Own it!!!!! - Post I made on FaceBook - see the link

http: //www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=4389&post=16218&uid=2204471074#post16218

Own It! Own your diabetes, don't let it own u. Take your blood sugars, bolus when needed, count your carbs, and be done with it. It's normal for us to do that. Look, I know where your coming from. I was diagnosed at 8 ( the day b4 Halloween) and come from a family where 4 out of 8 immediate family members were type 1. In HS and college I didn't want to stand out, I wanted to be that dreaded word, NORMAL.
Everyone wants to be "normal", but everyone's "normal" is different. Normal for diabetics is taking Blood sugars. Normal for those who are allergic to peanuts, is to stay away from peanut butter - which would drive me nuts, and normal for die hard Packers fans is to paint their face and chest and sit in the freezing cold w/out a top on every home game, regardless of the temp. To me, that's not normal, that's insane. But for them, it's a normal Sunday during FB season!
Don't give up, get active, and own it. Work with the big D. I swear to u the minute u stop fighting and start working with it, everything gets easier.
Look, I watched my older sister Debbie - who was a diabetic - type 1, try so hard to be normal and deny that anything was wrong or "abnormal," that she died from complications at the age of 34. She suffered from Heart attacks, strokes, and in the end, kidney failure. She lost her job, many of her friends and it was in no way normal. It was a long, slow, painful process for the whole family. It broke my heart, and crushed my parents heart. You can do or be anything in this world. But being healthy really helps. It literally takes 5 seconds to take a blood sugar, and then it's done. do it 5 times and day and it's still only 25 seconds.
Do it 10 times a day , and it's only 50 seconds - but your still under a minute. You'll feel better, your numbers will get better, and your mom won't worry as much. I'm 30 something now and well past the age that my sister was when she died. I just wish she that she had accepted what "normal" was for her instead of trying to be like everyone else.
My sister drove me crazy - as many older siblings do, but I haven't heard her voice in 17 years and I miss her everyday. If I could change one thing in my past, (and trust me there ARE MANY THINGS THAT I'D CHANGE) it would be what my sister Debbie's view of what normal was as an adolescent.