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Diabetes, life and all that - personal diary

I started this thread with the stated intention of keeping it going for three weeks.

By the end of today, this three-week period will expire.

During these last weeks, there have been 120 posts to this thread. Admittedly, most of these were made by myself but that is only to be expected from a journal type thread such as this.

More incredibly, there have also been over 5000 views of this thread; a number which is far beyond even my wildest expectations - if I had any expectations to start with!

I thank all of you for your interest.

This unexpectedly high number of views brings home to me the popularity of this forum.

It also highlights the fact that a much higher number of people will read what we write in a particular thread than will choose to actually respond and comment. It places the added responsibility on all of us, who contribute to the various threads of this forum, to make what we write as clear and unambiguous as possible for the benefit of this silent majority, particularly as I suspect that a good proportion of this may be made up of people that are new to diabetes.

So is this the end of this thread?

Yes and no!

I believe that there is no need or usefulness for me to continue making daily journal type entries. Although doing so for the last three weeks has served a purpose, I feel that to continue to do so will inevitably test the readers interest and patience. After a while, reading about my daily walk or my morning blood glucose levels must surely lose its appeal!

Plus I may be running out of pretty flowers in the garden to photograph!

At the same time, I have enjoyed writing this thread and I am not ready to abandon it completely.

My current intention is to return to this thread periodically, whenever I have anything that I want to share that I feel would be interesting both to me as a writer and to you as a viewer, but which I do not feel deserves a separate thread of its own.

So no more daily updates but hopefully less frequent updates will also mean better quality updates

Once again thank you all for the interest you have shown!

Pavlos


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pavlosn said:
DiamondAsh

You really are doing wonders for my moral!

At least I know there is one person out there who enjoys this thread!

Thank you

Pavlos


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Pavlos - I enjoy this thread too with your beautiful photographs.
Being an animal lover I particularly like those pictures.
The views are fantastic and the sort of photos that I take too.
You live in a wonderful place.
 
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It's been a real pleasure.. I've enjoyed having a little close up glimpse of Grecian life.
I look forward to more post to come.
 
I love mornings like today's, when the rising sun seemingly sets the remnants of last night's storm ablaze.



Glistening pearls of moisture on every leaf and petal




Every roadside puddle a shinning mirror offering fresh new perspectives on familiar sights




Everything washed clean, renewed, more vibrant and invigorated



The very transitory nature of all of this, the sun's rays will see to it that normality will soon be restored, makes it all the more to be appreciated and savored- just like our very lives themselves.

Have a great day everyone!

Pavlos


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Pavlosn , I love your photos and you are an inspiration .
I had a great blood result then went off the wagon, I have copied you and for 5 days ive recorded a diary. It is helping me get back on track so thank you.

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Jamrox said:
Pavlosn , I love your photos and you are an inspiration .
I had a great blood result then went off the wagon, I have copied you and for 5 days ive recorded a diary. It is helping me get back on track so thank you.

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Hi Jamrox

Thank you for your kind words.

Great to hear that you are getting a grip on things again. There is something about writing things down where others will have access to view that helps concentrate the mind.

I find that this forum in general, not just this thread, helps me maintain my focus and stay on top of my levels. After all one can hardly be handing out advise to others one minute and then ignoring his own advise himself the next! So definitely a case of helping oneself through helping others.

Anyway, best of luck with your efforts. I will be sure to follow your thread with interest and cheer you on!

Pavlos



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Left foot, right foot. Left foot....

There are days when our journey with diabetes is easy, the weather fair, the terrain smooth, there is a spring in our step and good time is made. But even as we settle in satisfied rest at the end of days like these, we know that we have it all to do again tomorrow.

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot.

And then there are days when nothing is easy, the track is uphill, the wind and rain in our face, the scenery uninspiring, our task seemingly impossibly daunting. Days when we wish someone would give us a break, pick up the slack and carry our load for a while.

Unfortunately, no one else can!

These are the days that we need to go back to basics. Remind ourselves that even the longest march is but a series of simple steps.

Left foot, right foot.

Even if we have to keep telling ourselves which leg we have to push forward, still a series of small steps is all the journey is.

And it's only taking that next step that matters. Surely we can manage that.

And the road may be smoother tomorrow, the weather more forgiving.

And there may be wonders to see round the next corner, fantastic new ports to visit along the way.

And look there are others sharing the same journey with us. They may not be able to carry our load, but they can make the load easier to carry.

Even if you have strayed, if you have lost the path, worry not. Every day starts afresh on this journey and all that matters is taking that next little step.

Left foot, right foot.

Left foot, right foot.

Pavlos


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Olive tree in bloom.

