Thursday, April 18, 2013

A shorter life?

Reading some comments on a Facebook group for diabetics, I let my mind drift off and think about the question asked: do diabetics lead a shorter life? Are we doomed to die earlier than our non-diabetics fellows? What a stupid question to ask... How could we know? Since we are no longer non-diabetics and we are still very much alive, there is no way to compare. What if I get hit by a bus this afternoon? What if I had been at the Boston marathon in the midst of that horrible explosion? Maybe some other disease would have killed me before I got diabetes? There are so many different scenarios and thinking about it, I don't even want to think about it. Because it's not in our hands. Nobody can determine our life expectancy. I love to live and I live by the day. I have never been that person who makes a zillion plans for the future. What if you never live long enough to go through with those plans? I don't plan on waiting for my pension to start my life. Life is here. Life is today. There's no use dwelling over the past and looking back about life without D. I don't even remember, although it's only been 10 years. I like my life as it is, with or without the diabetes. I know it's a serious disease and I know it's there, lurking behind the corner. What more can I do than take good care of myself? Would I have taken better or less care of myself if I had not been diagnosed? I don't know and to be frankly: I don't bother finding out. Because it's non existing. I have D and I have to live with it. Period.

It's true: some diabetics die at an early age. Some of them are still in their teens when they die and that is very sad indeed. In the small town I live in, I know about at least 5 young women in their 30's who have died.. They didn't have diabetes.. Maybe we are more susceptible than others to die at an earlier age, but maybe we are not. I choose to go for the last scenario. I will let you know at the age of 85, when I am enjoying my Latte Macchiato, all of my limbs and my eyesight still perfect, despite the diabetes. I am not in denial. I'm not a dreamer and I don't close my eyes for reality. But I refuse to get depressed over this condition we didn't ask for. I choose not to live in fear and I prefer to live my life to the fullest, before I'm too old to move around... 

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