Medtronic 2nd Annual Bloggers Forum

About 15 months ago I began a project - this blog. I wrote my first post the night before the highly anticipated appointment at which I was due to attach to the insulin pump for the first time. Truth be told the thought of the cannulas, tubing, chunky pumps and being completely dependent on it made me very nervous. People I have met since hooking up for the first time seem to be excited about getting one but for me, it was a last resort. After years of continued failed attempts at obtaining any kind of 'control', I had admitted defeat and decided that this was the only way I would make it to adulthood (no comments please!) with all my limbs in tact and still able to read a book. So I waved my metaphorical white hankerchief in the air and accepted my fate. Before I'd even had a chance to get my first ever cannula change wrong, I was almost prettythat while my control may get better, the pump could well have been the end of my life as I knew it.

MAN I WAS WRONG!

The last year and a bit has been an enormous eye opener for me, including discovering my clapped out old body begin to repair itself thanks to improved blood sugar levels, meeting a diabetic community thriving in the face of adversity and inevitability and being lucky enough to be invited to some fantastic events, including joining (sort of) my friends Lee and Claudia on their 20km 'Diabetes Challenge' by wheelchair and bike raising money to give our shared condition the' V-sign' by completing a massive goal, diabetic aside. I never truly expected anyone to read my blog, seeing as it was effectively a slightly self-important public diary detailing me fumbling my way through cannula changes and kinked tubing. So to click on my blog today after a slightly embarassing amount of time away, to see that so far not only have I had 2675 clicks on my blog, of which I am sure 20 or so of those weren't even mine, but I am also number 2 on the google result list if you type in 'Insulin Independent'. I mean if that isn't acceptance I don't know what is!

Seriously though, the experiences I have been lucky enough to go through in the last year have been entirely humbling and have opened my world up so much more than I ever believed it could. I have met people with whom I know I will remain life-long friends, have met people young and old alike who have inspired me to work that little bit harder when it comes to blood sugar control, and have been lucky enough to do all this while staying fit and healkthy. Something us in Club-D can nevr take for granted. So when I was recently asked if I would like to take part in the Second annual Medtronic Bloggers forum, which is held in Geneva, I almost fell off my chair!

"Me? Really?" is what I asked myself for the first week or so, before it really sunk in.

Having now had a chance to read some of the blogs written by the other bloggers going, I feel fairly confident that Medtronic have in fact made some kind of massive clerical error and are a little too far down the line to correct it, but I love nothing more than to get in a room with other pancreatically defective people and talk about all things diabetes, so give me a pen and show me where to sign up!

More on this later!