Sep 04, 2008

Diabetes Blog as Time-Saver

Eric Lagergren

This week, I've made a reconnection with several more people from my past. Guess how I found them (or how they found me)? That’s right, Facebook. (And did you know that Diabetes Self-Management also has a Facebook page?)

It's been almost half my life ago since I graduated from high school, and over a decade since graduating from college, and yet I'd say that nearly half of the people who are "Facebook friends" are people I went to high school or college with.

And really, it's somewhat disconcerting to log into Facebook (which I do daily, I admit) and see the status updates, photographs, and goings-on of people I've not talked to or really given much thought to in over 16 years. High school and the emotions associated with certain people have never been so quick to bubble back to the surface as when I'm one click away from adding as a friend the bully, creep, geek, nerd, jock, jerk, or crush. And if you're not in the Facebook world, trust me: It's tempting to get in touch with people you had nothing to do with in high school, even when you know you shouldn't. I don't know why. (In fact, I have a friend who will never Facebook after a few drinks for this reason. She's had several friend requests she's regretted making.)

Inevitably, there are those long-lost folks whose friend requests I accept, or who accept mine, and that's it. We say no more. There they sit, icons on my friend list. But then there are those people who send me messages. They ask how things are, what's going on. What can you say, really, in a few-paragraph response, to someone you no longer know? How do you encapsulate your adult life with a person who last knew you when your biggest worry was tomorrow's math test?

It's not easy.

That's why I'm thankful for the catalog of my diabetes blogs over the past year. They reside in a neat little URL with my name in it on the Diabetes Self-Management Web site. Now wait, I don't want you to think I get the "How's life?" question (or its equivalents, "What have you been up to?" or "What's going on?" etc.) from old friends and acquaintances and immediately think, Oh I Really Want To Tell Them I Have Type 1 Diabetes.

No.

But among the four or five things at the top of my "me" queue is my diagnosis last year with a major chronic illness. I've nothing to hide, and diabetes is a major part of my life, so yep, it's part of me and deserves its place. My marriage, our new dog, my ongoing garden obsession, and then diabetes: They all float about (with some things obviously getting more weight than others) in the "Who I am at this particular point in my life" soup.

In my responses to those who inquire about what I've been up to, it's nice to be able to get the diabetes thing out of the way with a deferment to my Diabetes Self-Management blog. I don't expect anyone to read all of the posts, of course, but my initial tripartite prologue encapsulates quite a bit. It's a quick orientation to who Eric Lagergren is in terms of big news in my life over the past few years.

And, because I've been honest in the blog, and because it started out as a personal journey about what it was like being newly diagnosed, and because I still write each week about some aspect of living with diabetes, there's a lot of me in each entry.

Therefore, if some of the people from my past who now exist in my Facebook world want to learn more about me, they need go no farther than a click on my blog posts to get a greater sense of who I am. And thank goodness: I'd hate to have to write a Family Update Christmas Letter of what's been going on with me over the past year (or over the past decade and a half).

Blogging about chronic illness as a time-saver for reconnecting to your past: Yet another benefit of diabetes you didn't know existed!

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Diagnosis

Knocking Out Prediabetes (07/25/08)
"National Diabetes Goal" Set (05/09/08)
"It Turned Everything Upside Down" (05/08/08)

Living With Diabetes

The Stigmata of Diabetes (12/04/08)
The Great Thanksgiving Buffet Disaster (12/03/08)
Confessions of a Thanksgiving Weekend Survivor (12/01/08)

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