On November 14, 2011, Ivanka Lupenec from the Canadian Diabetes Association joined 30 eager children and staff at a local Vancouver BC childcare centre to celebrate World Diabetes Day. These wide eyed, very attentive children learned about diabetes, the 90th Anniversary of the Discovery of Insulin in Canada, and what they will do to bring diabetes awareness to their families and in their community. They are young diabetes champions who will spread the word and make a difference!

Langara College Nursing students Vanessa and Alanna created this “90th Anniversary of the Discovery of Insulin” signature board to celebrate World Diabetes Day 2011. At local Canadian Diabetes Association events in Vancouver, BC, individuals were invited to unite with the community to celebrate this great Canadian Discovery.

This November 12, 2011 marks my 1 year anniversary of being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I was supposed to go out to celebrate my birthday which is November 13 but couldn’t. I spent that night, a year ago, in the ER as doctors and nurses tried to safely lower my blood sugar, which was at 31 that night, as well as explain to me what diabetes was and how my life will change. I remember the emotions and the feelings of shock, sadness and fear. Being numb is how I felt the whole night and into the next day. I felt like I was standing in a pool with the water flowing over my head, couldn’t breathe and couldn’t get to the surface. They told me it was a disease, my mind thinks of a disease as being sick and I did not feel sick. That denial was the ugliest and one of the most important stages of life I have ever had.

A year now past and I’m still Angelica. I cannot believe the amount of information I have learned which allows me to live a healthier lifestyle that isn’t as restricted as I once thought. It was difficult learning all of this, mostly on my own, since I live away from my parents, was 20 years old at the time, living with my younger brother, and having to deal with a major lifestyle change. I still get overwhelmed, angry, sad and fearful but I feel like I am moving in the right direction towards one day accepting my diabetes. I still see my nurse, dietitian, social worker and endo but I feel so much more confident about my diabetes.

That confidence was confirmed one day when I went to a walk-in because of a dance related injury. I had done some blood work as well as x-rays and ultrasounds of my leg. When looking at my blood work, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other things, the doctor told me I was a text-book example of a healthy person and I started laughing. I asked if she knew I was a type 1 diabetic. She looked up from her clipboard with a puzzled look on her face and shook her head. She told me she was very impressed and couldn’t believe despite having this disease I was healthier than people who are free of disease.

I continue to educate myself about the disease as well as the research and innovation that is coming about. While learning, I found out World Diabetes Day is the day after my birthday and November is Diabetes Month and I was diagnosed on the 12th. It is amazing that I was born and now live in the city, Toronto, which was the birthplace of insulin. Crazy how some things just fall into place like that.

My goals when it comes to my diabetes change all the time, but the over arching goal is to keep myself healthy so I can continue enjoying life and to merge my diabetes into my life and allow life and diabetes to co-exist and not trump each other. That to me seems like a healthy, balanced lifestyle

The Bramalea Community Health Centre staff are my champions because….. Not only did they 100% support wearing blue for diabetes day November 2009, but to celebrate diabetes month the staff became PLoWD (person living with diabetes).
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes over 36 years ago. My son was diagnosed 1 year ago Mother’s Day. Having heard many variations on “you should be doing this” or “why aren’t you doing that” I began to think, would you be able to do what you are asking others to do? This then lead to the development of the “Walking in my shoes” experience.
The Medical Office Assistants, Physiotherapist, Social Worker, RNs, N.Ps, Physicians, Community Health Educators, Data Manager, Health Promoter, and Management all had the opportunity to experience the day to day regime from the perspective of someone living with diabetes.
Individuals chose either multiple daily injection (dry injections 4 times a day) or insulin pump (saline was substituted for insulin). They were given training from the Diabetes Team Dietitians and RNs on treatment, management, and nutrition. Some were placed on medication regimes (tic tacs). All were trained on meter testing and requested to test 3-4 times a day minimum. All were given 3-4 envelopes to be opened at specific times. The contents would read “your blood sugar is 2.4mmol/L. Treat with the enclosed dextrose tablets (sweet tarts) and follow the instructions on “treatment of a low blood sugar”. Everyone found it to be an invaluable experience. All reported how challenging it was.
I would like to thank my wonderful DEP team that listened to my crazy ideas and through creative collaboration made this event better than I would have imagined.
A special thank you goes to Angela Roode from Medtronic, Salim Lakhani from Sanofi-Aventis, and from Bayer. Your support and contributions were immeasurable.
I would like to thank the Bramalea Community Health Centre’s Executive Director Mayo Hawco for not rolling her eyes when I presented the idea, and for allowing us to take over the staff meeting without letting the cat out of the bag.
Above all I would like to thank all the wonderful staff at BCHC for making this event so successful. They went above and beyond what most would do to experience some of the day in and day out challenges those of us face living with diabetes.
They all are true Diabetes CHAMPIONS!