Ramona travels the world with Type 1 diabetes

Date Jun 25, 2020

In a few sentences, can you present yourself and your activity/ies within the diabetes online community ?

My name is Ramona, 28, from Germany and I’ve been living with Type 1 diabetes for 20 years now. My aim is to show other people with diabetes that it’s possible to travel the world and live a life close to a normal one with this chronic condition.

What made you start your advocacy/educational work in the first place? And what makes you keeping on everyday?

To be honest, I started out of boredom – I was looking for a new hobby and was pretty sure that there was not a single Type 1 diabetes blog out there. That’s right, I had never used Google to search “diabetes blog” in over a decade! And when I found out about the huge diabetes online community, I wanted to be a part of it. What keeps me going every day are the tons of messages I get from people, asking me for help or telling me that I already helped them with something that I posted.

One thing you wish someone had told you when you were newly diagnosed? Or that you would tell your younger self?

You can for sure eat whatever you want – but it’s not always smart. 😀 Joking aside – there were a lot of people telling me that I should look after my diabetes better and it’s something I would also tell my younger self. Problem is, I know that my younger self would not listen.

One thing about diabetes you DON’T want to hear anymore?

“I COULD NEVER INJECT MYSELF!” – because I honestly believe that the needles are my smallest problem. The constant planning and thinking about everything I do makes me a lot madder than a few pricks.

If your diabetes was a real person and you could talk to them once in your life, what would you say?

Nothing, I would just slap them right across the face. 😀

You favorite hypo treat(s)?

Vegetarian yoghurt gummy bears!

Your favorite low carb food/snack?

That changes a lot, but probably olives.

Fav high carb food?

I freaking love pasta!

Diabetes burnout: what do you think about it? Personal experience? Any advice on how to cope with it?

I’ve been dealing with mini-diabetes-burnouts from time to time, but nothing too bad so far. I think it’s important to always tell yourself that you are doing your best and that it’s not your fault if something goes wrong. It’s not the end of the world and your value isn’t measured by a number.