Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Living with a chronic illness is, for the most part, seen as a detriment. And without question, after living with Type 1 diabetes for 41 years, I'd give it up if I could.
The five daily injections and 10 finger-pricks on average I do each day. The heart-stopping moment when something goes wrong and I fear it's diabetes-related. The never-ending decision-making about everything I do -- eat, walk, get on the subway, wait for my delayed flight with no food, go into a meeting or a movie -- trying to prevent complications from high blood sugar over time, or losing consciousness at any time from low blood sugar -- if low enough it can kill me on any ordinary day.
Yet I titled this "How Illness Can Make Us Better" because it can. Living with illness can also provide opportunities to turn "bad" into "good." Illness bestows for many, and perhaps particularly for young people, deeper wells of compassion, maturity and the desire to make a difference in the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/diabetes-leaders_b_2717455.html
The five daily injections and 10 finger-pricks on average I do each day. The heart-stopping moment when something goes wrong and I fear it's diabetes-related. The never-ending decision-making about everything I do -- eat, walk, get on the subway, wait for my delayed flight with no food, go into a meeting or a movie -- trying to prevent complications from high blood sugar over time, or losing consciousness at any time from low blood sugar -- if low enough it can kill me on any ordinary day.
Yet I titled this "How Illness Can Make Us Better" because it can. Living with illness can also provide opportunities to turn "bad" into "good." Illness bestows for many, and perhaps particularly for young people, deeper wells of compassion, maturity and the desire to make a difference in the world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riva-greenberg/diabetes-leaders_b_2717455.html