Acknowledgements

The widely-admired Ninjabetic wrote a post the other day that's really had me thinking.  (Go ahead and read his post now.  I'll wait.)  Oftentimes, folks facing a tough situation (like diabetes) are told that they should feel grateful that they're not facing a worse situation (like cancer).   The stealthy one's point (which you really should read in his own words, if you haven't already) is that we can be grateful that our situation isn't worse and STILL acknowledge grief, anger, etc. about our own plight.

Throughout my time as a diabetic, I've been strongly touched by the courage and grace of so many people whose diabetes has brought far more trouble into their lives than my diabetes has (yet) brought into mine.  This has often led me to dismiss my disease as somehow trivial or unimportant.  I now see that this is incorrect, and has maybe kept me from a healthy (!) attitude towards my disease.   

Type 2 Diabetes is tough. It's tough to worry about what your food is doing to you.  It's tough to get a little bit of tingling in your feet and wonder if that's an early signal of an amputation.  It's tough to argue with waiters about why you don't want a roll with your dinner.  It's tough to get a Christmas card from your pharmacist. It's tough to read about having greatly increased risk for everything from heart disease to Alzheimer's disease.  It's tough figuring out how to eat low carb AND low fat and still get in a reasonable number of calories.  All of these things and many more are genuinely tough.  It's entirely reasonable to feel sad, or angry, or fearful, or all of these things together when I think about them.

And it's a relief to admit that.

Thanks, Ninjabetic.