Why do I blog?

By | 7 May, 2009
Alison blogging. Honest.

Alison blogging. Honest.

I’ve talked before about the things I’ve learnt from the interweb  but that doesn’t explain why I blog.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while. I’d been inspired by the many American bloggers talking about type 1. And while diabetes is the same the world over, I was disappointed by the lack of British bloggers giving their view on life with diabetes in the UK.

This is the bit where I’m meant to talk about how I worked so hard to set up a site yadda, yadda, yadda but I’m afraid it’s not true. I’d thought about it, talked about it, doubted whether I’d be able to think up enough stuff to write about and never quite got round to it.

Then I bumped into Tim online, another British type 1 who’d just started blogging and wanted a co-writer. I told the husband “darling, I’ve met a man on the interweb” and he gave me that “I’m not even going to ask” look and our blogging partnership was born.

But why do I do it? I’ve always talked about my diabetes, to people I meet, at conferences, at work. I don’t hide it. If I hide it away it feels like diabetes is just baggage that I drag around with me. If I talk about it there’s a purpose to having diabetes – I can share my experiences, help other people, learn from what they have to say.

At this point I feel I must disclose that since I got the pump this does go a bit too far at times. I have been found in a bar at a diabetes conference having a conversation with a male nurse along the lines of “I bet you can’t guess where I’ve hidden my pump” and “poke my thigh, see there’s my infusion set” all with the aim of educating people about the pump and how easy it is to hide!

Please believe me when I say that most of the time I manage to avoid such blatant exhibitionism, but I have always done some kind of voluntary work around diabetes – fundraising, lobbying, writing, public speaking – and I know that it makes me feel better. I stopped for a couple of years after I graduated because I had too many things going on but I really missed it. I seemed to be missing a reason for being diabetic.

So, it appears that blogging is my therapy and (excluding the occasional issue) I enjoy it, so I’ll carry on.

Category: The Blog Tags: ,

About Alison

Diagnosed with Type One in 1983 at the age of four, Alison's been at this for a while now. She uses Humalog in a combined insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring system and any blood glucose meter as long as it takes five seconds or less.

4 thoughts on “Why do I blog?

  1. Pingback: Good diabetic? Bad diabetic? | Shoot Up or Put Up

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