We Are Courageous!

In my humble opinion (IMHO), it takes real courage to live with type 2 diabetes. It is a chronic disease that at the moment has no cure. It means life has changed and change is hard. Very hard. Change can involve fear. I know it did for me. Change takes courage. Courage we rarely give ourselves credit for.

Courage ... when diabetes isn't a shock

Some of us knew we were at risk for type 2 diabetes. For myself, I knew my risks were higher than the average person. I’d already had gestational diabetes. I was in my child birthing years, I had a young family, my life was very busy. It was pretty easy to think it would not happen to me. Denial can offer a pretty good hiding place. When the diagnosis came, I was shocked. I beat myself up for a while with a lot of negative thoughts and then I decided to do something about it. It took courage to admit I now had diabetes. It took courage to tell my family what I needed their help with. It took courage to decide to eat differently, get more exercise and poke myself 4-7 times a day. I probably went a little overboard with the testing but it was what I needed to do at the time. All of these changes took courage I didn’t even know I had.

Courage...when diabetes is a shock

There are also many who had no idea diabetes was in their future. They ate healthy, they exercised. Their weight was exactly where it was healthy to be. Maybe others in their family had type 2 diabetes but they did not suspect they were at risk because their lifestyle was basically pretty healthy. I’m sure there was some shock there too. Imagine the initial anger then the courage it takes to accept the diagnosis and move forward when there is little you can do to change what you were already doing. I suspect the feelings would be very similar to people with type 1 diabetes when they receive a diagnosis. Want to talk about courage? You’d have to be more courageous than me to accept the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes knowing you may not be able to change the trajectory of the disease.

Then there are still others whose type 2 diabetes was caused by other disease processes. Nothing like kicking someone when they’re already down! You can’t tell me it doesn’t take courage to move forward dealing now with multiple, often big, health related issues. OMG-osh. I can’t imagine.

I am courageous. You are courageous

I consider myself very fortunate that I could change some things in my life to slow the progression of my diabetes. I could eat healthy. I had the ability to lose weight. I could start to exercise. I had little in my path to stop me from making some changes that would benefit me. I made those changes. I had a lot of success. It may sound like I’m bragging, and I apologize if it does, but I know I have worked hard to get to where I am. It took courage to make the changes I needed to. And I was lucky. I had the option to make those changes. For my fellow type 2 diabetics who don’t have those options, I am truly sorry. You are courageous. More courageous than I am.

Type 2 diabetes will not beat us. We have the courage to deal with it even in the tough times. Again IMHO, we all wear a superhero cape for the courage it takes to live with a diagnosis that sucks.