It’s kind of a double-edged sword when we get to see something just for us. Nice, and an unfortunate reminder. But I was glad to see this syringe disposal nestled in the bathroom of the Phoenix airport. I didn’t bother to think, whose syringes are they targeting? I just enjoyed the fact that maybe there’s some recognition for those of us using insulin.

I try to take my insulin discretely, meaning I don’t flaunt it in front of anyone. After all, I don’t particularly love watching others inject. But I never try to hide when I need to give myself a shot. And, I often wonder – where are all my fellow insulin users? I never seem to see anyone else “shooting up.” 

But I do it in the open as I like to think of it as a ‘teachable moment.’ So while seated on the plane, waiting for the last few passengers to take their seats, I took out my Lantus Solo star pen trying to inject before the last passenger arrived to take his seat next to me. And there I was, pen in stomach, when my husband leaned over and said, “Are you OK?” I looked up and there was my seat mate standing at our row waiting to take his seat. I finished, extracted pen from body, and in he came without a word, as if he hadn’t just watched this woman take a needle out of her body.

Later, my husband told me he had asked the gentleman if he could just wait a moment while I finished giving myself my insulin injection. The gentleman politely nodded. My husband also remarked that, the stewardess standing not far away, caught my husband’s eye and smiled. Comraderie? Knowingness? Compassion? 

I will never know, but maybe one or two more people were reminded that diabetes exists in the world, as so do those of us who live with it.