Positives of having diabetes?

Tubzi said:

Hi all,
I need some positivity at the moment so...
Who thinks having diabetes can add some good points to your life and why?

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I think that the positive point in diabetes is the healthy eating that we have daily.

Hi, being diagnosed a diabetic put the fear of god in me at the time. I was very low, cried a lot even cried in the supermarket at one point with frustration of not knowing what to buy to eat. Changing your diet is a nightmare at first for everyone. Then now 8 weeks on I came through it all, and yes it was a blessing in disguise for me, [ don't get me wrong I definitely didn't want to be a diabetic ] but it was a wake up call I needed. I feel healthier, not boated anymore, eat healthy [ before I was a snacker ] I put this down to grief of my husband being disabled now and the loss of my lovely son ] [ they were both in a motorbike accident.] I piled on weight I didn't need. Now lost over a stone and a half from Jan this year down to 11st. Just sat around and drove everywhere. Yes I was depressed through grief. Now I try and leave the car away from were I am going and walk. The grief for my son will always be with me as long as I live, I can never do anything to bring my son back but I can have a life with diabetes because I wont let it beat me, I will do what it takes to stay healthy, this actually has been my wake up call if you know what I mean.

Tubzi said:

I've changed the wording in the title and post now, sorry if anyone got offended by it!

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Don't worry, I don't think anyone would have been offended, but your new title is clearer.

It's definitely a continuing education, I've learned more about good foods and nutrition in the past couple of months than I did in the previous 60+ years. The wonderful people on this forum who are willing to share their personal experiences, triumphs and occasional failures are inspirational. There is always someone here to give support and comfort when needed. No-one is made to feel that any question is a stupid one. This place is full of optimism. You've all shown me that I am (more or less) in control.

Is diabetes a 'life' sentence? Yes. Is diabetes a 'death' sentence? It doesn't have to be. That is the blessing for me.
Am I thankful I've got it? NO. Am I thankful for this forum? A resounding YES.

Free Viagra and Cialis........ Hubba Hubba !.......... Only Joking !..

Tubzi said:

Hi all,
I need some positivity at the moment so...
Who thinks having diabetes can add some good points to your life and why?

Click to expand...

I hope this helps:
I'm back in control
I've lost over 6 stone since diagnosis in Oct 2015 (T2)
I can fit into all my old clothes, smaller clothes are much more stylish
Grocery bill - much lower
Blood pressure down from worryingly high to 100/70
I feel better
People complement me on the way I look
They have even mentioned that my complexion is better
I have more energy
I can fit into things better - like houses, cars, museums and chairs.
I need a lie in on Sunday mornings.

kevinfitzgerald said:

Free Viagra and Cialis........ Hubba Hubba !.......... Only Joking !..

Click to expand...

Been there, got the T-shirt. However, need to point out that these meds are now contraindicated for many PWD and no longer available on scrip if we have history of elevated BP. Sorry if this rains on anyone's BBQ. They are apparently still available on the internet but all may not be as advertised.

Oldvatr said:

Been there, got the T-shirt. However, need to point out that these meds are now contraindicated for many PWD and no longer available on scrip if we have history of elevated BP. Sorry if this rains on anyone's BBQ. They are apparently still available on the internet but all may not be as advertised.

Click to expand...

Yes quite true. I however fortunately have always had pretty good BP and I have been receiving four tablets every month with my other normal medications.

Another unfortunate is that these tablets also affect sensitivity which to some extent makes it pointless in taking them if sensitivity is the issue when trying to achieve arousal. Cialis I find also leaves me with a lasting headache.

And also you need someone to do it with ! Ha .......

amgrundy said:

Hi, being diagnosed a diabetic put the fear of god in me at the time. I was very low, cried a lot even cried in the supermarket at one point with frustration of not knowing what to buy to eat. Changing your diet is a nightmare at first for everyone. Then now 8 weeks on I came through it all, and yes it was a blessing in disguise for me, [ don't get me wrong I definitely didn't want to be a diabetic ] but it was a wake up call I needed. I feel healthier, not boated anymore, eat healthy [ before I was a snacker ] I put this down to grief of my husband being disabled now and the loss of my lovely son ] [ they were both in a motorbike accident.] I piled on weight I didn't need. Now lost over a stone and a half from Jan this year down to 11st. Just sat around and drove everywhere. Yes I was depressed through grief. Now I try and leave the car away from were I am going and walk. The grief for my son will always be with me as long as I live, I can never do anything to bring my son back but I can have a life with diabetes because I wont let it beat me, I will do what it takes to stay healthy, this actually has been my wake up call if you know what I mean.

Click to expand...

I had the same problem in the supermarket - it was like seeing old friends at the cemetery.. You are a fighter. you go for it

Well I've been diagnosed a T2 for nearly three months - lost two stone and I'm dating more - so that's jolly good!

Also I like eating healthy, I've started running again and I've cut out growing potatoes on my allotment - looking for more interesting food to grow. I do wonder if I hadn't been diagnosed if I'd have just become bigger and bigger - and suffered accordingly.

