Feels good to be here!

This came to my mind a few years ago!
There were times in my life when I hated being a diabetic…
I didn’t want to be different, and deep inside of me, I felt a little ashamed for that,
especially when I didn’t take good care for myself and made everybody worry…
I thought it was just unfair that everybody else could live like they wanted…
Being a teen with diabetes is the most difficult time, I guess!
For about the last five years I guess I have seriously started to think about my diabetes, and to work on BS with more or less success. I have learned to be open about my diabetes to anybody else, and the more honestly and hopefully I deal with it, the people around me do that, too.
It is true that nobody is alone with diabetes, but you have to open up for that!
And I’m happy to be here :slight_smile:

Thanks for all of you out there.

my son is 15 and he was diagnosed when he was six. I can see him going through all of the same feelings that you went through as a teen. It is hard as a parent to watch this and not be able to fix it. He wants to be like all of his friends. He never really says it but you can just tell. He also makes bad choices just trying to fit in I think .

What she said! Having diabetes friends is the best thing for blood sugars since insulin.

That’s what’s up! It IS good to be here! I’m new to all this, but the last few months have been hard. I was getting laid off, I was a newly-wed & my new wife tricked me into going to Tahoe so she could hang out with some guy in one of her classes. Then I am sick and feel like death for about 2-3 weeks before they figure out I have diabetes??? What??? I’m a healthy dude??? I eat lunch every day ant a place called the “fit café’ and have fruit smoothies for breakfast. I outlast the teenagers at the trails. I’m healthy??? It was real though. I just had to deal. So next, my marriage ended, I’m not working, my beamer floats off in a flash flood on my birthday & all that’s so huge people forget I’m also learning to be diabetic too. I’m still happy to be here. I didn’t break the economy; I don’t even have any debt outside my new car payment. Now, I have savings to live off of they made cobra insurance cheap and I’m enjoying school until development picks up again. I’m not the one who trashed my marriage; I just took a chance on troubled pastor’s kid. There is no shame in giving something your all. I went on some sweet vacations and got some cool kitchen stuff. I learned a lot about relationships and now, hopefully, my kids will have a much more stable mother. I’m sick I guess, diabetes is an illness, but I feel healthy. I also eat the best food now. Before it was an occasion to go shopping and get some really good stuff and make a delish & still healthy meal. I only did it when I had time. Now it’s the norm. I also didn’t exercise much. I just rode trails or skate parks for fun when I felt like it. Now, I exercise at least 5 days a week. I can eat a little haft PBsandwich and feel totally rejuvenated to ride another few hours. That’s freak’n cool. I couldn’t do that before. It used to be, when I got tired it was a done deal. All in all I feel really blessed to have been so humbled. I have no (well, “little”) choice but to be healthy and take care of myself. All of us do here. Eat lots of cake and drink beer or you could not and keep your toes and eye sight. In a way, that’s a lucky choice. How many people struggle with their health or weight and wish they had the determination that we have “little” choice but to find. We get to have a day to day routine that makes us more disciplined and dedicated than most people. The lifestyle is not that hard when you accept it and embrace it. Why not embrace that we need to eat well and be active. It’s like being urber motivated into living the good life. My friends all think it’s interesting and many have asked to check their sugar. They see me as knowledgeable about food and being healthy and really seem to take heart in looking after me as they get to know about what I deal with. Going to restaurants is not that hard. They all at least have a fish & veggies palter or a turkey wrap thing. Gas stations all have water and nuts. The waiter trying to up-sell you desert is no longer a temptation. I usually joke and say, “No thanks, cake will kill me.” If it’s a cute waiter it can easily lead into asking them to come eat with me sometime. I miss beer, but I’ll never have a beer belly and that means I’ll be a hot old dude. How lucky is that? Even teenagers can appreciate that. There is no reason diabetes means you can’t be healthy or normal. I can’t really begin to imagine what being diabetic as a child would be like. I feel for all of you who know the feelings 1st hand. I will say it does seem to have its silver linings. The finger pricks suck, but the almost immediate feedback on our choices means we live on a sharper curve. We get to embrace the subtle sweetness of peanut butter while some hardly notice the sugar explosions of indulgences we thankfully can’t afford. We are finely tuned individuals and we understand our mortality better than many. This would all be harder to embrace as a child or teen, but it’s pretty cool if think about it. We are like special agents of the human body. We have our gadgets and are specially trained highly tuned humans. That’s just cool anyway you look at it.

I’m glad we’re all here!

I am glad you are here too. It helps when there are others going through the high, low and inbetween problems. It is even worse like in my age today, it is scary when you realize that you are a brittle diabetic and you start eating everything in the refrigerator. But let me say to everyone who reads this, is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. So Astrid, I too agree that you are here.