I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes twenty-five years ago. Twenty-five years is a long time to live with something. It is an especially long time to live with something that requires tight control. Twenty-five years is enough time to have seen lots of bad days, lots of good days, and lots and lots of in betweens. And it is enough time for me to have had the good fortune of seeing vast improvements in access to information and treatment, developments and improvements in technology and even some improvements in (GASP!) what health insurers are willing to cover.

Gone are "THOSE days," as my mother likes to refer to them. Those days of urine testing and wild guessing. Those days of no home blood glucose monitoring. Those days of torturous lancing devices and brick-sized glucose meters. Those days of lack of insurance coverage for lancets and test strips and even syringes. Those days of hand-written logs that never helped in tracking things properly. Those days of rigorously monitored eating and foods lacking taste.

And HERE are the days of fancy, ever-smaller, ever more well-equipped testing devices and virtually painless lancing devices. Here are the days of monitoring ketones - not in urine but in blood! Here are the days of co-payments and deductibles that make this disease at least slightly more affordable. Here are the days of spreadsheets for tracking results and doses. Here are the days of infusion sets and insulin pumps. Here are the days of eating what everyone else is eating and covering those carbs.

I can remember before my diagnosis, watching my grandmother give herself insulin. She was diagnosed in her early thirties with what they thought was type 2. Now, we think it was likely she had LADA. She went on and off of insulin for years. Her bloodsugars bouncing up and down, the complications starting in her late 40s. I wonder what her life would have been like if she'd been 30 and diagnosed in 2007 rather than in the 1950s. I wonder if she'd still be with us today.

Although I am thankful for everything I have to help me control my diabetes, what I am most thankful for is the network of support, new innovations, and the brilliant minds I've met through my online diabetes-related interactions.

There is nothing quite like this network of writers and friends I've met through putting my experiences out there for others to share. The encouragement and support I receive is unmatched - when I read about the experiences of others and when others relate so easily to the daily challenges I once faced alone - I feel buoyed, I feel powerful in the face of diabetes. The Diabetes Online Community (DOC) makes it hard to wallow. Makes it hard to not want to reach out and hold our DOC friends when they're struggling.

There is nothing quite like a logging system that I can access from anywhere. A logging system designed by someone with diabetes that includes means for tracking food, medicine, and activity. A logging system that allows me to share my numbers - and my notes - and my struggles with my doctor, my family, my friends. Sugarstats makes it hard for me to make excuses. Makes it hard to for me to say 'I don't have time to log.' Makes it hard for me to NOT log.

There is nothing quite like a social networking site that surrounds me with others who have diabetes. A social networking site where topics like "Ugh! What a bad d-day" and "Pump recommendations?" are the norm and where people understand when you write something like "325??? Yuck" and nothing else. Tudiabetes makes it hard to feel alone and provides a community where people with type 1 and type 2, caretakers, and others can feel at home. Makes it hard for us to deny that the frustrations that people with type 1 and type 2 face are really NOT that different.

All of these things greatly enhance my life. They are as important as my fancy meter, my insurance coverage, my insulin pump. These sites and moreover, the people behind them, make it hard to think about "THOSE days." Make it hard for me to understand how I ever lived with diabetes - without all that I have today.

Around the Holidays, I am even more thankful for these blessings. I can only imagine what the next twenty-five years hold. I do hope that someday, I'll be linked to a community of "used-to-be diabetics" and I'll be writing about "THOSE OLD days" filled with challenges and "THESE new days" of meters and pumps for which I have no use.