Agreed we have to take care of our many varied issues of health connected with Diabetes, but we can and should live near normal, if not normal life, like any other patients of other diseases. In fact, Diabetes gives us an opportunity to live a balanced and disciplined life.
For me personally I do not consider having to take insulin to stay alive normal, having to count everything that goes into your mouth normal, to plan when to excerise, how to eat wedding cake at your daughters wedding and a host of other things normal. Not everyone wan to lead a balanced and disciplined life. I miss the days of carfreeness and spontenaity.
Satinder, you and I have talked about this before. I think you are being picky about words. Because I say I am diabetic, is not defining me, but it tells people who are also diabetic (and those who are not) something about me.
TO ME, it tells them that we have something in common, that I understand their feelings, etc. To those who are not, it opens the communication lines for me to do some educating and information giving. I have glasses, that makes me a glass wearer, I have freckles, it makes me a freckled person…do you get what I am saying. It’s all a matter of semantics…more importantly, we work towards a cure, understanding and acceptance. If you don’t want to be called a diabetic, what would you rather be called, and we will refer to you as those words.
Honestly, being diabetic doesn’t hurt half as much as being called many other things I have been called in my lifetime.
Denise, as far as being normal…again, I wear glasses and that’s normal for me. I limp because of arthritis and that is normal for me. I talk with a midwestern accent and that is normal for me. I do count my carbs, I do take my numbers, I did eat wedding cake at my nephew’s wedding, a small slice, and I do have a very carefree lifestyle, very spontaneous…but then that’s me. I’ve learned to make my diabetic life normal, or I am learning how to make it a normal part of life. Thinking of the "can do’s " rather than the “can not’s.”