The other day I was sat waiting for a friend when a man came up to me in a wheelchair. He had a fake leg on one leg, and no leg at all on the other. He asked if he could stop and chat to me for a little while whilst I waited for my friend, I told him he could and he began to tell me quite a lot about himself. He told me that he was 39 (I didn't respond to this fact because I had though he looked about 70, so I didn't say anything, at any rate he did look very ill, and not just for the absence of his legs). He then told me he had been at the hospital all morning for check ups on his legs. He said he lost his first leg 12 years ago, and his second leg 5 years ago. I sat listening wondering if he was going to tell me a really heartbreaking story about losing his legs in an acciedent in the army or something, but he didn't, his actual story was much closer to home. He lost both legs to diabetes type one. This was rather shocking to me for a few reasons. The most prominetnt being that I was sat on quite a busy street, there were a lot of people that he could have stopped at, yet he stopped at me, the type one diabetic. It was scarily coincidental. Surely, there wernt going to be many other type one diabetics on that same street at that same time, so I find it really really strange that he stopped at me. He really gave me some food for thought though, an awful lot to think about. I thought he'd have learnt his lesson after losing the first leg, but he obviously continued down the same path and lost his second leg aswell. I cant help but see this as sort of a warning. I know we all have lapses, I've said this so many times, but there's lapses and there's utter not taking care of anything, and he must have let that go on for so long, and its convinced me as to why I'm never going to do something like that. I'm glad I met him, it was a definate eye opener. Before he left he looked me square in the eyes and said to me "look after your diabetes miss, you dont want to end up like me", thats very true, no I dont, and mister I promise I'll look after myself and not get like that. And I urge other diabetics to think about this too, its really not worth losing both (or any) legs for.
Keep Smiling :)
Love, Tutti-Frutti
xxx
