Last week I was attending a 3 day Leadership Training course at a facility outside of Las Vegas. All 30 of the attendees were strangers to one another and all from different industries from all over the country! I was very nervous about how I was going to do after finding out so many of these people were owners, vice presidents, and upper management for their companies. I was not sure how I would hold up around all these professionals!


We got our room assignments and I knew we would be staying in small dorm rooms. They were more like hotel rooms with 2 bunk beds in them. I was lucky enough to get a bottom bunk so my night time visits to the rest room would not wake up my bunk partner as much as jumping down and climbing back up would have.


After I laid my stuff on my bed and was ready to head down to our first session, I noticed one of my roommates was also leaving. Knowing that we were going to spend a few days in the same room I walked up to him and introduced myself. And soon as I shook his hand I noticed a familiar site. A very distinct, small, thin length of clear hose running from his belt into his pocket.


"Is that an insulin pump?" I ask with no hesitation.


"That is correct" my new roomy says.


I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Minimed 722 which I have affectionately named "Master P." He pulls out a Cozmo pump which made me totally drool! I have never seen a different model then my own so I was really interested on how it worked. He showed me how his pump has a built in BG meter right on the back and how the wizard works for calculating his boluses. I told him about how the 722 can be used with CGMS and how I am hoping Santa brings me some sensors for Christmas!


Needless to say, a bond was formed.


As we descended down a flight of stairs to our classroom we discovered that we were seated next to each other which was comforting. Throughout our time there we always asked how each other was doing and how our BG was. It was interesting how much our blood sugars fluctuate as compared to one another since he is a type 2 and I am a type 1.


We talked about our struggles, triumphs, fears, concerns, ups, downs, and everything in between.


I remember at one meal as we were sitting with a bunch of new friends we both were describing to them what life is like with diabetes.

"Everything you eat. Every snack. Every meal. Every drink. You have to think about and know what is in it." He said.

"And if you run up a flight of stairs, or your food shows up to the table burnt you have to act on that. If you are stressed out, have a meeting, go out to a movie you have to have diabetes on your mind" I add.


We looked at each other as if we both just heard something for the first time. We both realized how difficult it is to live with diabetes and how proud we should be of ourselves for doing our best to deal with this disease.


Here we are trying to learn how to become leaders in our lives and we both see that we are leaders. Leaders of our health! If we did not keep diabetes on our mind then it would be leading us. What a simple but important discovery.


So if diabetes is a part of your life, you should be proud of yourself. It is anything but easy to deal with disease. Congratulations on being a leader!