5 Things

Community Share Your Stories
1

Thanks for the idea, Manny. :D

Five things I wish people had told me when I was first diagnosed with diabetes.

Some of these... maybe they did, but I just didn't listen.

1. "You will feel like a failure, but you aren't.". Diabetes is very difficult to control, You will have difficulty getting your BG under control and you will feel out of control, and maybe, sometimes, you will be out of control. It's OK, bad things happen. Life happens. Don't give up!

2. "Diabetes doesn't just effect our bodies; it effects our minds and emotions as well.". The emotional and psychological effects of diabetes are just as devastating as the physical. Go ahead and cry. Go ahead and scream and yell. Give this disease a good cussing out! Don't bury and deny the hurt and frustration. We all experience it, we all go through it and deal with it. We know how bad it is, we feel it, too. You are not alone!

3. "It is life-long. There is no getting out of it. Settle in for the long-haul.". Diabetes is forever. It is a moment-to-moment struggle. There is no breaks, no vacations, no room to breathe. It's all day, every day, 24/7/365. Get it?

4. "Ignore the advertisers and the pushers." There is no cure. There is nothing more effective than balancing diet, exercise, and medication. Keep your A1c in line, just like the doctor tells you. Yes, there are things that can make life a little easier, help keep things in line. But, THERE IS NO CURE.

5. "You are still human.". Diabetes can make us feel like aliens sometimes, and even worse, it can make us feel sub-human. You are still human, you can still do everything any other human being can do...except make your own insulin! You still have all your worth and value! Take the ignorance and bad actions of others and use them to make you stronger. Don't let them grind you down.

2

I think I got my best piece of advice from a retired Navy SEAL's autobiography when he wrote:

You don't have to like it, you just have to do it.

That's pretty much my T1D philosophy.

Yours are good too.

3

"Ignore the advertisers and pushers" was a hard one for me. It took several years for me to turn my desperate hope into a patient and realistic hope of better and better treatment and someday a functional cure.

4

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with your number 4: THERE IS NO CURE. I am a realist, not a pessimist. Although my daughter who has T1D is only 12, I am not holding my breath for a cure during her lifetime. As a physician, I've never believed in giving anyone false hope. Like Don, I do have what I consider to be a realistic hope for a "functional cure" such as an encapsulated beta cell device.

5

I was lucky in that my doctor told me flat out that he would never, ever pronounce me cured,that there is no cure. But he and the rest of the team would work with me to try and gain/maintain control. When this one individual found out that I was diabetic he sent me some site that he goes to for every 'natural' thing under the sun saying there was a product there 'guaranteed' to lower the BG and keep them low. I found that product and then read the ingredients that was listed. Either they weren't tested on humans or wasn't tested but on two or three. And of course no official approval. Told him thanks but no thanks I'm sticking with what the doctors and I are working with, not some kind of bull that I have no clue about as to they wouldn't even list all ingredients.

As you said, no cure so don't waste money on things. I was also told I'd have ups and downs on this. But to just do the best I can. And it;s been working. I have some that say,"Oh, you don't have to worry about it since you have your A1C's down. You can do what you want again, you're cured. Bite the tongue, smile and try to explain the fact of life with diabetes to them and watch the blank faces they give you as they still won't believe even though someone in their family is diabetic. They don't understand why I still watch what and how much I eat. And they still can't get over that I sometimes will have a 1/2 cp of ice cream or some other treat once in a while. Hair pulling time but I just smile instead. I don't mind them making my hair turn white but don't want to lose it because of their being hard headed and not learning. ;)