If you come here every now and then you may have noticed something has changed. It’s the text above the clown to the left. “Choose thrive over surviveliving with diabetes.”

What I really want to do throughout this year is remind you that while none of us would have asked for diabetes, and it’s a semi-regular (O.K. almost constant) pain in the butt, and I myself go from highs to lows both in my blood sugar and my frustration level, I still try to remain focused on my blessings. The good in my life — and what diabetes gives me. If I were to see diabetes as a limitation, it will limit me. If I were tosee diabetes as a pain in the butt, my butt would hurt more. If I see it, however, as a stimulus to creating a bigger, more generous and purposeful life, then it does this for me.

I am doing work I love, helping others with diabetes through my talks, this web site, my new book, The ABCs Of Loving Yourself With Diabetes (soon for sale on this web site) and articles inDiabeteshealth magazine. I am more fit than ever, look better in my clothes than ever, don’t care anymore what anyone thinks of me or the fact that I’m bucking conventional therapy with diabetes (well maybe that comes from being over 50) and am foolishly, happily hopeful that some people benefit from my doing what I’m doing.

Rather than curse my lot in life every day my sight is set on appreciating how strong, courageous and resilient I am to get up and take on diabetes again. Like it does for all of us, it requires living with complications staring over one shoulder while taking the best care of myself to keep them at bay. All the while leaving room for spontaneity, joy, light-heartedness and the craziness of everyday life.

In all the literature about diabetes, no one talks about thriving with diabetes or using pride to manage it. Why not? Why is everything gloom, doom, poor me and isn’t this horrible? Sorry, but this is not very motivational. Why are all the emotional associations with diabetes frustration, worry, shame, depression, guilt and anger? Again, lest you read this wrong, I would never line up to get diabetes or be a “diabetes wanna-be” but as they say, “Life happens when you’re making other plans” and “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

Medical models seem to only see the bad news in illness. Doctors are trained in acute care — to stop ill health, heal it, cure it. But patients of chronic illness have to find the good news, because our condition is not going away. Since the 1970’s hippies, self-help and business gurus, spiritualists, and song-writers have told us to look for the silver lining, the gift in a problem, the opportunity in a challenge, the learning in failure. This thinking, however, doesn’t seem to have yet crossed over into medicine and disease. But I figure, since every morning I’m going to wake up with diabetes, and there’s nothing I can do to cure it, why not find something positive about it? Why not find something in treating it that makes me feel good about myself?  I am damn proud of all I do, medically and emotionally to keep myself tracking, even with my other life constantly at my doorstep: the shopping, cooking, keeping the house clean, oy, running to airports and meeting work deadlines.

My message this year is this — explore, examine and find at least one good thing that’s come from having diabetes. Maybe you’ve gotten your act together about eating better or received praise for your new svelte figure or are in training to run your first marathon. I know many people who were headed for heart attacks that no longer are. I also know many fellow baby boomers slipping away to far more devastating or terminal illnesses, in part because they didn’t take care of themselves. I’m not saying there aren’t bad days, or bad patches or emotions that make you want to rail against everyone and everything at times, there are. What I am saying is your overall attitude about living with diabetes will impact the experience and your actions, so why not pick the attitude that will benefit you?

In looking for one good thing that diabetes has given you maybe you’ve decided you’re finally going to dedicate some time to that dream you left along the roadside.  Maybe diabetes has helped you realize the value of time and where you’d like more of yours to go. Maybe diabetes has made you more compassionate of other’s misfortunes and more thankful yours doesn’t involve a permanent wheelchair or loss of brain cells. Maybe you realize how capable you are of meeting life’s challenges. Personally, I am happy I no longer want to shoot myself when I catch my reflection unexpectedly in the mirror. While my every day walk controls my calories and blood sugar, it also makes me feel I’ve accomplished something and kept a promise to myself. Every day that walk is a reminder I take care of my health. I’m also quite proud of myself for keeping my blood sugars so consistently in target range by testing and correcting more. And while someone will moan and boo-hoo about having to do that, I’m so grateful I can do it with today’s tools and that I even know the importance of doing it. I didn’t 20 years ago. And, worrying whether someone would marry a diabetic, well, I’m so over that!

