In my first year of diagnosis, I was laden with books, journals, articles, magazines and video-tapes : EVERYTHING ever written/recorded about diabetes.
And it was bloody boring.
The same, dull-looking covers; the authors' names on the back- all cast from the same mould with a trizillion qualifications in medicine; the same content beginning with "the Difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes" and ending with a calorie chart or an FAQ's section.
I would only read three things in all these books, and in this order-
1. Should diabetics Smoke?
2. Alcohol consumption for diabetics.
and snigger while reading
3. Pregnancy and its complications in diabetic women.
In my defence I was a 10 year old burdened with excessive information and way beyond my understanding- I had to find some way to entertain myself.
But while these books (which I later did manage to read for the purpose they were originally given to me) would tell a person everything about the medical condition that is diabetes, they said nothing about the life that comes gift-wrapped with it- SURPRISE!
They did not, for example prepare me for how to tell friends about what I had suddenly been inflicted with, or what to do when somebody looked at me sympathetically and said "you poor child, what a tragedy".
Or when the games teacher would look with pitiful eyes at my outstretched hand and say, "You can't participate in the sports competitions, beta ; you might fall sick".
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