It’s taken me a long time to accept that this is the way it should be.

Being a PWD – person with diabetes.

For the first four or five years I think I was just in survival mode.

When you first get diagnosed it’s all carb-counting and finger pricks, learning how to give yourself shots, taking over the job of a pancreas so instantly, something that you took so much for granted that you may have never thought of before. There are so many rules, techniques, methods to learn. Keeping yourself alive becomes priority # 1.

When I was first diagnosed, accepting diabetes as part of who I am was the thing I feared the most.

It’s taken ten years, but now the idea that I can begin to integrate the effects of diabetes into my identity is exciting.

And what have I learned? What am I left with? A lot. But today, I’m thinking about thinking. Something that I do a lot of. Something that diabetes requires me to do a lot of. And I’m wondering how all that thinking affects other parts of my life. 

Feel free to share your thoughts on how having diabetes has shaped your identity.