Last week I had dinner with three fabulous women. All of them have diabetes and all are well-known bloggers in the DOC. It was invigorating, it was fun, and it was truly an honor to spend time with these women.

We mentioned one guy a few times during dinner. No, none of us had a grilled cheese sandwich, but I bet you know whom I’m talking about. Yeah, it’s Scott Johnson. What does Scott have to do with this dinner? He is absolutely the reason that this meet-up occurred.

A little history here. I’ve been active in the Diabetes Online Community for about ten years. I’ve participated in message boards and read numerous blogs with various anonymous screen names such as Lathump or Casabby. In late 2011, I emailed Scott responding to an invitation he had made to help people in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area get connected with other folks with diabetes. In typical Scott fashion, he replied warmly and generously with the contact information for several groups. I met Scott in the spring of 2012 at a Type 1 meet-up at the Edina Panera Bread and felt like I’d known him forever.

Somehow meeting Scott brought the DOC to life for me. I saw him at a couple of other diabetes events and occasionally we emailed back and forth. I don’t remember how DSMA entered our relationship, but in January 2013 I emailed Scott that my aim for the winter was to listen to the entire archives of DSMA Live of which Scott was one of the hosts. DSMA Live was (and is) is treasure trove of diabetes stories and mid-winter I “met” Kate Cornell. Kate has Type 2 diabetes and blogs at Sweet Success: My Life with Type 2 Diabetes. Listening to the November 2012 interview, I was very impressed by Kate who seemed so composed and so knowledgeable. I started following her blog and filed it in the back of my mind that I wanted to meet her some day. More than once I would read something that Kate wrote and think that “Wow, this woman really knows her stuff and she says things that I might say”.

As the winter of 2013 progressed, I learned about DSMA Twitter Chat on Wednesday evenings. Twitter was a complete unknown to me, but I bravely indicated to Scott that I might try it out. Kerri at Six Until Me had previously published a post outlining the basics of Twitter and I followed her instructions and signed up. At my inaugural Twitter Chat, the first person who welcomed me and gave me the confidence to continue, was @JennMamaBear. I followed Jenn and was daily impressed with her photographs and Twitter skills. I followed her blog Sweet Zoo and also starting playing Words with Friends with her.

When I learned that Jenn was from Utah, I mentioned the idea of a meet-up in Flagstaff and indicated that I had always wanted to meet Kate. Jenn immediately jumped on board and said that she knew someone on Twitter from Flagstaff and her name was Jewels. Although I did not realize that Jewels was from northern Arizona, I “knew” her because of a November 2013 interview on the DSMA ‘Rents show. Jewels has Type 1 diabetes and blogs at SheSugar. One of her daughters also has Type 1 and Celiac disease, so her blog is an incredible resource for information on living a healthy life with both conditions. It is much more than a recipe source, but the low-carb gluten-free recipe that she recently featured for Crispy Cauliflower Crust Pizza is high on my list to try.

To make a long story short, these Scott Johnson-, DSMA-, and DOC-connections led to a dinner meet-up of four diabetes bloggers in Flagstaff, Arizona. In many ways this dinner was a reflection of both the kinship and diversity of the Diabetes Online Community. Despite our instant connection to each other and our thoroughly entertaining evening, our stories are really quite different.

Kate was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes nine years ago. She is an independent sort and with no “diabetes team” in 2005 to teach her what she needed to know, she searched the internet to learn everything that she could about diabetes. She combines oral meds with low-carb eating to keep her diabetes ducks in a row and is currently involved in a frustrating battle to convince her doctor to let her begin using insulin.

Jewels was diagnosed with Type 1 as a child and has the unique experience of being a Type 1 who is parenting a child with diabetes and celiac. She is a nurse, freelance writer, and health consultant who embraces a gluten-free lifestyle for her family. She is a Stanford Medicine X ePatient scholar and JDRF volunteer who balances her advocacy work with a crazy-active life spent biking, running, skiing, and participating in yoga.

Jenn has been living with diabetes for almost ten years. Her diabetes story is the ubiquitous tale of being misdiagnosed as Type 2 for six frustrating years before finally getting the correct Type 1 label in 2010. She is an animal lover who manages to make room for her husband and daughter in a house ruled by cats. She works full-time, is active in her church, is a JDRF advocate, and is a fun and enthusiastic travel companion.

A Type 2, a Type 1 diagnosed as a child and parenting a T1, a Type 1 initially diagnosed as a T2, and a Type 1 diagnosed as a young adult. That’s a lot of diabetes mojo at one dinner table.

Jenn and I went to the red rock country of Sedona on Wednesday. We marveled at the beautiful scenery while hiking (18,484 steps and 8.33 miles per my Fitbit), visiting local landmarks, and wandering through unique shops. Never far from the DOC, I had to take a photo of Jenn by the sign of the frog-themed Mexican restaurant where we had a delicious lunch. She needed to send it to Tina who knows of Jenn’s hatred of frogs and always sends her frog photos. Of course I “know” Tina from her September 2013 DSMA ‘Rents interview….

This blogpost is littered with links to many people in the DOC and once again illustrates how the diabetes community is an interwoven fabric of relationships and stories. Because I have provided photos, everything I have written is the absolute truth. That’s another bit of DOC/DSMA lore as Cherise pronounced last October after my NYC brunch with Alecia of SurfaceFine: “If there’s no photo, it didn’t happen.”

So yes, Cherise, this time there are photos and yes, it really happened.