It was easy to ignore diabetes when the effects of poor blood sugar management were intangible. When I don't feel sick, when I feel normal despite eating carb-laden foods and not countering with exercise or insulin, I felt like if I had complications they were so far down the road that I would just deal with it then.

And then, something happened. Something that could have been a result of poor diabetes care or just a fluke or just something that happens to me.

Most winters the heel of my right foot cracks badly enough-despite daily lotion therapy and foot scrubs in the shower at least once a week-that it's painful to walk. Most winters that crack gets bad enough that I pick at it until it opens up and I can peel off the dead skin. There's no blood, nothing unmanageable. It's then that I can walk normally. This is winter time, when dry, cracked feet are normal for me.

Recently I got that familiar cracked-foot-pain. Why is this significant? It was summer. And that pain and potential crack was in my left foot. I tried to tell myself that maybe it was new shoes or that it was because I was wearing more sandals than usual this summer. Even though one of my friendly Diabetic Mommies said that sometimes people just have dry, cracked feet even with the best foot care and no diabetes, I kept picturing my endo poking my foot with a straight pin. "Do you feel that?" he would ask in a way that makes me chuckle now because he sounded so much like the guy from the Verizon wireless commercials.

Pre-diabetes, I was able to dismiss many ailments as things that just happen, that's just the way it is. It's hard now, though, to know where to draw the line, to know what to chalk up to the Big D and what is just part of who I am. But, I guess, diabetes is part of who I am.