, I answer questions that people have about Type 1. I explain about the fact that it's an autoimmune condition, and that "eating too much sugar" or "not exercising enough" has nothing to do with being diagnosed with Type 1. Basically, I help to end diabetes stereotypes by educating people who don't know what Type 1 is. Advocacy and awareness go hand in hand. Advocacy leads to awareness, and awareness means that T1Diabetics can fit into society normally. Actually, we're already doing that. T1Diabetics are already a normal part of society, it...

This year's Sun Life Toronto Walk to Cure Diabetes for JDRF was at CANADA'S FREAKING WONDERLAND, and I really enjoyed participating in it and seeing all the people who came out to show their support! The Sun Life Walk to Cure Diabetes for JDRF brings together 35,000 Canadians across sixty communities in the country affected by Type 1 diabetes -- T1Diabetics, their siblings, their friends, their cousins, their aunts, their uncles, their parents, their Scout leaders, their teachers -- to unite, get loud, and raise money to accelerate the pace of Type 1 diabetes research. The Toronto Walk raised about $450,000 this year! A bunch of my family and friends came out to walk with me, which I greatly appreciated and enjoyed! There were 3,000 participants in the Toronto Walk this year! The weather was absolutely perfect! Not too hot, not too cold. All in all, it was just an incredible experience. Everyone we met was really enthusiastic...