Tell him I say hello! ... here's why :)

I’ve never had a whole lot of patience with people sending their regards.

“Please send her my love!”

“Tell him I say hi!”

“Send her my fond regards.”

I’ve always thought it was a bit naff, and a bit of a waste of time.

I confess, I frequently forgot to pass on these messages of intended love and hellos.

But I tell you, since I got so sick all that has changed.

I have had messages of love (and regards) and good-health-wishing flowing in from all sides — friends, colleagues, internet buddies, readers, parents’ friends, friends’ friends whose names I don’t recognise, ex-lovers, even my class teacher from 15 years ago.

And you know something?

It works! Through email or SMS or passed-on message or blog comment or thought wave or phone call, it works. All those individual messages band together to form an invisible network of support, and I can feel it.

Apparently it can take up to 18 months for newly diagnosed type-one diabetics to accept their condition. When I read that I scoffed (possibly out loud). Eighteen months? Ha! I had accepted it within a week. But then my head cleared a little (as my sugars came down to almost normal) and it hit me: I’m not going to recover from diabetes.

I’m recovering from the hospital stay and the shock, and I’m going to reach a point where my sugars have totally stabilised, but I will always be diabetic.

This might seem obvious, and when I read that diabetes is a chronic condition that you have for life, I was in agreement. It’s just, I hadn’t thought about having it for my life. Any time I go on holiday, any time I want to set off for a serendipitous picnic, every time I go out, I have to take into account that I’m diabetic. I’ll be a diabetic bride, a diabetic mom, a diabetic geriatric. That’s not even easy to say!

And while I can’t be certain of anyone being in my life forever, I can be certain of this condition being part of me forever.

A weird realisation. But one I’ve come to be OK with. I’m a redhead, a writer, a diabetic.

So I think this whole “acceptance” thing is going to happen in layers, which is why it’s so important, and heartening, to have an invisible supporting net around me, to catch me when I’m tempted to fall.

I’d like to thank you. Please send yourselves my love.