Most are diagnosed in their childhood years;
and it just doesn’t “go away.”
Type 1 diabetics battle disease
every moment, every day.

Though many share this affliction
most diabetics are “type 2.”
These usually control disease
with exercise, pills, healthy food.

Insulin’s a chemical we all need
to help glucose enter a cell.
People with type 2 still make insulin:
their bodies can’t use it so well.

But Type 1 diabetics simply can’t make
this chemical required to survive-
dependent on daily injections or pumps
for insulin to keep them alive.

The jewel in the center of my pin
symbolizes a red blood drop.
Blood glucose checks several times a day-
a habit Type 1’s should not stop.

(For if glucose levels run too high,
complications can set in:
diseases of the heart, kidneys, and eye
the prognosis can be quite grim.)

My grey ribbon is grim reality-
confronting disease every day;
yet silver lines this dismal cloud-
“A cure, please!” we fervently pray.

By Cheri L. West, 2001