Hi Jim!

Re: "People seem to attach a stigma to diabetes. However, the diagnosis of it in me was the best thing that ever happened to my health. I'm healthier now than when I was 30. (I'm 52.)"

Thanks for that! That's the way I felt when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes last year at the age of 44. I still see it that way; I feel better, and am much much healthier (although I haven't solved the weight problem yet).

Unfortunately, the nurse counsellor at my local diabetes clinic was really put out when I vocalized that to her, and seemed to think that I wasn't taking my health seriously if I wasn't devastated. I guess she decided to "wipe the smile off my face": she harangued me with descriptions of the terrible health problems that were awaiting me, and cited statistics that losing weight or keeping my blood sugar under control would not improve my chances much. On average, she said, keeping blood sugar under control reduces the incidence of diabetes-related complications by about 25%, and losing weight has very little effect.

I went away and fell into a depression that lasted many months. Iwa so upset that I couldn't even think about it. When I finally came to, I began to question her statistics: did they include people like me who caught their diabetes relatively early? Did they include people taking modern medications? Did they take into account the severity of complications? In other words, did they really apply to me? Are they even true?

I still would like to have a much better understanding of what is in store for me. I have not found a book or books that sufficiently addresses this. However, I believe that despite what diabetes-related illnesses are awaiting me, I would have died of heart damage if I hadn't started to take my health seriously.

I hope I haven't gone off-track. I am finding this forum to be very liberating. I have been keeping in a whole lot of fears and anxiety for the last 15 months.

Ruth