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Friday 17 May 2013

Diabetes Blog Week Day 5 - Freaky Friday


Just like in the movie, today we’re doing a swap. If you could switch chronic diseases, which one would you choose to deal with instead of diabetes? And while we’re considering other chronic conditions, do you think your participation in the DOC has affected how you treat friends and acquaintances with other medical conditions?

Give up my disease? Hell yes! Running at that faster than if I have my father's murderous 30 year old cockatoo biting my heels. But take another disease in its place? Alarm bells ring and I approach with extreme caution. This swap, will it gaurantee no added chronic diseases? Does it gaurantee I won't get diabetes again. No? Then I'm not in. I have only had Type 1 Diabetes for 1 year and 2 months of my 23 years on this planet, but in that 1 year and 2 months I have come to know how to handle my disease. The 1st few months were absolutley nerve wracking and I don't want to go through something like that again. I can handle my diabetes, for the most part, and feel like I have had it my whole life. I don't remember life before it anymore. My brain believes it has always been finger-pricking, I don't remember food without the obligatory insulin jab.

Of course, you could say, well why not switch to an easy disease, one of those tablet only chronic diseases. Just drawing on my very small expertise of what other chronic diseases are out there: Like what? Hypertension? Graves' disease? They sound easy - actually I have high blood pressure. Or so I was told. They aren't easy 'tablet only' diseases. I'm scared of diabetes complications. I would be scared of high blood pressure complications - heart problems, eye problems (yes, it can cause eye damage). I would be scared that if I forgot that 1 little pill, I might have a heart attack. Thats a lot of pressure to remember to take that pill everyday. If I forget a dose of insulin? I correct when I realise and move on. I can deal with the ups and downs of diabetes now, I don't want to deal with something else. And Graves' disease? Before I was diagnosed I remember being at work one day thinking: If I had to get one of these chronic illnesses I would take a thyoid condition. I had overhead the parents of an 18 year old boy become hysterical at his diagnosis of Graves' disease. And I thought, so what? He takes a tablet and is done with it. But I have been at my job longer now, and added my own chronic disease, and I know thats not the case. Weight problems, anxiety issues, in remission & out of remission, surgery or radioactive iodine therapy - Yay Graves' disease!  His mother was balling her eyes out, talking about how it was a conditon for life and how it would change everything and he would never be able to do anything again Honestly, I do think his mother's chronic case of a bad outlook on life is one of the worst chronic illnesses out there.

So I will stick to my diabetes, please and thank you. I like my support group too much.

As for the 2nd part of todays blog - Absolutely the DOC has changed how I treat other people with medical condition. So many people in the DOC have co-existing illnesses that you read about, and I know from dealing with my own 'invisible illness' that you never know what someone is going through and how it may impact on their life. Being involved in the DOC has taught me to stand back and respect each person's struggles, and let them deal with them in their own way. We all ask for help when we need it and it is always provided if requested. If not, we know how much we hate when people butt in. 

3 comments:

  1. So true about how you never truly know what someone else is going through and being a D certainly has made me more sensitive to that too.

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  2. I really like this post, I agree with all of it. I love your line about the mom's chronic case of a bad outlook on life. Life is what you make it and your outlook really makes all the difference.

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    1. Thanks Reva! I think (or hope) we all try to have a positive outlook - except on exceptionally bad days where I allow myself self-pity for enough time to finish a block of chocolate - Then get back to it and let the choccy lift my mood again.

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