My google calendar just popped up that tomorrow is the anniversary of my diagnosis of diabetes. How to "celebrate" or mark the day? Well, heading to tudiabetes seems about right.
When I first read on-line of people marking their diabetes "birthday", I thought, that's weird. (Some people wrote of celebrating with cake.) Yet by the time I reached my first anniversary, I actually did feel like celebrating all the ways I was learning to live with diabetes. I did not do it with cake . . .
It is 3 years since my dx and, honestly, I just take it in stride now. I'm glad the google calendar reminded me. Its crucial to recall how shocked/horrified/scared I felt on July 13, 2010 (and for months after). And its important to remind myself of how life with diabetes has become my new normal and it no longer controls my life.
Congratulations on making peace with your new normal!
I was diagnosed (officially by a doctor)on January 15, 2011 and, at the time, it felt like the WORST period of my life. At best I was contemplating on forgoing my career and going on disability. At worst I was thinking about ending my life altogether. Fortunately, I started lurking on Tu diabetes and various other forums and now...
Testing blood sugar and bolusing insulin is of no big deal for me.
And I actually feel better, health wise and emotionally, than I ever have in my life.
True, Diabetes sucks in that you have no pancreas...But it really helped me to get my life together and put myself first.
I have Type 1 but it does not have me. :0)
Toddy--I'm with you. When everyone at work has colds, complains about being tired, I can't relate anymore. I get enough sleep, I eat super-healthy & exercise. Be well!
It's today! My anniversary! Planning to celebrate this weekend with a mile-long, open water swim in a nearby lake. Forecast: 80 degrees and sunny. Life is good.
Sounds like the perfect plan, happy diaversary be good to yourself ! Hope the water is warm enough for a mile.
I too had a diaversary recently: July 8th - 6 years. Though my situation was such that I sort of got the "bad news" in two batches: Misdiagnosed Type 2 in 2007 - I'd guessed it already myself and thought, "Ok, so I just take a couple pills a day - I already take pills for other conditions, no biggie." In 2009 I figured out I was in fact Type 1 which made things more complicated.
But as for the question of "do you celebrate?" I look at it similarly to birthdays and New Years. Once you get past a certain age of excitement to be "growing up" "becoming an adult", etc it's kind of like you question, "what am I celebrating?" Getting old(er)? Or just having survived another year? Surviving is definitely a prerequisite, but what really counts imho is what you do with those years and how you grow, change, and put value into your existence.
That's also how I look at my diaversary; I consider it a time for reflection. How has D changed my life in practical terms, in emotional and psychological terms and in how I view myself and my place in the world? For me, it's like everything else in life, taking what you have and learning from it. Everything we experience is a chance to grow. So too with D. I was pretty secure after 13 years of recovery from an eating disorder (which had gone on for 30 years before that). D with its focus on food and control and weight forced me to strengthen that recovery. Other issues that came up were being rigid/resistant to change vs being flexible and how I experience and cope with stress.
I've had 65 years to deal with a lot of issues in my life. (Well the first part of that time was basically setting up the issues that I'd have to deal with...lol). My career was supporting other people working on their issues. What I saw was some people stayed stuck, some did ok - they survived, and others flourished and grew; often those with the toughest rows to hoe. I always strive to be the latter.
Many people struggle with how D affects their self image and with self-blame when they don't do well. Fortunately, those issues were ones that I was forced to deal with intensely in my life to survive and I had worked on them for decades by the time D came around for me at age 58. I often say I wouldn't have survived if it had come to at an earlier stage. So those things havn't really been an issue for me.
What it has brought out in me is that I have to continually remember to keep my world from getting too small, too well defended. If I don't make an effort to stay involved in the world I get isolated and then D becomes my whole world and it isn't much of a world. So I have to work at that. In a couple weeks I'm going to Guatemala, my first visit since I moved back to the states four years ago. I'm working to set things up so I can manage my D well though probably not as well as I do at home and that's ok. I feel like D should be like good software: in the background, nearly invisible and allowing you to do the things that really matter.
Congrats, Deborah!
Wise reflections Zoe! Que disfrutes Guate! And let us know how it goes.
Thanks, Deborah! Fortunately I'm renting a friends casita while she is in the states, so I will be able to cook for myself. Sorry if I hijacked your thread, it just stimulated my thoughts on the topic.
Enjoy your swim!
Hardly hijacked. :) I posted to stimulate thought about different ways we approach these milestones.
Good news re: the casita.