The Chronic Illness Struggle

For those of us living with chronic illness, it can take a little (and sometimes a lot) of extra work to feel good. Sarah has been living with Type 1 Diabetes for almost 30 years. Type 1 is an auto-immune disease in which immune cells attack the insulin-producing beta cells in your pancreas, and was basically a death sentence until the discovery of artificial insulin in 1921. (Thank you, Frederick Bantig!).⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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Management of this disease is WAY more than just injections of insulin, or in Sarah’s case, infusion through an insulin pump. It's constant awareness of blood sugars, counting or guesstimating the amount of carbohydrates in literally EVERYTHING she eats, calculating adjustments based on exercise and stress, staying in contact with her team of doctors, and managing all the emotions that come with this disease.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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Sarah tres to stay on the "grateful for all I have learned from this journey" tip, but she’d be lying if she said there weren't days where she’s just friggin' tired of all the work it takes just to not feel awful.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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All this to say that if you're struggling with a chronic illness, we feel you, and we’re in this with you.💙⠀⠀⠀⠀