This is a question that I can pretty much guarantee that every Diabetic has thought about and has been asked on more than one occasion in their life. I know that it is the case for me.

“What would you do if you woke up and didn’t have Diabetes anymore?”

I think this has got to be one of the hardest questions that I would have to answer for a number of reasons. Now, when I pose this question, I am not talking about what would you eat or something like that, it is more of a how would you change your life type question. I have been a Diabetic for over 21 years now so a large portion of my life has revolved around Diabetes and the management of it. The last time I was a non-diabetic (or at least not diagnosed) was when I was 14 years old. It is hard for me to think of very many vivid memories when I was any younger than that. I was also young enough that the majority of my decisions were made by or heavily influenced by my parents.So you could say that my entire life has included Diabetes. As I have gotten older and molded and shaped my life to become the person I am today, Diabetes has always been a part of that. It would be hard for me to find a time that did not include Diabetes. So, again the question is:

“What would you do if you woke up and didn’t have Diabetes anymore?”

To tell you the honest truth, I really don’t think there is a single thing that I would do differently. Obviously, I would not longer take insulin or have a piece of machinery with tubing stuck into me or be a human pin cushion, but everything else that has come with Diabetes has actually been more of a benefit to my overall health and well-being. I am really not much of a sweets person and never have been (even before the big D) so gorging myself on sweets is not my ideas of a life long dream. I have much more of an awareness of my body and what it is trying to tell me because of my diabetes so why would I even think about changing that. It has only made me who I am today. Someone who is health conscious and works to stay that way.

I have been very fortunate that I have not had any serious complications due to diabetes because that is always a cause for concern for anyone with a conic illness. I really think that this disease has helped to make me the person I am, which is a strong, determined and healthy individual. So, To answer the question, what would you do if you woke up and didn’t have Diabetes anymore, I would say:

Continue being the person I have been for the last 35 years. I am very happy with the person that I am. I have faults and issues, but so does everyone else. No one is perfect in this world, including myself, but I like the person that I am and couldn’t imaging changing who I am. Just because something in my life changes, that does not mean that I am going to change. That would not be true to myself. That would mean not staying true to myself. I have worked too hard throughout my life to get to this point and I am not going to change just because I was thrown another curve ball. This is the person I am and will continue to be until the day I die.

Now for those interested in the more literal answer to the question, that one is pretty easy:

I would go out and enjoy a large pepperoni and green bell pepper Pizza.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.