Yay! The sixth annual Diabetes Blog Week is here! Thanks to Karen from Bitter Sweet Diabetes for organising it! I’m thrilled to be part of it! Here is my first post about the topic „I CAN“.
Six years ago, when I was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, the conversation was all about what I CAN’T do. Can’t drink juice. Can’t do a year abroad. Can’t be spontaneous.
And I listened. That’s the part that I still struggle with sometimes. I had always prided myself on making my own decisions. Taking advice, yes. Taking orders, no. But there it was: Diabetes. The diagnosis that was going to change my decisions, my behaviour, my life. And I was passive. I just listened and did what I was told. Which was not to be spontaneous, not to drink juice and not to do a year abroad.
I think that is why I needed a long time to accept the diabetes. I had to learn for myself what it meant and what role it should play in my life. It took some time and struggle but here I am: Taking advice, but not orders. For me, the most important thing about my life with diabetes is that I CAN make my own decisions. I can be spontaneous. I can travel. I can see the world. (And I can also drink juice.)
Today I know that. I’ve lived in Cologne, Moscow and Edinburgh. And I’m just about to land in Dublin. I CAN do all those things with diabetes. And I won’t listen to anyone who says otherwise!
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