Diabetes: The Musical

By | 21 August, 2009
There's no business like show business!

There’s no business like show business!

My fair city of Edinburgh is currently in the grip of the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe. For those that don’t know, the city plays host to the world’s largest arts festival. Each August a bewildering number of plays, dance routines, comedy shows, musical extravaganzas, street performances are put on in a warren of tiny, damp, uncomfortable venues scattered around town.

Every year we’re subject to a vast range of performances, ranging from the truly brilliant and inspired to the truly awful and downright bizarre. And not being one to miss out on anything, I thought we could all club together, hire a venue and put on:

Diabetes: The Musical!

It would be brilliant and would chart the daily highs and lows of being diabetic in the modern world through the medium of cheery song and dance. And I’ll think you’ll agree, there’s no better medium for broadcasting information about life-threatening chronic conditions than cheery song and dance.

I expect some of us can carry a tune (though actually being able to sing is probably just an optional extra); I did a bit of theatre lighting and sound at school; and my wife is very handy with a sewing machine and could knock-up colourful costumes. So we’re sorted – all we need now are lyrics.

It’s early days yet, but here are a few rhyming couplets I’ve knocked out so far that could form the basis of some songs:

It’s morning and I’m feeling low
I’ve got a busy day and I hope I don’t hypo

My friends just say I’m just sweet
But without insulin I’m incomplete

It’s true that on the blog we’re sometimes outspoken
But that’s just because our pancreases are broken

Some people think it’s just an affection
But we’re dead without our daily injection

When I was high I used to be a grump
But that’s a thing of the past now I have my pump

So there we have it – further suggestions below in the usual place. I think with only a tiny bit more work we’re only one step away from a sure-fire five-star Festival hit!

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About Tim

Diagnosed with Type One when he was 28, Tim founded Shoot Up in 2009. For the diabetes geeks, he wears a Medtronic 640G insulin pump filled with Humalog and uses Abbott's Libre flash glucose monitor.

15 thoughts on “Diabetes: The Musical

  1. Alison

    Brilliant! Where can I audition?

    I’ve written a couple of ditties for the inevitable sad bit of the musical, before the grand finale.

    They’ve withdrawn funding for my CGMS
    Without that my life is a mess

    Damn and blast I’m only 2 mmol
    Please hurry now and pass me some Dextrosol

    Reply
  2. Tim

    Ah, you get a guaranteed place Alison – the privilege of office!

    Some more couplets:

    At my annual check-up I get congratulations
    Because I haven’t developed any complications

    Needles I don’t like, but it really makes me cringe
    When I have to get out my ancient old syringe

    Too expensive these nasty strips
    I wish there were as cheap as chips

    Reply
  3. Mark

    Okay, I’m game, but only if we can add a Monty Python theme complete with coconuts and a holy grail. 😀

    Reply
  4. Mark

    God: What are you doing now?
    King Arthur: Averting our eyes, oh Lord.
    God: Well, don’t. It’s just like those miserable psalms, always so depressing. Now knock it off!

    Reply
    1. Tim

      It *will* happen George. Nothing is stopping us.

      Aside from any discernible talent that is…

      Reply
  5. Ckoei

    One of your British diabetic brethren has already had a go: Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, with his smash hit, D-vita. Have you never burst forth with “Don’t cry for me, Euglycaemia” when up above 10 or down below 4?

    (And MP’s Professor Ann(e) Elk could just as well be talking about the action profile of short-acting insulin when discussing the general shape of dinosaurs: thin at both ends with a lump in the middle)

    Reply
  6. Pingback: Diabetes the Musical: First Draft | Shoot Up or Put Up

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