I do feel, and this is just a personal view, that I should have been on top of my weight several years ago when I was diagnosed with a fatty liver -but celavie - life can be good - and, and I think this is odd, but I enjoy the challenge of it - but I suspect a young Type 1 has a vastly different take. Be well.

there is good news and bad news
going to the supermarket I am sure 80% of the food is not suitable for us
on the other hand we can survive quiet well with the 20 %

For me it's been a blight, it's lead to several years of confusion and misdiagnosis of a hormone condition, with the symptoms all being put down to diabetes.

Only just getting things back to my pre diabetes days, I still some way to go, but i no longer have to just accept a decline in health and my well being.

Sean01 said:

I had the same problem in the supermarket - it was like seeing old friends at the cemetery.. You are a fighter. you go for it

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Hi Sean01, Thank you for those kind words means a lot, good, kind and lovely people on here and you are one of them.

Tubzi said:

Hi all,
I need some positivity at the moment so...
Who thinks having diabetes can add some good points to your life and why?

Click to expand...

I know that I am prepared to fight for my health, and I know that I am brave enough to tell sycophantic toadies who ask, out of sheer nosiness and no real concern for my welfare, how much weight I have lost where they can go with their false sentiment.

I got my T2 diagnosis 7 weeks ago and now regard it as the best thing that has happened to me for years. That is NOT to say that I'm glad that I have diabetes. - just that the diagnosis has had so many positive consequences.
I have lost 2 stones and am looking forward to losing much more.
I now have a strong focus on healthy eating and exercise. This is a radical departure at my current age of 63.
I have started taking a real interest in LIFE. It is interesting (to me) that it took this momentous news to galvanise me into making a positive choice to live.
I'm sure that for a young person with T1, the perspective is somewhat different, but it seems that the choices are similar. It is about realising that good health is a choice.

I can think of three benefits of diabetes for me:
- my health is checked more thoroughly. If I did not have diabetes, I would not be invited for regular check ups for kidney and heart problems so these could go un diagnosed.
- as much as I dislike having a hypo, I am glad I ca recover quickly. Within 30 minutes of realising I feel rubbish and need some sugar, I am back feeling normal again.
- it has introduced me to new opportunities: I have studied a Diabetes Course with the Open University, I have been on the radio to talk about care with diabetes, I blog for Diabetes UK.

Sure. I'd rather not have this condition but it's not all bad.

Tubzi said:

Hi all,
I need some positivity at the moment so...
Who thinks having diabetes can add some good points to your life and why?

Click to expand...

Hi Tubzi,

I'm relatively newly diagnosed but I certainly think that there are definite positives to gained from having diabetes. I feel that the main one is that if at least you know you have it then you can try and address it.

Also we are currently in a position with the NHS and NICE starting to realise that they have been barking up the wrong tree with the promotion of a low fat diet instead of the low carb diet which we know is our best bet to try and reduce and control our blood sugar it is becoming less of a struggle for some to follow this path without coming up against massive criticism from our GPs and health professionals.

A by-product of addressing our diabetes, through diet and exercise, is that we lose weight and get fitter. This will hopefully reduce the risk of the severe complications occurring in us whereas if we were still carrying weight and not exercising and didn't have diabetes then the risks would still be a lot higher than that of a fit and well controlled diabetes sufferer.

I am certainly seeing my diabetes as a massive wake up call and I can only encourage anyone else to make it priority number one in their life to try and address it if they are able.

As I say I am only newly diagnosed and I know many are unfortunate enough to not have had the chance to try and reverse this terrible illness and also that some of the things I say may not be the case for other sufferers as our diabetes does differ individually so I can only speak in my own circumstance and experience up to now.

I do wish you and all of my fellow sufferers out there the very best of luck in all their endeavors and particularly in in managing their diabetes.

Take care.

I can think of some positives.

1. We are in a great era treatment and management wise. 50 years + ago it would have been a shocker. 100 years ago far worse and no long term future. No metres for pin point accurate readings. No small painless needle tip pens. Totally accurate dosing with flex pens. Many diabetics can expect to live in good health to age 90 if they stick to the rules. Who would want to go much beyong that anyway!

2. Also with some of the lifstyle necessities we eat healthily, drink sensibly (in moderation for those who like a tipple) and end up being a hell of a lot healthier than those who don't!

Diabetes, itself, is no blessing. But the diagnosis was. I'd been putting of losing weight - which stopped the day I was diagnosed (down 44 lbs since then).

But, even more, I got my blood glucose into normal range within 3 days of diagnosis - and very quickly discovered that the physical and emotional exhaustion wasn't just the result of being overworked (which I am, horribly), but directly related to either elevated blood glucose - or the higher carb diet that caused the blood glucose elevation. I am even more overworked this spring than in the last year, but I am so much happier and less exhausted.

Yes, I don't know about "Blessing" either, but the confirmation of diagnosis, (which I had pretty much been expecting/dreading) did flick a switch in my brain from "hope it will all go away by itself or some other miracle will happen" to "right, don't eat that, this one is okay, no, don't have those, cut that out totally, small sips of that very, very occasionally, more of this..." kind of thinking.
But it was completely like a switch had flipped over in my brain, a sudden and complete reversal of thinking, and I'm thinking that it might have happened just in time. I hope so anyway.