Skip to main content

#happydiabeticchallenge - Blue Friday

Today is the final day of the MAY you be a #happydiabeticchallenge - Blue Friday! Generally I wear blue on Friday for diabetes awareness, but today as I sent commands to the space station from the backroom I couldn't help but notice that Earth was dressed to the nines in her gorgeous blues! I decided to repost an entry I made from 2014. Happy Friday friends!



I would really quite like, a trip into space,
It’s such an adventure, it’s such a neat place.
The Earth’s glowing texture, a feast for the eyes,
The inky black heavens juxtaposed with sunrise.

The astro-thought hit me, when I was just five,
Inspired me to learn, have determination and drive.
Before understanding, the pile o’ paperwork,
Astronauts, it seems, must be free of all quirks.  

Diabetes was a significant bump in the road,
I got mad at the rules, I was going to explode.
It was unfair and cruel, that fateful diagnosis,
Even when the doctors said, “She has a great prognosis.”

“Why did this happen to me?” I would think,
Not realizing how the two worlds might interlink.
I decided hard work, was really the only way,
That my thoughts might take form…make a difference someday.

The astro-thought never left, this now 30-something’s mind,
Becoming a ‘naut, and leaving Earth behind.
I ache for the day, when “D” won’t decide,
My innate limitations on where I reside.

It is no secret, my soul longs to be free,
I can’t wait to float in zero gravity!
Flying to space will shatter the bounds,
Of this disease which [currently] holds me to the ground.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Rick PhilipsFriday, May 10, 2019

    I adore that picture for blue Friday. Yeah I wanted to be a scientist as well. Unfortunately, I am not that smart and I have diabetes. Oh well, I can admire form afar.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Who has two thumbs and loves comments? Nerdy April!!! Type one out and hit publish!

Popular posts from this blog

The road to curing Type 1 Diabetes

From the moment of diagnosis, the road is rough, the learning curve is steep and the stakes are literally life or death. The map is less-than-helpful - paths originating from virtually every corner, coalescing at a center point (aka "diagnosis") and bursting back outwards - some paths cross and wrap around each other but others are isolated. And even with all of these roads, most of the territory is uncharted - how did we all get here and how will we all exit? Where are the obstacles we haven't found yet? Which passage holds the key to unlocking the solution?

On any given day I feel pretty isolated with this disease - I'm the only T1D in my group at work, the only one in mission control, the only one in my family. I go through the logistics of calling insurance companies, ordering supplies, changing sites and troubleshooting malfunctions mostly on my own. Even those pesky carbs really only get counted in my brain, no group think for a meal bolus here. But there is b…
3 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »

Hot OJT

Last week I had the chance to mentor a newly certified ADCO trainee - the NASA process is called "Hot On-The-Job-Training", or Hot OJT. What makes it "hot" you ask? Well, essentially I am hands off - he is sitting at the console, working all the plan reviews and updates, making calls to other flight controllers and to the flight director, reacting to anomalies and preparing material for the shift handover. My job is to act as the fault tolerance - a backup ADCO of sorts.

Tuesday was his last official day and by Wednesday morning he was in the backroom sending commands to ISS in preparation for the docking of a three-person Soyuz.


The beauty of this system is the gradual buildup in responsibility. There is a subtle shift from student, to subject matter expert, to fresh operations trainee to advanced trainee and finally to certification and real-time operations flight controller - the process takes two years on average and is considered by many to be enough specializ…
2 comments
More Nerdy This Way! »

Dolla-betes

Healthcare is such a tricky subject. Ironically, it seems the conversation has shifted away from health CARE in favor of divisive politics with a healthy side of cash. But I'm here to tell you there are real people dealing with real diseases behind all those numbers. And with a laser focus on the rising cost of insulin lately and advocacy groups like #insulin4all making waves, it prompted me to take a look at my own T1D cost breakdown.

**Please keep in mind I have (pretty good!) private insurance through my husband's employer and our income allows us to absorb these costs without pinching too many pennies. We have also been graced with good health (diabetes notwithstanding) and rarely order any prescriptions outside of those for my T1D. But its clear only a slight shift in this delicate equation can make for a dire situation.

Here's what my out-of-pocket looks like to cover type 1 diabetes annually:


The numbers above reflect simply the "baseline operating costs"…
1 comment
More Nerdy This Way! »
01 09 10