Thought I'd take a minute to mention this as it's prominent. A few months ago I was staying at my grandmas house and there was a magazine on the table, I opened it and flicked through it and happened to come across an article about a boy with diabetes, that I have to admit really angered me.
This article was written by the boys mother, and basically stated that, because of diabetes, her son could never be a teenage rebel. Now, being a teenage rebel myself I am really prepared to say that no way shape or form is that true. Here's the deal, Diabetes doesnt control you, you control it! The thing which really angered me about this woman, was that it occured to me, what sort of example was she setting her son by saying such things? By focusing on what he couldn't do, what sort of an example is that? That's like saying- "Yes son, it's a big change, Your life will never be the same and it will change for the worse, you're never going to be normal or like everyone else now, so we should all treat you differently aswell."
I'm not a heartless person. I remember being diagnosed with diabetes, it's an upheaval, it's a big change for everyone involved and I'd be prepared to say that the older you get it the worse it is for you because you have adjusted to life around you already and you have to change that. And no parent wants their child to be ill. And no child in their right mind, would actually want diabetes, it's not the best of things to have :P But the thing to remember is, when you have it, you have it. you can't change that, you can just adapt and live with it. If I'd grown up with parents who specialised in telling me how special and amazing I was for having diabetes and coping with it when all of my friends didn't, I dread to think how I would have turned out! Fortunately, I grew up with parents who allowed me the freedom to do my own injections even before leaving the hospital, and whilst at parties with friends, those parents who asked my mother what I could and couldn't eat were in for a surprise when my mother told them to ask me because I knew! I grew up with parents, who focused on me as a child, and not my disability.
I used the word disability there diliberately because I hate it. I'm well aware that diabetes is classed as a disability, and I hate it with a passion. Here's the thing- I can do everything you can do, I am not slighted in any way shape or form. I am exactly the same as you are, to look at me, you'd never even know! Put it this way- I drink a tad more lucozade than most (maybe I just have a fetish for it) and have to give myself what my body can't (but when you have cold and you're popping the paracetamol, you're giving your body the defences it can't give you, does this make you disabled? No!) The problem with the word "disability" is that people put too much emphasis on the "dis" when they should be putting more emphasis on the "ability". We are no different to anyone else. We don't need special treatment or sympathy. If anyone is sympathetic towards me and my diabetes I become really uncomfortable and don't like it, It's not a case of being really brave, It's a case of Do it or die. Simple as.
You'd be surprised I'm sure to learn that I don't like blood, nor do I like needles. And I don't like it when people without diabetes turn around and say "I could never be diabetic, I don't like needles", nor do I, I put up with it because I have to. I'm not saying that I'm the perfect diabetic either, I've messed about with it on occasions, and I probably haven't learnt from messing about with it, there will come a time when I mess about with it again. But that's just life, it's the way it is and there's nothing to change that. I don't mess about with it for sympathy, on many occasions I think it's just to show that I can! But I'm sensible enough to not let it get too far, it' not worth it, and if trying to do that is trying to show the control I have in my life, well then in reality I'm handing the control over to the diabetes. Like I said earlier, the trick is to control the diabetes, not let the diabetes control you!
Keep Smiling :)
Love, Tutti-Frutti
xxx
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