Not So Invisible After All

Last Wednesday was a big job at Turner Field for Delta Day. I was out in the hot sun (under a tent, but it was still hot and bright nonetheless) face painting baseballs and Yankees signs and Braves "A"'s. I packed a snack with me to last through the day, and an emergency low snack, and kept my meter in the shade in the cool. My Novolog was placed in front of me, clipped to my little plastic paintbrush cup. It looked like a pen, and everyone that came to get their faces painted said nothing about it. Of course not - nobody knew about my Diabetes here, or what the strange drug Novolog was, or that I had to take special care to watch my sugar all day today.

A woman who looked to be in her 20's sat down in front of me. It was her Birthday, she told me, and she was getting "Braves" painted on one cheek and "Happy Birthday" on the other. I set to work, dipping my brush in the water, then in the paint, letting my hands take over the repetitive motion of the same design I'd painted on 200 faces before hers.

She glanced to her right. "Are you Diabetic?" She asked, to my surprise. It took me a moment to catch what she had said - even I had forgotten the little pen, which sat to my left out of my line of sight. "Yes, I am," I replied, now glancing at the pen. "I thought so," she told me. "I'm a nurse. I know all about those kind of things," she winked at me.

I smiled a little. Sometimes, it's nice to feel that your invisible illness isn't so invisible after all.