Yes, diabetes is the bad hand with which we all have been dealt. However, the “good” things for me is that 1) it is treatable, 2) the treatment can be invisible to others if I choose not to let others know, 3) it HAS made me take better care of myself with better food choices and exercise, and 4) I can lead a fully functional, normal life. I can walk and talk, I can reason, I have full control over my body, and I have the ability to be kind to and to love others. I have been blessed, experiencing only a few complications, and those that have entered my life after 50 years of D1 have all been manageable. Attitude, a good sense of humor, and surrounding yourself with caring people also helps. Life is good… despite D1.
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It has given me extended purpose. Without diabetes, I would be irrelevant by now. I hate being irrelevant.
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In my opinion, there is no use in sulking over what you can’t change. Diabetes sucks, yes, that is true, but it’s better to see the positives of the situation rather than focus on the negatives. At least in my opinion.
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I hardly think meee’s post constitutes “sulking”. Your response, however, serves to invalidate her quite valid feelings.
And I repeat, there are no “positives” about diabetes. We may try to respond to it in as positive a fashion as possible, but nothing about diabetes itself is positive.
Nothing.
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I’ve gone from thinking diabetes was just something fat, poor, uneducated people in the Deep South ate themselves into to having met and gotten to know dozens of intelligent, thoughtful and amazing people that I otherwise would not have
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Diabetes for me was not freakish until I started shooting insulin. Six times a day I feel like a drug addict.
It has improved my math skills…
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Favourite things, I’m proud of how I manage my diabetes and the expertise I have gained over my 30 + years and ok so my results aren’t always great but I can carb count a plate of food at ten paces! How many non ds have that kind of awareness of what they are eating. So the upside of worrying about your future health for me is that it focuses me on what’s really important in my life in the here and now. And I loved my pregnancies (OK parts were really tough), but I had more scans than hot dinners and how many non d moms get to see their baby growing inside them every second or third week. And I love my d friend who I never would have met if we weren’t bedded next to each other in the d ward of maternity hospital.
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Diabetes does keep you in the here and now. That is a reasonably good aspect of it.
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Having T1 diabetes has actually made me a much better dentist. Knowing about the endocrine system through personal experience, and personally knowing what it takes to control diabetes I have become more attuned to the real needs of my medically compromised patients.
I find that this knowledge is pretty rare in the dental profession, and it has enabled me to actually take referrals of diabetic patients from some of my colleagues!
Aside from that, after 45 years of dealing with this crap I feel pretty invincible 
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I like math. And it gives me a good reason to use math in daily life in addition to the calculations I make in quilting.
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Hah! I’m with you. Nothing good about it but, gotta deal with it. Couldabeen worse.
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I kind of get a high out of having a daily never-ending challenge that most people never have to deal with or don’t have a clue about, and dealing with it pretty damn well!
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Diabetes is an impressive foe. While it often follows some math formulas, it can pivot on a dime and change direction, many times seemingly at random. The difficulty to master its treatment makes it a wily opponent.
But when things go your way, when your food, insulin, exercise, and sleep are balanced, it’s satisfying to watch a sub-100 line go sideways for hours. Diabetes makes me feel accomplished because I know, from first-hand hard-won experience, that diabetes plays for keeps and does not tame easily. When I feel like I’m steering, it gives me pleasure.
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I agree with what Terry4 said.
When I try to estimate the carbs on a large meal and then stick some insulin, if my glucose is then around 100 when I check next time, what archery. I use three units before most meals and if I have eaten a low carb meal, the feeling of having low numbers is secretly exciting.
My wife does not know what I am talking about. My doctors have a lot of diabetic patients who do nothing to treat their illness. Ours is an exclusive club.
Robert17