Acceptance
This is the first and most crucial step on your journey with diabetes. Once your doctor has confirmed the diagnosis of diabetes, your mind will start playing all kinds of tricks with you. Do not go into denial, don’t tell yourself that I’m feeling okay, for diabetes is not known as a silent killer for nothing. Give yourself the space to question why it’s happened to you, the place to shed a tear or two, the luxury of blaming whoever you wish to, but ultimately tell yourself that you have a disease with which you will have to make peace with for the rest of your life. There is no shame in having diabetes, literally millions of people all over the world suffer from it.
Acquire Glucometer Machine
By far the best investment you’ll ever make in your life is to buy yourself a machine that will tell you what your blood sugar level is in real-time. The reason why that is so important is that complications of diabetes occur silently over time, meaning you are unaware what’s going on inside your body, while outwardly you feel fine. This is where the glucometer is most useful, as a fasting sugar level above 10mmol/l is considered out of control and you should then consult your doctor. Remember to ask your retailer for the cost of the glucometer sticks, as there are many brands and some of them are horrendously expensive. A glucometer machine without sticks or batteries is akin to no glucometer!
Take Your Medication
Nobody likes the drudgery of taking medication, especially as there is no end in sight, as well as no apparent improvement in well-being. A whole array of possible and alleged side-effects which you have read about on the internet or heard from your circle of family and friends, and your mind starts telling you there is little to gain by taking these ‘drugs’! Add a horror anecdote here and there about what it did to an unnamed person 50 years ago in Kakamas, and you can convince yourself that you can do it your way with ‘exercise and good eating habits’.
Please don’t take that route, for it may be too late should you skip your medication for a period of time during which your blood sugar consistently stays above 10mmol/l and complications start setting in. The most serious of these complications is that the diabetes causes your arteries to become narrowed, thus impeding the blood flow to your organs. Thus by the time you start getting chest pains and your doctor diagnoses angina of your heart, the arteries throughout your body may already be compromised, leaving you at risk of stroke, blindness, kidney failure and leg amputation in the future.
Share Your Journey
It is said that a problem shared is a problem halved, which is a strong motivation for you to open up to someone close to you that you have diabetes. If you have a partner, it becomes mandatory to declare your diabetes to him or her, for lifestyle is an absolutely vital component of the effective management of this disease. Ideally your partner should eat what you eat, which is healthy anyway, but more importantly it will become the norm in your household, such that later unhealthy foods are just so unappetizing. Similarly, share it with your employer, lest you are embarrassed by your diet, or more seriously, he or she knows what to do should you suddenly fall ill.
Have a Mandatory 6-Monthly Check-Up
Ever looked at some old photos of yours and seen how you’ve aged? Well, as your body changes on the outside, so it changes on the inside. A 6-month check-up by your doctor will monitor any significant changes via blood tests, heart tests and urine tests, while allowing the doctor the opportunity to adjust your medication should that be deemed necessary. Don’t be comforted by the fact that because I’m taking my medication, I don’t need to ever consult a doctor for my diabetes. It is a silent killer.
