“Does it hurt?”

“Wait, no, I’m not ready!”

“I’m LITERALLY afraid that I’m going to hurt you!!!”

These are all phrases uttered by my dear friend who was ultra-curious about the site change I had to do in the middle of our hangout. She wanted to watch me do it, but I stepped it up a notch by asking her to play a key role in it: I invited her to remove my old pod from my leg.

“Just do it, it’s just like ripping off a band-aid. I can guarantee you won’t hurt me.” I said, in an attempt to reassure her. I also swore I wasn’t lying just to make her feel better, because I’ve rarely ever experienced a pod-rip-off that truly hurt.

“But there’s something in you, right? Like a needle?” Her face creased with worry. I smiled and told her that yes, there was a cannula that was in my skin, but I couldn’t feel it.

“Let me start it for you,” I said, when I realized she still wasn’t quite ready to rip it away. I peeled up an edge of the adhesive and she started squirming.

“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to -” I said, but just as the words left my mouth, she finally tore off the pod. Much to my chagrin, a drop of blood appeared and she squealed as I began to apologize profusely and explain emphatically that it didn’t hurt, it’s just that sometimes blood will appear and nothing can be done about it.

“I can’t believe you have to do this every 3 days…” she said, her eyes widening in wonder. I told her I’ve done it so many times now – literally just over a thousand, according to my calculations – that it’s no big deal. I’m used to it. It’s just life with diabetes…lots of repetition and more math than I’d like.

I accepted my reality a long time ago, and I’m truly at a place where it’s no big deal.