Happy Birthday You Can Do This Project

You Can Do This Project Happy Birthday!!!

I'm a little late, but yesterday was the 1 year birthday of the You Can Do This Project.  What is this you might ask?  This was created by the awesome Kim Vlasnik at Texting My Pancreas.  It is a website where many many people living with diabetes, adults, children and the parents of those children posted videos talking about their lives with diabetes.  Some may have been recently diagnosed, some had been living with this condition for 40 years.

 My connection with the YCDTP started with my diagnoses with Type 1 Diabetes February 2, 2011.  I muddled through the first 4 months of my diagnosis, learning everything I needed to know to live with this condition.  Carb counting, insulin delivery just everything (and there is a lot to learn).  I was going through all the phases of grief, about 4 months into it I started going through a little depression, and as supportive as my family was, I just felt the need to find other people with diabetes.  The only person I knew in real life was the teenage son of a friend, whom I had kind of lost touch with when we moved.  I was looking for people near my age, a local support group, so I turned to the internet.  Well, I didn't find any local groups but what I did find was the You Can Do This Project, and there they were people.  People who knew what I was dealing with.

At that time there were probably around 70 videos.  I decided to watch 10 per day, 5 in the morning then 5 more in the evening.  It took me about a week to go through all the videos. I cried, laughed, my heart ached for the children living with this condition, but mostly I was totally encouraged that I could do this, it was going to be a long hard road, there were going to be great days and some not so great days, but I could live with diabetes.

I noticed there was a running theme in the videos, the DOC, Diabetic Online Community, I thought "I'm diabetic, I want to check out this online community.  All the videos mentioned the DOC and Twitter, so I finally started a Twitter account, and "voila" there they were, the people I had seen in all the videos.  They were amazing, they welcomed me into "the club", and have been so supportive since.  When I ask "is this just me" I usually get a resounding "no it's not just you".

This past spring Kim decided to do a group video of people who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as adults and, to my amazement, she asked me to contribute.  I was so honored to participate in this project that had helped me through a particular difficult time in my life.  Along with Sara, Brian, Chris and Dayle Kim produced a great group video answering some questions about our lives.  It was great to be able to give back to this awesome project, and as Kim said "see it come full circle".

Following is the link to that video, have a look.  Be warned I have a crazy habit of touching my hair and face, and some crazy eye twitch.  I tried to figure out how to attach the video, but I can be a little tech challenged.  Just copy and past in your browser, it's worth the effort.

Thank you so much Kim!!!

http://youcandothisproject.com/2012/04/17/we-can-do-this-vol-1/