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Happy World Diabetes Day ladies and gentlemen!

I wondered what to write about today, it being the awareness day. I also wish I'd started this earlier in the evening, but that's my fault.  But what springs to mind right now, is where we've come from, and where we're going. My knowledge of diabetes past,which sounds rather like the Ghost of Christmas past, and I suppose isn't that far off, is rather shaky.  But from what I know, before the discovery of insulin therapy, a diagnosis of diabetes was tantamount to a death sentence. Having been through DKA, and knowing that it's rather unpleasant, I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. And that's not even having experienced DKA as far as it can go, since mine was caught before it could turn really nasty. Then there was a long time before there was access to blood testing. Boiling syringes, and all these other things that I know of only anecdotally, so I shan't pretend to be able to comment on. All I know is that I'm glad that I'm living here in the present.

Here in the present, I'm one of millions having to deal with this disease daily. Every day, we test, we calculate, we adjust, we inject, we treat. We battle against popular myths and misconceptions which are perpetuated by shoddy journalism and ignorance. Ignorance breeds ignorance, and we have to do what we can to try and battle that. To try and make sure that everyone who handles diabetes day in and day out have the tools at their disposal to keep complications at bay, and to help live life as best they can. Which a lot of the time is great. Because as well as all the things we do day in and day out, we also live every day. We laugh, we smile, we love, and we hope. We hope for better days when we have ones that aren't so great. We hope for improvements. We hope for better public understanding. We hope for less ignorance and prejudice. And most of all, we hope for a cure. I am fairly confident that I can speak for the masses here when I say that, more than anything, we hope for a cure.

We're here in a time of insulin, of portable testing kits, of pumps. But we're also in a time where diabetes supplies still aren't available for hundreds of thousands of people. Whether it's a type 2 diabetic who can't get test strips from their GP, and are told they don't need to test, or someone desperate for access to a pump to try and get a better handle on their control. Or worse, people in developing countries who die simply because they have no access to insulin, or cannot afford it if it is available.  That last part makes me cry. It also makes me so thankful for what I have, and what we all have. And it also makes me hope and pray even harder for a cure. If not for myself, for all those who are a hell of a lot worse of than I am.

Let's never stop hoping, guys. Who knows what the future will bring?