I have had any professional over the years talk about my “battle” with diabetes. And I guess in my youth it was a battle. A daily battle that I hated every day and every moment I had to give to this part of me.
And over the years I’ve finally come to the realization, it’s not going anywhere and it’s not going to change. We are both in for the long haul.
I can’t call it my friend and it sure isn’t my best friend. So I guess the best way to say it or call it is my companion. It’s always there but not my best buddy. On good days it is in he background giving me a high five for a great day or on a bad day it’s giving me the finger and saying screw your plans for the day today. Either way it’s always there, a campanion. Along for the ride.i would say at this point we don’t battle, we just look at each other and shake our heads at each other when we don’t meet in out daily plans, because as a campanion we don’t always see eye to eye. Best friends we are not it as companions we give each other respect and give each other our due diligence. We may not always like each other but we understand we are a team and must try to work together.
Yes some days are harder than others but after 45 years we understand each other as best we can. We understand it will never be perfect. We understand we may not always like each other. We understand that even as hard as we work together, it doesn’t always work out as planned. But we understand, we will always be together, always fighting the fight and always trying to work together.
Best friends, no, but I’ll take campanion, in it for the long haul. What about you? Best friend, campanion, teammates, adversary, mortal enemy or just a piece to your puzzle?
good observation!i printed a copy to show to my friend whom has diabetes.
I see diabetes as an adversary and mortal enemy. I look at it in the context of the adage, “Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.” While it is my constant companion, it is not welcome but I respect it for the power it has to take my life early and make me miserable in the mean time. I take pleasure in controlling it well since it is a formidable adversary. The bigger the rival, the sweeter the victory!
I see diabetes as something I have to learn to live in peace with. I have to learn ways to fit it into my life so that it doesn’t control or overwhelm me, but also so that my entire life isn’t devoted to it. I can’t see it as an enemy, because in my mind a battle or war has no winners in the end. I need something more positive than that.
Diabetes is not the only health issue I live with. I’ve been legally blind since I was born and have gotten to the point where, most of the time, I do not think about being visually impaired, because I’ve integrated it into my life and it doesn’t stop me from doing what I want to do. I’m not yet there with diabetes, but I’m getting closer every day. I’m much less frustrated and emotional about diabetes than I used to be. I also live with severe allergies (food, environmental, contact, and other related conditions like asthma, eczema, and so on), and these conditions combined affect my life just as much as diabetes. In some ways, my allergies are a more recent diagnosis because even though I’ve had various allergies since I was young over the years they have increased in severity and in number and so it’s affecting my life much more than before. I’m often angry and frustrated at my body for being so sensitive and reactive and the ways my allergies negatively impact my confidence and my social life. But with allergies, too, I am finding ways to manage that do not take up all my attnetion.
It’s all a balancing act, trying to do what needs to be done while also living life. I find the hardest part, with everything, is not burning out. It can be so hard when I’m just exhausted at the time I pour into doing what everyone else just takes for granted, and yet I can’t take a break for even a day. Sometimes I’m jealous of all the extra time I would have if I didn’t need to make my world accessible and didn’t need to manage diabetes and allergies on a daily basis.
But it is what it is, and so I continue on and know that, in the end, I’m stronger and more resourceful and more persistent than I would be without these challenges.
I’m a diabetic, it’s not my friend or my enemy, it’s not a it, “it’s me”…I can’t scrub it off in the shower and I’m not going to wake up tomorrow without it, nor can I find someone to take care of “it” while I go on vacation.
It is my arch nemesis but it will never be a worthy adversary. I will always be stronger, smarter, faster, more disciplined and more determined. I will never yield to it. It will never define my life or limit my accomplishments. Beautiful women will never prefer its comapny to mine (lol). Diabetes is my ■■■■■, and if it gets out of line, I will slap it in public.
Pardon my language… Artistic license
I like your “artiststic license”, Sam 19!
Very good and well said.
I’m going with the Dexter version. Mine is THE DARK PASSENGER. Same concept as companion but less chummy.
Diabetes is my tiger. I’m on a dinghy, out alone in the ocean with a tiger on board and some days I can tame it, others I cannot.
As the mother of a daughter with Type 1:
Diabetes is the disease that had the balls to attack MY CHILD. I will spend the rest of my life kicking Type 1’s balls each and every day. Hard and without mercy.
I loath my diabetes. i also live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. my main symptom is called “checking.” i become focused on one thing and i cannot stop my mind from thinking about it. it is like a gerbal on a wheel; it just goes round and round in my head until i go to sleep at night. well, my “checking” is 100% focused on my BGs. up, down, low, high, in the middle, why can’t i get a flatline on my cgm? and on and on it goes. i look at my cgm moment after moment, check my BG w/ way too many finger sticks
sorry about not finishing that last post. but i think you get the point.
the OCD has definately interfered with my quality of life. and as it has attached itself to my diabetes, the combo sucks.