Ah, insulin, we've had quite the ride haven't we?
In the beginning, I was sure you were my enemy and, just like the scared, little kid I was, I avoided you at all costs - my health included.
Instead of me being your recipient, my mom's plants were injected full of you. But after the plants had all been massacred and I had been sentenced to Children's Hospital and was forced to accept your wisdom, our relationship gradually evolved into something that is now quite beautiful.
Some might even call it BFF-like.
And so today, dear insulin, I pay you homage.
Monday was World Diabetes Day and I'll be honest, despite having this disease for more than 24 years, I had no clue that Nov. 14 carried that international designation until just last month. It probably had something to do with the fact that I never really cared and I'm kind of dubious about the whole "World [fill in the blank] Day" thing.
All day on Monday, the Twitter feed, blogs, even my own email was buzzing with people expressing happiness about this day. I don't know how many times I saw the phrase "Happy World Diabetes Day" posted.
Really? Are we happy about diabetes? Really?
Diabetes, despite its many attempts - and my early complicity - hasn't ruined me.
I'm alive. I'm healthy. I'm happy.
But I'm not happy about this disease. So, no, I did not say "Happy World Diabetes Day" on Monday.
But I did say "Thanks" to those super duper, totally awesome, Canadian superheroes for the invention of insulin.
In fact, I do every day.
In 1921, 90 years ago, Dr. Frederick Banting and med student Charles Best discovered that insulin taken from the pancreas of cows could save the lives of humans. They fought against the odds, fought to do the research when others doubted its importance. And even when they were given a tiny, decaying lab to work out of at the University of Toronto, they didn't back down.
Their discovery was a miracle for us diabetics.
Before Banting and Best, before Humulin-R and NPH, Humalog and Lantus, Novorapid and Levimir (all insulins I have taken over the years), we diabetics were crammed into a hospital room and starved - Third-World-village, hair-falling-out, bellies-extended starved - to enable us just a few more years on Earth.
I'm betting those weren't exactly the most enjoyable years.
My life, while not always easy, has been nothing like that. I can eat chocolate, I can run marathons, I can have a love-hate relationship with the Grouse Grind, I can go to work every day. I can dream. I can live.
Thanks to Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best.
Insulin is not a cure, not even close, but it has given me and thousands of others like me life. So, for my parents, my siblings, my husband, my friends and myself, I give thanks to Banting and Best from the bottom of my healthy heart.
And apparently I wasn't the only one paying homage to Canada's superheroes on World Diabetes Day, which also happened to be Banting's birthday. Have you seen Canada's new polymer $100 bill that was unveiled that? Front and centre, an old-school insulin vial.
Good job, Canada.
Katie Bartel is a reporter atThe Chilliwack Progress, a Black Presssister paper of The Tri-City News.
kbartel@theprogress.com
