It’s just a number

Painting by Shiraz Harel. Donated to CarbDM and sold for $1000.

After I was diagnosed, I was in my honeymoon for a relatively long time which I was pretty happy about and I didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. When my numbers became more sporadic I was in shock. I was used to being a diabetes superstar that had “perfect” numbers which made it easy to blame myself for my readings and other problems that arose with diabetes. My doctor kept telling me that it was just a number and at first it was very hard for me to internalize what she said. I was constantly thinking: “This is my fault,” and “What am I doing wrong?” I know that being 600 for a week is definitely not good, but creating stress where it wasn’t really needed was not good either. So I made this painting to serve as a reminder that at the end of the day it really is just a number.