Do You Celebrate Your Diaversary?

The first question you may be asking is “what’s a diaversary?”

A diaversary is the anniversary of your diagnosis. It’s the day you knew you had type 2 diabetes.

A diaversary may or may not be the same day you got your test results back. It might be the point in time that you realized that something wasn’t right. Always feeling tired. Blurry vision. Persistent hunger. Always needing to go to the bathroom. It could be the point that you simply no longer ignored the symptoms you were experiencing.

It might be the day that a doctor gave you the news by telling you straight out that your body isn’t working the way it’s supposed to and you need to make some changes or it will only get worse.

Why would anyone want to celebrate a diagnosis?

Celebrating a diagnosis? Okay, maybe it should be more of a day of observance. Or a day of remembrance. Not so much a celebration.

Getting your driver’s license. Graduations. Weddings. Birthdays. The day you moved into your first apartment or house. Retirement. These are all milestones that we commemorate in one way or another.

Not every commemoration is a celebration. Some of these milestones bring up mixed feelings. Not every milestone is a happy one. But ever milestone marks a specific “before” and “after” point in your life. And every milestone influences how we experience life.

What is the point of reflecting on being diagnosed?

Diagnosis is, for many of us, the point where we went from simply living our lives to having to manage a chronic illness.

This dramatic event forced us to make changes. Maybe it started with improving our diet and adding exercise to our daily routine. Maybe it required taking medication.

Whatever the change it was mandatory, not optional. It was forced upon us. And it was, most likely, permanent.

Taking time to reflect on our lives since diagnosis allows us to observe our accomplishments and challenges and how we respond has developed over time.

How did you respond to your diagnosis? How we respond to change when it is pushed upon us reflects who we are as people and what we truly value.

How did you respond to your diagnosis of type 2 diabetes?

Was it hard to accept? Or maybe it was a relief?

Did you wholeheartedly change your daily routine? Or did you long for the things you felt you could no longer have or do? Mocha frappuccino, anyone?

How do you feel now about managing life with type 2 diabetes?

Most likely life with diabetes is not all good or all bad. It has its frustrations, but I’ve also heard people admit that having diabetes improved their lives.

Diabetes motivated them to improve their daily self-care and health habits. Diabetes made them focus more on what they truly value, like spending time with friends and family. For some, diabetes gave them a cause worth fighting for.

But then there’s the daily grind of taking care of your diabetes. The unpredictable nature of blood glucose readings. The temptation to berate yourself for mistakes and missteps.

Reflection gives us perspective and helps us move forward

Diagnosis is a milestone in our lives. And recognizing milestones give us an opportunity for reflection and recognition. More importantly, taking the time to reflect gives us perspective.

Perspective is a great thing. With it that wonky blood glucose reading last week doesn’t loom so large against years of reasonable A1C results. That run you missed because you just felt too tired after work, doesn’t seem so dire compared to a point in your life when you couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs without being winded.

Perspective helps us see the forest that is life with diabetes, without obsessing about the many stumbling points that are the trees.