The goal of this discussion is to collect in one place some gems -- pithy quotations about living with diabetes that say it like it is. I'll kick things off with some excerpts from Riva Greenberg's talk to us on Friday, February 1.

"February is my 41st diaversary -- my 41st year of living with Type 1 diabetes."

"How many of you think that diabetes is the leading cause of heart disease, blindness, kidney disease, and amputation? You’re wrong. ['How could we be wrong? It’s all we hear, all we read.'] Poorly controlled diabetes is the cause of those outcomes. Well controlled diabetes is the cause of nothing."

"Most people don’t feel listened to."

"Health care providers are trained to heal and cure acute illness, so most of them really haven’t got a clue how to help and support patients with a chronic condition like diabetes."

"It’s all about building emotional resilience, because half of this condition is knowing all the medical stuff you have to know to deal with this condition, and the other half is dealing with the emotional part -- to get up every day and do it again . . . it’s not easy."

"What’s wrong with insulin? Everybody has insulin. I just have to put it back in my body."

Advice for health care providers: "Create a compassionate partnership with your patient. You’re a team. There’s two experts in the room—you, and your patient. And your patient is an expert on themselves, their life, their condition, what they’re doing, how things are going. It should be a meeting of two experts in a compassionate partnership . . . look at what’s working, and build on what’s working."

That should get things started. Please add to this list with the "nuggets" you've encountered in your own journey.