You would be hard pushed to find a less impressive looking flower than that of the olive tree: Small greenish grey specks against slightly darker foliage of the same color.

Yet these insignificant looking little flowers are probably some of the most economically and nutritionally important flowers of them all, as eventually from them we will get olives and olive oil, the cornerstones of the Mediterranean diet, known to be amongst the healthiest in the world.

And as olive trees live for millennia, they will end up feeding whole generations.

So not everything that is significant has to be glamorous and pleasing to the eye.

Sometimes there is a lot to be said for the humble workhorse.


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That is poetic... I think that will help a lot who feel like jacking it all in for a little respite.
Very nicely written
 
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DiamondAsh said:
That is poetic... I think that will help a lot who feel like jacking it all in for a little respite.
Very nicely written
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I am so pleased you like this.

I think it captures how I felt this morning really well. It was a struggle to get out of bed and get going.

My morning walk was not the source of pleasure it usually is. Pretty flowers left me unmoved and if the roadside puddles were offering any new perspectives on the world, then I did not notice; I was too busy sidestepping them.

But I'did keep telling myself to take that one more step, to keep going. I ended up completing a seven kilometer walk, perhaps not in the fastest time but I did complete it and ended up feeling all the better for it having been a struggle.

I see no point in writing my thoughts down and sharing them with others unless what I write is honest and true. This can be a scary thing to do sometimes. The more open you are the more vulnerable you are as well. None of us likes ridicule and somewhere inside there is still a little boy worried that others will make fun of what he has to say!

I enjoy this forum tremendously.

I find I can help myself through helping others. If I am any good at advising and supporting others, and this can sometimes be a difficult thing to do, how do you advise a teenage girl t1 or a middle age man claiming to be dying for instance, is by empathizing with others by drawing on my own experiences my own feelings, and relating them to their particular situation.

I still believe that at the end of the day people can eventually sense falsehood and the only way to be truly convincing in the long term is by being honest and real.




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Late yesterday afternoon, I took my son to his chess lesson and then, as I do most days, drove to the care centre where my dad is looked after following his latest stroke, to see him and to give my mom a lift back to her house; she does not drive.

My dad, who will be 79 next Tuesday, has never been much of a talker, always having been more of the strong silent type. Since his stroke, he has severe speech difficulties and mild depression, so he is now even less communicative.

I will usually shake his hand, ask about how he is and how his day had been and he will usually just nod back or if I am really lucky, and the antidepressants are doing their job, give me smile.

He will then fade into the background as my mom takes over, monopolize the conversation, as she has probably done all their lives, to tell me about the latest goings and comings at the centre.

Yesterday was different.

There was something different about my dad. A glow about his face, a more lucid and focused look in his eyes and a smile that this time came forward to greet me unprompted.

He tried to say something.

What came out was unintelligible gibberish.

My mother asked him to repeat what he had just said.

There was no need.

I understood every jumbled up word. I just knew from his face.

"You love me?" I whispered.

He nodded and his smile grew wider.

Time stood still.

No! Time shifted and I was a young child of five or six again not a middle aged man of forty eight.

I never realized how much I needed to hear those three little words from him until he came out and said them.

We have never been a very touchy feely kind of family and my dad has never been the most demonstrative of men. In all honesty, not that I ever had reason to doubt his love, but I do not recall him ever coming out and saying something like that to me out loud.

Believe me, knowing it is not enough, we also need to hear it!

First thing I did when I came home was give my own son a hug, he is ten, and tell him that I love him.

"Dad!" He pushed me away, exasperation in his voice and puzzlement and slight annoyance in his face.

Never mind.

One day he will understand!


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You brought tears to my eyes reading this it reminded me of my husbands father he was very similar never showed any love openly . My husband used to work in the film industry and spent much the away on location. Once when he was about to go off for a couple of months his dad turned up to say goodbye and out of the blue hugged him and told him take care I love you . My husband was so shocked by this as so out of character but so pleased. Sadly whilst he was away his father died and he had to come back for the funeral Our son has always been cuddled and kissed by his dad even now at 27 yrs old and let's hope if he has a son he will be the same


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That is so beautiful.. I'm adding this little story to 'My Stories to Remember Throughout my Life' . Some things I like to remember as significant.
Life is so fast these days. things can rush by us without the chance to 'wave it down' and hold the moment for a moment! As you said above...."Time stood still" when your dad said :I love you!
He's most probably had time to think and reflect since having a stroke and he mustered up all that strength to utter three little words. What joy he would have felt to realise that you understood the jumbled utterance. No wonder his smile grew.... what joy!!
Thank you for being a good son to your parents and a good husband and father to your family. No amount of money can buy these things.... they are priceless!
 
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