Careers and Diabetes - Did you have to change your choices?

I am positive that there is a zoo keeper on this site. Can’t remember who; can’t remember where I saw him or her, but that person is out there.

I am an Ob/GYN doctor. I stay up all night delivering babies and do lots of GYN surgery. It can be challenging at times, but I manage.

well actually you can join the police with insulin dependent diabetes (they don’t mention anything about oral medications), for my state you have to had a HBa1c of between 6.1 and 7 for at least the last 12 months, and you have to sign a statutory declaration saying that within that 12 month period that you have not had a hypoglycemic episode that caused ‘disturbance of consciousness’, and do not have any signs of hypo unawareness.

i’m sure that those guide lines would vary from country to country and state to state.

which means it would not be impossible to join, but morally i never could. I never want to put another persons life, be it a co-worker, partner or member of the public, at risk because of me. I may not have chosen to be diabetic, but i can choose to be responsible for it.

I've found that Diabetes is like a stress amplifier. You get a little stressed out, and you get a few high blood sugars. This makes your body stressed and tired, and you get irritable and less productive. You work harder and for more hours. This interrupts your exercise, sleeping, and eating routines. Your blood sugars swing wildly out of control. Because you aren't working near anywhere near 100%, despite your best efforts, you start to fall behind. The stress builds as deadlines approach. You struggle, fight, get frustrated, work overtime, push through, and after all that effort, end up with something mediocre. The next projects are looming on the horizon; no rest for you. You must do it again. Chronic stress is starting to effect your outlook on life. You feel like crap, are doing mediocre work despite giving it your all and you're emotionally volatile. You've been pushed to the breaking point, and are expected to do more. Realizing you've dug yourself into a hole and there are no easy ways out, you get depressed and unmotivated.

Over the years, all the blood glucose ups and downs, and time spent (wasted) managing diabetes will limit a diabetic's career potential. They only way to be competitive with someone without the burden of diabetes is to work harder, and devote more time and energy towards specific goals. Everyone only has 24hrs a day. When you are forced to spend roughly (1/16) (6.25%) of your waking life managing a disease, and have to endure all the other inefficiencies (doctor's visits, feeling bad, erratic thinking, etc) all these factors conspire to limit your potential in life. You've been dealt a major setback. Your peers that do not have this disease, have a distinct advantage over you. In the uber-competitive world we live in, your odds of success are not good relative to your peers.

I realize this is pretty negative, but I believe it accurately describes my situation. My choices are to struggle or don't struggle. Man, I get tired of struggling.