Can you live a normal life with diabetes?
I for one say YES. I have always been a logical person, have been since a child. I believed things were either black or white, nothing between, though this has changed over the years. To me this was my normal.
I knew from a very young child that the family had diabetes through out. I watched family members suffer the consequences of not taking care of themselves, not eating properly or pretending the disease was not real to them. I vowed I would never get the disease, I would do all that was right, exercise, etc. Of course I didn't give up everything - my sodas and chocolate bar once a week. These were treasures to have when growing up, I would save up my allowance just to enjoy that weekend soda and candy bar.
But sure enough the disease found me at 50 years of life. At first I thought would my life become my relative's way of life? Would I go blind, lose a limb, looking for a new kidney because I didn't listen to doctors. Was this to be my new way of life, not to enjoy life as I knew it? Did the diabetes do this to my family or did they do that because they didn't want to share theirs live with the diabetes?
I quickly discovered I could control this, it not control me, I was still the same person I was, just now have to do things differently. When I was sent to a dietician, she quickly realized I pretty much knew what to do and had been doing all along, including exercise since I was an outdoors type person. I did have to learn to count carbs, which I mastered and of course reading a food label became a challenge. Amazing what you learn when you read what something is made of.
To be able to handle diabetes, I had to live a normal life and make the diabetes live within the guidelines I set to control it and it has worked for me. I was never a snack type person, basically 3 meals was enough thru out the day, but experiencing my first wonderful low, made me realize I had to add a snack (good excuse now to eat my 10 M&Ms ROFL)but now I can go out hiking, working in a garden for hours on end as long as I had my cooler with me loaded with snacks, coke zeros.
Even when I developed some complicatons, even when my diabetes decided to go out of total control for whatever reason, I had to take control once again so I could live the life I wanted.
I knew from a very young child that the family had diabetes through out. I watched family members suffer the consequences of not taking care of themselves, not eating properly or pretending the disease was not real to them. I vowed I would never get the disease, I would do all that was right, exercise, etc. Of course I didn't give up everything - my sodas and chocolate bar once a week. These were treasures to have when growing up, I would save up my allowance just to enjoy that weekend soda and candy bar.
But sure enough the disease found me at 50 years of life. At first I thought would my life become my relative's way of life? Would I go blind, lose a limb, looking for a new kidney because I didn't listen to doctors. Was this to be my new way of life, not to enjoy life as I knew it? Did the diabetes do this to my family or did they do that because they didn't want to share theirs live with the diabetes?
I quickly discovered I could control this, it not control me, I was still the same person I was, just now have to do things differently. When I was sent to a dietician, she quickly realized I pretty much knew what to do and had been doing all along, including exercise since I was an outdoors type person. I did have to learn to count carbs, which I mastered and of course reading a food label became a challenge. Amazing what you learn when you read what something is made of.
To be able to handle diabetes, I had to live a normal life and make the diabetes live within the guidelines I set to control it and it has worked for me. I was never a snack type person, basically 3 meals was enough thru out the day, but experiencing my first wonderful low, made me realize I had to add a snack (good excuse now to eat my 10 M&Ms ROFL)but now I can go out hiking, working in a garden for hours on end as long as I had my cooler with me loaded with snacks, coke zeros.
Even when I developed some complicatons, even when my diabetes decided to go out of total control for whatever reason, I had to take control once again so I could live the life I wanted.
Replies
Amen to that Miss Gayle.
Amen & thank you for the inspiration.
very inspiring... thanks for sharing your exp.