A Positive Side of Diabetes?
While I know that many of us have negative feelings about our diabetes, there's the complications, side effects of medication, etc., I try my very best to stay positive (in all aspects of life, but especially when it comes to my T1D) even when I am absolutely fed up with the constant monitoring, testing, injecting, etc.. My experience with the disease has been anything but easy, so please do not think I am being glib...
You may think I am nuts, but sometimes I am thankful for it - I like to think that we do not get handed anything in life we cannot handle - because it has taught me a lot. Diabetes has shown me things about myself I may never have discovered, it has shown me a lot about other people, and it has given me an appreciation for life that I think MOST people (Ds and nonDs alike) ignore. My husband sometimes jokes that if I can "go" (I like the fullest plate I can handle - not of food, but of life!) like I go and have diabetes, he fears what I would do absent of diabetes ;)
So I ask, am I alone? Or, is there something positive you can say about the diabetes in your life (whether your own or someone you care about)? Has it taught you something you do not think you would have learned without being diabetic?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brianna on -
I have seen a few posts like this on this site, and I always think the same thing... "how in the world can one be thankful for T1D??". I am (usually) not one to feel bad for myself. I know that it could be so much worse. But I can only think that my life would have been better if I haven't had to spend a large portion of it pricking my fingers, giving myself numbers, worrying about what I'm eating, etc. etc.
My mom told me that T1D made me a stronger person. Perhaps that is true, but I guess we will never really know for sure since I can't compare with a non-diabetic version of myself. I think that perhaps it has made me more laid back. I rarely let things bother me too much, and maybe that is because I have had to deal with all of the trials of D since I was a child.
Mostly I am just thankful that I have been lucky and it is not worse. I have a relatively normal life - I have a job, a husband, I'm going to grad school... Maybe D has helped me achieve these things. Maybe not. But I always have a hard time being thankful for D.
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Permalink Reply by Bec on -
I understand struggling to be thankful for T1D - when I (personally) say I am thankful for it I mean it has brought something to my life and that I was able to take something from that...the something I try to take is always positive (learning from a negative/bad experience is still a positive/good thing)...I am also thankful for the 'filter' it provides (not that I employ it to do so, it just sort of does that all on its own), some people (my entire family) cannot handle being around a PWD...
For me life is all about perspective - at 19 I went DKA, had a heart attack and flat lined for over 7 minutes...that led to a coma, the doctors prepared my family (the little that was around and now there is none) for me not to wake up and if I did, they were to make preparations to have me looked after...but I did wake up, I suffered extensive memory loss, but I am here; I would rather have D and wake up on the 'right' side of the dirt...
At least you have found something positive/to be thankful for - D or no D, you are blessed with a family and the opportunity to go out and life a relatively normal life :)
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Permalink Reply by Michael McClure on -
>> and wake up on the 'right' side of the dirt...
Awesome. Stealing that.
/\/\
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Permalink Reply by Bec on
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Totally steal it - it is something my grandmother used to say (she passed last fall at 94 after suffering heart failure for years) and it would make her pleased as punch to have it used :D
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Permalink Reply by Randy on -
Thankful for D? No way. I think it would be a rare person or situation to be thankful for a condition like this. Maybe even a little warped. But, the challenges we face can bring positive results to our lives. Like any challenge can and, for the most part, does. Sometimes you have to look for the positive to realize it is there. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you. When we refuse to aknowledge it we can be caught in the darkness of our problem. The same is true for our family and friends. To be abandoned by them is a sad and shameful commentary on their existence.
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Permalink Reply by Bec on
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I do not think I am warped and take a bit of offense to that - I am thankful because for me the alternative to being diagnosed w/D was death.
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Permalink Reply by Randy on
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Sorry Bec. Not what I meant. Just that D itself, the disease, is not a thing most people would be thankful for. And, most definately, I am not saying you are warped. Although it is something I have been called many times.
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Permalink Reply by Bec on
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Touched is what I normally get ;)
Didn't mean to be "titchy" - just got bummed out by the sudden influx of negativity in my posivite space...LOL
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Permalink Reply by Randy on
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No problem, comes with the territory. We all cope differently. I hate this disease and how I have to plan everything I do around how it will affect my BG. I am saddened by the complications and how they restrict my activities. But, dwelling on these will only make me bitter and contribute NOTHING to the betterment of my life. I do not see a positive outlook as Pollyanna, but as pragmatic.
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Permalink Reply by Bec on
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Nothing wrong w/being pragmatic - and it totally sucks sometimes...like this morning, every Friday my lil' guy and I venture to the pool, but not today bc I couldn't keep my BGs above 4. Anyways, we stayed home and built a fort instead!
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Permalink Reply by smileandnod on -
Bec, some of my best childhood memories are of the forts that we used to build! Love building memories with little ones. :)
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