If you cultivate a grateful heart this year, I promise you your life will change. I also promise you it may not be easy and your progress may not be steady, but it will pay off. Like most things it requires practice. So I’ll let you in on the real deal at this very moment: I’m writing this with an awful cold and would really prefer to be lounging in bed. I’m annoyed that I can’t go out and take my walk this week or likely next because I have absolutely no energy. I’m waiting every day for my blood sugar to rise because I’m sick and not getting any physical activity and so am reducing my insulin sensitivity – GRUNT! GRUNT! GRUNT! Am I a hypocrite? No, just up against it. As they say, this is a “teachable moment.”  I am being made aware I have to practice something I preach. So I recall what I read in one of Wayne Dyer’s books years ago — when a negative thought comes to mind say “STOP!” and replace it with a positive thought. Mine right now is I can order 3 new movies from netflix and indulge my laziness. Of course, since I’m now spending lots of time on the couch reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a positive thought may not happen anytime soon.

But here’s my final thought. The prescription I’d give everyone for managing diabetes for the long haul is to get the basics down and then get on with it. Maybe that’s what should show up on more physician’s script pads. Unfortunately then it would be illegible. Ah, well, so chomp on this: the world is still waiting for you to make your mark, with or without diabetes.

Bayer just started running a new TV campaign for their meter, the Contour. Funny, I rarely think of Bayer in relation to diabetes. I think aspirin, even though a few months ago I participated in a focus group for Bayer’s Contour meter and learned they have a whole division devoted to diabetes care. Still, I think aspirin. But they’re beginning to change my mind. Maybe they’re even beginning to change people’s minds about diabetes with this new campaign, subtle as it is.

While in the focus group I remember reviewing four concepts for the Contour. Two were very positive, and one had a tagline something like, “Yeah, I have diabetes, and, I enjoy my life.” That one must have made it because I heard something like that in their commercial. Remarkably, they’re not talking about the work of diabetes, which actor Wilford Brimley talks about selling diabetes Medicare supplies. They don’t have a combative diva like Patti LaBelle, declaring, “I control diabetes, it doesn’t control me!” And it’s not alarmist, as in the new public awareness campaign for A1cs. It’s just an upbeat lifestyle spot where ordinary people doing ordinary things say to camera, “Life with diabetes? It’s about going for it!” “Life with diabetes? Getting more just got easier.” 

A little trite? Sure. A little simplistic? You bet, but I kinda like it. What I like is it’s not threatening, frightening or bullying. It says ‘I take diabetes on the chin, no biggie.’ While us type 1s know diabetes is no walk in the park, and most type 2s probably feel the same, this may actually help type 2s feel that diabetes is manageable and not the end of life as they knew it. The tone of the pitch, and its upbeat takeaway, actually makes me feel a little more upbeat.

A few weeks ago reading Jill Sklar’s book, The 5 Gifts of Illness, I thought, ‘What if as people grow older, type 2 diabetes was just ‘the new normal?’ I mean, everyone’s getting it, so what if we didn’t look at it as an aberration, but it was expected, as in — you get older, you get wrinkles, and you get diabetes. Truth is, many experts say if you live long enough most people will get diabetes. My 84 year old father has just been diagnosed. But, trust me, that’s another story.

I mean would we look at diabetes differently if it was expected? If it was just “the new normal” at some point in our lives? Of course for type 1s it’s a little different, but still if everyone expected to get diabetes would that change how we view diabetes, and how we live with diabetes? Would people greet it more gracefully and with less alarm and overwhelm? Would people be more accepting of the lifestyle changes diabetes requires? Just as we expect to slow down as we age, maybe if we knew diabetes was a natural part of aging, we might also accept eating less and moving more as what we’re supposed to do when it arrives: the very behaviors that will keep us healthier as we age. Of course, it’s likely some people would deny their diabetes, fight it or fear it I suppose just as they do now. But others would accept it more easily, and still others would embrace it as the impetus to make the last few decades of their lives healthier and more rewarding. I have no answers, but it’s an interesting proposition don’t you think? And, going a step further, if you embrace this notion, you might find you view your diabetes differently.

On a final note, I will tell you about my experience of Bayer’s Contour meter. I was given one last week by a cde. After years of using One Touch meters, I may just prefer the Contour and it took me by surprise. It seems to require half the amount of blood the One Touch does and draw it up twice as fast. Hmmm… it’ll be interesting to watch Bayer as they get into the ring with the big boys.