SweetLifeStories Diabetes Blog

I don’t usually pass along quotes, although many inspire me toward appreciating life. But here’s one I thought I’d share. It may serve to strengthen your resolve or lighten your load–especially if you’ve been worrying a little too much about the “what if’s” of diabetes or another health issue.

Live your truth. Express your love. Share your enthusiasm. Take action towards your dreams. Walk your talk. Dance and sing to your music. Embrace your blessings. Make today worth remembering.                                                                                                                                              - Steve Maraboli       

Blessings? They surround us, challenging our thinking and the obstacles in our path. Diabetes, in a strange way, has ultimately made me a better person by forcing me to think, problem-solve, outwit and be able to laugh at all the zany situations that come up and are related to the disease. Would I rather be free of its burdens? Of course. But I also give thanks, at this time of the season, for its challenges. They remind me of the joy and beauty all around me. 

Celebrating Tess & Zoe's bds!

B well, b happy. And have a happy THANKSgiving. 

Oh, the documented connections to living with the impact of diabetes keep growing and growing. The articles merely seem to confirm much of that which those of us living with the disease see in our own bodies. Every time an article is published, my less-better half–the doubting, more cynical side–shouts, “Duh! Where have YOU been that you’re just now getting around to figuring out all the problems we live with day in and day out?” Honestly, it’s enough to make you want to scream.

I took a trip in June to NYC to visit my sister Eileen. While we were getting ready for sleep at a lovely beachside B & B, the t.v. was on low volume in an attempt to quiet our thoughts from a busy day. The problem? I couldn’t hear the low volume as well as my sister. As I turned it up, she asked, “Have you thought about getting your hearing tested?” So, ever curious about the outcome, I went to an audiologist when I returned home. Her comment to me upon sharing the not-too-bad results? “Did you know that diabetes can affect your hearing?” WHAT? That’s something I never ever thought about. But, of course, the blood vessels in the ear canals are not so different from the ones in our eyes and fingers and hands that swell with the abnormal rise and fall of blood sugar levels. Dang! Who really wants to know about that?

Then, joy of joys, I came across an internet article on the link between diabetes and arthritis.  WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY? More than half the people living with diabetes will develop arthritis? Aren’t trigger finger issues, stiff hand syndrome, eye vessel changes, thyroid problems, food-exercise-weight issues and all the other things we know about quite enough?!?

I say ENOUGH ALREADY! Yes, I’ll admit I’m glad most of us are living long enough to have our diabetes-related health problems formally recognized by the medical community, but give us some help and hope–here and now! I’m multi-tasking the best I know how to try to take care of myself. The benefit? Living a wonderful life full of the things I love to do, people I love being with, pets I adore. The articles inspire me to realize just how important all these things are to me.

We can’t give up hope. But–eek! I may just have to stop clicking on and reading too many of these articles for my own good.

B well, b happy. And stay RELATIVELY well-informed–relative to what u can handle and need to know!

Until next time, kath

I’m visiting my sister, bro-in-law, and 16-year-old niece in NYC this week. It’s hot and humid, but every time I’m here I wonder at the delights and different ways of life that fill the city.

Just yesterday, for example, I got to walk through the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens for hours by myself, photographing to my heart’s delight. The new herb garden filled me with inspiration for my own southwestern garden and hardscape. When I finally returned “home” and had a moment to spend with my niece Hannah, I told her how much I loved doing things, being passionate about my interests and open to new pursuits. Her simple response? “Every day should be filled with wonder.”

How inspiring her approach to life is! For the first 25 years of living with diabetes, I wasn’t always able to view life around me with so much wonder and pleasure.  Hannah listened and, in her child-on-the-cusp-of-grown-up manner, she reiterated the importance of doing something wonderful every day. That’s a powerful mantra! From the mouths of babes . . . telling us something we already know to be true but is somehow farfetched, at times, when we feel burdened with health or family problems.

Living so long with Type 1 diabetes has not been easy, but it has helped me appreciate every friend and experience I now have. It has made me push myself to learn more, do better, be better. It has forced me to focus. It has pushed me to shape opportunity from challenge. Diabetes has ultimately made me a better person. For all this, I am absolutely filled with wonder!

B well, b happy, b wonder(ful).

Until next time, kath

So to the heart of all things “diabetes”–thinking about the all-important question so many of us fantasize–dream–cry–pray–hope–wish–bargain–share–plead–question about:

IF YOU COULD GIVE IT ALL BACK, WOULD YOU?

Here are my thoughts, excerpted from the preface of my memoir-in-progress on growing up with diabetes:

     Someone once asked me an intriguing question when I’d been diabetic just over half my life. “If you could give it all back, would you?” But in the moments that followed, as I grappled to understand who I had become after all those years of trying to live with the disease, an incredulous thought swept through me. How can it be possible that I can’t separate the person I’ve become as a result of living with diabetes, from the person I might have been without its grip on my life? And I realized that my life had been indelibly and irrevocably changed by the process.

     I recall sharing this crazy heart-stopping thought with my husband. He looked me squarely in the eye, somehow already knowing the answer. Yet he still asked, “So what did you say?” Being obstinate, I just wasn’t so easily inclined to give in at the time. I fidgeted, looked away and finally mumbled a reluctant response with a heavy sigh, “Well, I’m not sure. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think I should give it up.” To be honest, this was a terrifying thought. What I really wanted, of course, was to eradicate, strangle and burn away all evidence of the inroads this disease had made into my life, mind and heart. But that moment offered me an epiphany. Another unimaginable gift, as I realized that I couldn’t give up the experience, because having diabetes had shaped me into the person I’d become, triumphant warts and all.

     When the work of suppressing my diabetes began to take too much energy for me to want to stay in such a dark place, I finally grasped that despite my many tribulations, much of the ultimate impact had been surprisingly positive. It started with accepting a simple truth: while my own journey has not been an easy one, it has definitely been profound. Finding ways to emerge from obstacles in my path has made me stronger both in character and spirit. It has pushed me to be decidedly more determined, and helped shape a sense of empathy and willingness to give to others. The day I acknowledged a grudging acceptance of the disease to my husband was most definitely a day that it all began to make sense. The knowledge that someone I deeply cared for and trusted was willingly there beside me in partnership and solidarity was enough to sustain me and help me believe in the power of the journey.