Introductions to KarenInTo and her cats, and her diabetes

My name's Karen, I live in Toronto (the T-dot), Ontario, Canada, and I have Type 2 diabetes and four cats. I'm sorry if you were looking for information on diabetes in cats and landed here (none of mine suffer from this chronic condition). But I'm glad if, searching for diabetes persons, you found me and the fur pals. Here's the lowdown, in no particular order:

• I'm a technical writer and editor for a good-sized Canadian-owned company based here in the T-dot.
• I've belonged to the Editors' Association of Canada (Toronto branch) for going on 6 years, and it's all been fun. www.editors.ca/toronto
• I graduated from the University of Guelph in 1979 (BA in English). I don't bother with alumni affairs so don't ask.
• I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in January, 1995. First it was called Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT), and for a few years I did really well (gots lots of exercise and watched my diet pretty closely).
• I've had my own (as opposed to Family) cat(s) since 1980. They are, in order of acquisition): MacIntosh (from a pet store for $6; 1980-1999), Fluffy ("just for a few weeks, honest;" 1987-2005), Chess (adopted at the ripe cat age of 14 or so; 198?-2000); Bwai and Gril (2000-); Fiasco T. Peabrain (2006-), Handsome Stranger (2006-). When I figure out how to post images you can see them.

January 10 update: OMG!1! I forgot my fave cat, Tuk. I got my dad to drive me back to college early after (Canadian) Thanksgiving (around 12 October, 1974), and the poor guy (about 6 months old) was trapped in my dorm hallway. I adopted him immediately. He was the best cat, and came to a bad end (around Oct. '76) after I left him at my parents' house when I moved to Ottawa to fail again. 'Nuff said.

My reasons for starting this blog are varied:

• I tried Facebook and felt like I was sitting in a window in Amsterdam's red light district. I got a few hits from friends and former co-workers, but I deactivated my account the same evening.
• Only a couple of people at work know that I'm diabetic (in fact, they might all be gone). Since I stopped my regular vigorous exercise (doubles badminton, yoga, tai chi, long walks, Shotokan karate) I can't keep my blood sugar under control, I'm afraid to test in the morning, I don't follow the diet regimen, and I'm starting to suffer symptoms I can't attribute to anything but high BGs. I figure if I start to publicize my condition in a small way, I will get SMART finally and not pretend that there's no effect to not monitoring and taking control.