As most of you know, I’ve been dealing with diabetes for almost all of my 63 years. The first two thirds of that time being a Type 1 diabetic and from age 24 until now with the physical effects of it. This, even though I have been “cured” of diabetes through a pancreas transplant almost 22 years ago.
But rather than focusing on the negative effects of diabetes, I am going to talk about the positives – basically “life lessons” that have gotten me this far.
Between now and the Chicago Tour de Cure on June 2, once a week I will be posting a rule I’ve learned from and for coping with diabetes and the powerful transplant drugs I must take.. These are rules I must stick to. At this point, most of them come naturally to me. My hope is that you’ll find one or more helpful to you in dealing with the curveballs life can throw at you.
If one or more of them seem like something that would work for you in your life, I ask a favor. For each rule you agree with, make a donation toward my ride on June 2. Any amount is fine. If these rules are something that can help you, great! Just please make a donation so that others aren’t faced with learning them as I was, through very difficult circumstances.
I’ve been told by people that I have a great attitude. I’ve even been told that I’m an inspiration, something that honestly embarrasses me. My attitude and my success in making it this far are due to these lessons I have learned.
In no particular order, here’s my rule for week #1:
Don’t complain or ask “why me?” Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Why? It’s simple. There is ALWAYS something worse.
In the fall of 1978 I learned that due to diabetic retinopathy, nothing could be done to save the vision in my right eye. I sat down and started to cry. I thought this just was not fair. Why did this happen to me?
Just a couple of weeks later I was at Mayo Clinic for surgery on that eye in an effort to save some vision. I was in a pre-op area waiting to be brought into the operating room and I was lying on a gurney next to a guy around my age. Because I was feeling good from the injection they gave me to relax me a few minutes earlier, I struck up a conversation.
“How are you doing?” I asked this fellow patient.
“Okay I guess,” he said.
“Where are you from?”
“Near St. Louis,” he said while staring straight up at the ceiling.
“And what’re you here for?”
He turned his head to face me and said, “malignant brain tumor. I’m going to die soon, but they’re trying to give me a few more months.”
I was hit with two emotions. Feeling horrible for him and completely unable to find anything to say that would help or comfort him. But I also felt tremendous shame. I flashed back to that day I received my bad news about my eye and thought to myself, man, am I an asshole. I have NOTHING to complain about.
Since then I refused to allow myself to feel I had gotten an unfair break or life was unfair. When given bad news I immediately flashed back to that moment when I saw someone around my age telling me he was going to die soon.
Now, I know that regardless of what life throws at you, it could always be worse.
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