The Sexy Diabetic

photo by Charles Earl   In January 2020, I began a fitness regime through Carleton University which had me attending the gym and the pool three times a week. This went wonderfully well until the pandemic came to Ottawa in March, and the gym had to close down. In June or so Carleton offered the Stretch and Strength class that I was doing on Zoom, which was completely foreign to me, but I joined again and attended as many times as I was capable of, when I wasn’t curled into an anxious ball about the pandemic.   Flash forward three years later and I’ve been pretty good about keeping to three times a week. I can even hold a plank for 50 seconds, which I would never have imagined in 2020 as being possible at all.   I haven’t been doing other physical activities much at all, unless you count sex with my husband and wanking (2-3 times a day, dear Libido, really?). This diagnosis means I have to ensure I keep moving, so I’ve embarked upon Project Amanda-in-Motion. I have to move every day.

  photo by Charles Earl The doctor told me something good; she said that she would give me a referral to the Diabetes Community Education Centre of Ottawa (see adjacent link) and someone would contact me to set up a consultation. They have dieticians, nurses and kinesiologists. This was reassuring to me. Charles and I have had to deal with a lot of stuff, like many of you, I’m sure, but even during my health crisis we weren’t alone. Aside from amazing friends, the medical staff at the General was exceptionally caring and helpful. I always feel less afraid and alone when I have help and support. I need that in this case very much. I’m trying not to be daunted or overwhelmed. Today I was out trying to figure out a few things that I might be able to eat that wouldn’t cause a blockage but were low in carbs and sugar and sodium. I was in my local grocery store randomly reading ingredients lists and acting shocked at the amount of sodium in everything when my cell phone rang. It was the re

My diagnosis was given to me by the receptionist of the family medical centre I’ve been going to for umpteen years. She called to make an appointment to address my diabetes management. Apparently the temporary doctor replacing my regular doctor had written “DM” on my chart, which stands for “Diabetes Management.”   I was surprised and asked the receptionist to talk to the doctor and receive clarification. I admit to you, dear reader that I was in the middle of my Zoom fitness workout when I took the call and it took me all my will power to resume the workout. I was upset. Upset not only because of hearing about the diagnosis that way, but also because of my backstory. TLDR: in 2009, out of the blue I developed full body sepsis and a toxic mega colon and wasn’t expected to survive. I had exploratory surgery, they removed the colon and I’m here! Yay! You can read a detailed log of what happened along with the experience on my Firebird and Phoenix blog (note links list on right hand sid

about to bloom (photo by Charles Earl)   I was recently diagnosed with diabetes. I decided to do what I did when I was recuperating from my near-death health crisis and start a blog to put everything relating to this experience up in public so that others who have gone through or are going through a health experience of any kind, but particularly diabetes can see that they are not alone. As a writer I also need a place to share my thoughts in order to articulate them. I’ll also be including whatever resources I learn about. Why the sexy diabetic? I think there’s a stigma attached to diabetes, perhaps many stigmas. In particular I’m talking about fat shaming and the point of view that those who have diabetes don’t do much physical activity and eat a bunch of junk food. So food shaming, fat shaming, ableist thinking (disability shaming) will not be part of this blog. You are a diabetic. You are sexy. And of course, I’m sexy as fuck.   I’m going to keep these entries short (I hope).   Tha