I don't know how anyone can honestly say diabetes has improved their life. Everything, I mean everything is more complicated with it. T1D hasn't stopped me traveling, having a family and doing well at my varied career choices but diabetes has definitely had a negative impact on my life.
Diabetes T1 like ours, affects us all differently.
Now this is only my take on it, nothing scientific, no quoting studies or papers from experts.
Diabetes the " auto immune " condition, diabetes the medical condition is relatively easy to control, time consuming,yes. Inconvenient, yes. Nonetheless it can be mastered and for me maybe takes 30 to 45 mins per day.
Diabetes has a far greater power though, it lives, it grows and it craves negativity and darkness. It wants you to fear it, it wants you to make allowances for it, it wants to infiltrate the darkest corners of your mind in the darkest hours of the night, it wants you to put it first. It wants to be the leader, it wants to take the first step and have you follow. It wants to find parts of your life it can plant a seed to grow, you don't even realise it's planted the seed until it grows. Every morning it wants to fight you, it knows that you can't win the fight, because whatever you do today, no matter how well you fight, you'll still wake tomorrow a diabetic and it'll throw the gauntlet down again.
So why has it not ruined my life?
I don't fight it, I embrace it, it's the reason I overcome daily challenges, it's the reason I push and challenge myself.
I shine a light on it so it can't find that dark corner to hide in.
It does try to mess with me, catch me unawares, plant seeds of doubt but after so many years I'm wise to its ways.
If and when it f***s with me I let it know who's boss. Personally that usually involves pushing myself to physical limits.
So when I look at that time on the rowing machine or the extra set of reps on the weights or the extra half hour in the gym, it's all down to the diabetes, trying to make me weak has actually made me stronger.
When I'm running around with my grandkids playing silly games, carrying both of them home from the shops, when every muscle in my body is screaming for a rest I carry on. I carry on because it's the diabetes that wants me to stop, it doesn't like me having fun, it has no power where family especially kids are involved, it wants me to stop and fail, I have no greater reason to carry on and succeed.
I'm where I am in life and yes I'm diabetic BUT I don't have diabetes it has ME.
Hope this goes some of the way to explain how I am.
Please don't feel I'm trying to lecture or educate you, i am not. I just wanted to explain how me and diabetes exist.