I wanted to share my feelings on why I am grateful for being diagnosed and what qualities I have gained from this disease. I hope this helps anyone who feels alone or who needs some reassurance that great things come from obstacles put in our paths. Let me know if the video was helpful for anyone. I think I was blabbing but it came from my heart, so I meant well.
My dx came years after having tons of T1 symptoms. Extreme thirst, constant peeing, blurred vision, unrelenting lower leg pain (which I went to a doc for, and he gave me useless pills for). Either doctors were stupider back in the 70ās or they just didnāt think about diabetes symptoms, or the guidelines were lame, but in any case, I had a lot of symptoms and they (numerous doctors) didnāt realize I was diabetic. Finally, a doc (he gets my huge thanks!) gave me his standard tests for new patients (I went to him for asthma) and easily detected I was diabetic and added an additional test, glucose tolerance test, to be sure. That cinched the dx, and he put me on insulin within a few days. Then I switched to an endo but too long of a story.
Glad you got your dx, rather than suffer for god knows how long w/o a dx. Happy New Year to you too!
PS: forgot to mention the jerk of a doc who, one full year before my dx, gave me a fasting blood test, which came back high for glucose, yet he refused to believe I was a diabetic. AARGH!! Iāve been mad about that guy ever since, especially since I went back to him after my dx and he STILL refused to accept that I was diabetic. Some doctors should lose their licenses for crap like that.
Donāt think iām grateful for my diabetes but after working with a physiologist for a few years, I have realized that while I still think it sucks, it has helped me grow into the person I am.
Greater discipline. Great adaptability. Better communication skills (both with medical team- I can talk about anything, and anyone who wants to know more or asks about all my equipment). Compassionate and understanding of others and any issues they maybe having. While I still am pretty hard on myself, I have learned to not sweat the small stuff any longer. If itās high, fix, trouble shot and move on. An over achiever when planning. I usually have what someone might need, glucose tablets, granola bars, juice box, bandaids, alcohol wipes, aspirin, you get the picture.
Grateful, not so much but there is a lot of good that has come from having this disease for 47 years! Thanks for letting us know that there is good in everything, even diabetes!
The reasons why I am grateful for my diagnosis of T1 diabetes is that it is has given me courage and inner strength that nothing else could have, I live alone with diabetes and I know I cope well because I am healthy and I am more aware of the impact the food I eat has on my blood glucose. I am convinced that I am healthier with this condition than I would have been without it!
To be honest, diabetes produces what I call the āmillion effect,ā which is that while you have to work a thousand times harder than other people to preserve your health, the result you get for all that work is a thousand times worse than what other people get by taking no care at all.
As for diabetes building up courage or determination, many things in life can do that, and I would rather have had one of the ordinary challenges in life to inculcate those skills, like poverty or political struggles, since at least those problems can be solved. Also, while diabetes can teach some life skills, it can also crush people with despair and bitterness, so I donāt think it can be characterized as a net advantage in any sense.
Iām afraid Iām one of those people who can never be grateful for this disease. It has caused me to be bitter and anxious I take my hat off to those who can accept and be grateful but I struggle to be grateful. I wish I could be more accepting.
I think Iām grateful because the diabetes forced me to confront my own mortality before my peers did. I used that realization to travel extensively and I lived on 4 continents. My peers thought I was crazy to travel instead of building a career, but I didnāt want to wait in case I got complications before I had the opportunity. I probably would have led a different, less adventurous life without the diabetes, and that makes me grateful, despite all the other sucky things.
Another major problem of type 1 diabetes is the effect anticipating a short lifespan or a life soon rendered ineffectual by complications has on the coherence of long-term planning. When I was diagnosed in 1966 at 14, the general assumption was that I would certainly not make it past 40, so that changed the social significance of everything I did. I could not rely on the unthinking assumptions made by most people, which is that if they do what everyone else is doing that will add up to a sensible life plan, and instead I had to factor in the variable that everything had to make sense in the next 24 years which was all I thought I had as a teenager.
Even today, when the life expectancy of type 1 diabetics is known to be reduced by āonlyā about 11 years below average, you canāt anticipate when complications are going to limit your life or how, so questions like, āshould I major in art history if I might be blind some day?ā or āshould I plan for a career which requires many years of education and training if I might be incapacitated at the end of all that preparation by renal failure?ā continue to plague the young diabetic,
Iām sorry you received this message as though it were fact. I was diagnosed in 1965, and heard of things as possible outcomes, but I had the mindset that it wouldnāt happen to me. The most common I heard was going blind, or having leg amputated, and figured if it did happen, I would deal with it. I canāt think of anything related to diabetes that stopped me from doing what I wanted.
I canāt say Iām grateful for being āblessedā with diabetes, but have found ways to live my life with diabetes, and grateful for the amazing technology we have today.
I recall doctors saying, Xxx may happen, but we donāt know why some are impacted with certain complications while others are not. A1Cs, home BG testing, etc were not available.
I take my hat off to those who can accept and be grateful but I struggle to be grateful. I wish I could be more accepting.