Andrew's Page

I have had insulin dependent type 2 for about seven years now. I try to take really good care of myself and so far, I have no further complications. I wasn't the type of person to visit the doctor often, but within the course of a week, I pretty much went blind and was so thirsty, I drank about 7 gallons of orange juice over a weekend thinking I was helping myself...lol. I thought I had better get to the emergency room when the vision issues set in, I had no idea about the family history of diabetes, and was afraid I had a brain tumor or something. My vision came back and all the symptoms I was having went into remission when I got on medication. My diagnosis was really disastrous for me, it really turned my whole life upside down, it pretty much got in the way of every area of my life. After having had it for quite some time now, I have adjusted and I guess it just seems like a normal part of life for me. I have sort of climbed back up and brushed myself off. I don't usually spend a whole lot of time talking about diabetes, but it's nice to find those who do understand. A big part of the reason why I don't talk about it much is most of the people I know are non-diabetics and they all try really hard but they just can't relate, they ask weird questions, live different lifestyles..etc. I try to laugh as much as possible, it seems to help all that ails.

Like anyone else, I have far too many facets to my personality to enter into a paragraph. I can be really stubborn and sometimes in life, I have had to fight tooth and nail to get through some rather unusual obstacles that were placed in my path. I have a great sense of accomplishment and pride because of it. Though it may not always be graceful, I'm pretty confident, that with a little bit of patience, persistence and humor, I can get through or accomplish pretty much anything. My humor ranges between sarcastic, obscure, risque and raunchy. A lot of it depends on who I am with, and how well I know them. I admire those that have had to struggle to get what everyone else takes for granted. I am not a religious person, but I do believe there is a plan for us and that things happen for a reason. I enjoy and find spirituality in the wilderness... fishing, camping, hiking, nature photography. I tend to be really close to family and a select few that I wish to befriend and confide in and remain distant but friendly to the general public. I go out of my way to try to treat people with courtesy and respect. There are very few people that don't like me. I am a very simple person and I left college after a couple years to pursue a more trade oriented career because that's what fit. I don't really spend my life in pursuit of glitter. I had it once for a while and I was really not happy.

It would be really nice to find local Oregon diabetic people if there are any on here. I spent a while looking for local diabetic support groups when I was more recently diagnosed and the only few I was able to find didn't have anyone under the age of 80. They were all talking about retirement and cruises and I couldn't really relate. I would be glad to talk with those further away as well.

Kind of nice to see that I joined and already had 20 people that added me from elsewhere.