Imagine walking down a road that never ends. Along that road are potholes and road-wide fissures that require making a detour… but you are blindfolded. This is something like living with diabetes.

You are not allowed to ever take a break, either – you must keep walking while asleep or awake. You need to be aware of the state of your shoes and your energy levels at all times, without being able to see what’s actually happening, so that you can keep moving. If you stumble into a fissure or pothole, you need to deal with any repercussions that might cause such as a twisted ankle or broken leg – as well as your recovery period while continuing to walk, regardless of any injury.

Sometimes a dog might approach you, or even walk along with you. Sometimes it’s a friendly dog, often it isn’t. Sometimes a pack of dogs chases you along the road before they drop away to the side. They also don’t care if you’re injured prior to the chase – and will even push you into falling into a pothole if they can.

Different people will call you from the sidelines with instructions. Some of them are more heavily blindfolded than you – but you don’t know that. The ones who can see clearly and give you accurate advice are few and far between – and most will insist on a payment in some form, which you may be unable to afford, so you may be tempted to take the free directions. This will occasionally land you into a muddy patch that requires a higher payment to those who can see to guide you out.

Of course, ANYTHING you do while walking down the road will affect your walk. If you decide to run, or eat something, or even attempt sleep or partying with friends on the roadside, the road will nearly always veer in unpredictable directions – and you will have no idea that’s going to happen, UNLESS you buy a map finder type device, which will tell you which way the road goes, and what condition it’s in, but it will inflict pain on you each and every time you use it. Additionally, every time you use it, it will only attempt to predict what’s coming based on its previous data gathered, so there’s never any guarantee the advice is sound.

If you get it all drastically wrong on your journey, you could very well die – or perhaps just become unconscious for some period of time. Your family and friends can try and help, of course – but more often than not they are blindfolded too.

Welcome to living with diabetes.