It’s almost March, almost five years since that month in 2007 when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In July of that year I wrote my first entry for my Diabetes Self-Management blog. I had no idea at the time that over four and a half years later I’d still be at it, nor could I have realized then how important the weekly writings would be for helping me through, especially that first year, the not always easy and — actually quite often — difficult and frustrating learning curve that comes with assimilating a chronic illness into one’s daily life.
My time writing for you, however, is drawing to a close. This week marks my next-to-last entry as a blogger for Diabetes Self-Management. After next week’s entry, I’ll become past tense. Not sure what’ll happen to my catalog of entries — if they’ll remain forever in some archive as long as this site lives, or if they’ll be relegated, eventually, to that cached world of all things Internet. Archive status. Wayback Machine material.
It’s been a good run, but as I said when I told my editor I’ve decided to call it quits, lately I’ve run out of things to write about that give me insight into living with my illness. And because my reason for writing the blog is to shed light on my own life with diabetes — and if it serves to help you in the process, that’s fantastic — I really don’t wish to force the writing each week. Sure, I can always find something to say; I have no problems filling space. But I don’t want to only fill space with words about diabetes that don’t do much for me.
So, I’ve chosen as my catalyst for calling it quits a recent correspondence from Diabetes Self-Management about an upcoming two-month hiatus, a hiatus because they’re going to be trying out some new things with the Web site. (Editor’s Note: Be sure to check back in on February 2 for the debut entry by Maryam Elarbi, a young adult with Type 1 diabetes who’s figuring out how to balance college life with self-management.) Rather than return in April, or at some point this year, or ever, save maybe a guest entry at some point down the road (perhaps?), I mulled it over and realized that what’s best for me is to remain on permanent hiatus.
I didn’t want my last blog entry to be the notification that I’m leaving, so you’re getting it this week. I don’t really know how many people follow my blog. I’m sure I could ask for statistics from the DSM Web people, but just because I get stats… well, that still doesn’t tell me who’s really reading it, or who gets something, anything, out of it. Over the years I’ve read and thought about all of your comments; even though I don’t respond much anymore, I see every comment. So many people have so many feeds and so much goes on on the Internet that unless someone comments, all I can hope (save some wonderful and probably impossible data from a Web analytic tool) is that all of you who follow my blog have gotten something out of it. I know I have.
For my final entry next week? I haven’t yet decided what I’ll do. I’m kind of thinking about combing back through the several hundred entries and reflecting on some of the things I’ve since forgotten about. Yeah, maybe I’ll do that. Or maybe I’ll do something completely different. Stay tuned, but it’s really the last time you’ll ever have to do so.
