Teaches Us How To Live - And To Die
FBS - 02/16/2014 - 135. I am still running high and trying to get back to norm. However, last night I played cards with our new neighbors group and I had great cards and great food - so I won at cards and lost the meter game. By the way I was high man and my wife was high lady - a good night for the Dant's and the cards.
BP - 02/16/2014 - 139/78 - not bad after giving up my medicines and not taking anything over the past 2 weeks. I will have to monitor closely as now it has returned to normal and I have to be careful.
This sure seems like a morbid topic or it could be. But I think it a fact of life us diabetics live with constant life threatening events like losing limbs, heart failure, and many other related illnesses and threats on our life. Therefore, I think it valuable that we have a higher power who can help us deal with both subjects.
David's story
I have a close friend and partner in London. A few years back David was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Doctors told David he had till the end of the year to live and his diagnoses come in June - 6 months to live at the longest.
I struggled with what I was going to do as I knew I was going to see him but what would I say, how would I handle the situation, and how would I say goodbye.
Then as I discussed this with my Higher Power - God, I received a simple answer to my question. Go see David and take him the Book of Life and Death - the Bible. I went to see David on his birthday - or the day after - in August. The first night I was there I presented David with the Bible I had wrapped to give him as a present. Before giving David the Bible, I explained it would either be the best gift he could receive or it was going to be a disaster for both of us. I did not know David's belief system - yet I knew he knew mine. So I was afraid David would be offended and might take my meaning wrong.
I should have known that if God sent me the message then it would be OK. It turns out God did know best. David and I had a solid discussion about how the Word of God teaches us how to live and how to prepare for death. My intent was to remove or reduce David's burden knowing he only had 6 month's to live. We also discussed his childhood and how his parents took him to church but when he become older he moved God out of his daily life but still believed.
So David and I agreed that only he and God would decide when he was going to leave this earth and we as a team were going to spend time preparing David. I explained to David that I think my God loves it when his children lean into him for help and comfort. So going to church and reading the Bible and using it for comfort - I thought was just what he wanted.
Well, David's story could take a blog all by itself - but we should cut it short here. David did pick up the Bible and went to church with me that Sunday. After I left, David had many thoughts and figured it would not hurt to get to know God again, so he went back to his church that his parents took him to. At a Sunday service, David ran into a female friend he used to work with and they liked each a lot when they worked together. Long story short - David has a new life and a new soul mate. The two of them now enjoy a lot of time together, travel together, go to church together, and share each other's life threats and successes.
Yes, much to my surprise and David's surprise; God did use me to send a message to David, Time to start living, not dying. David listened and he is living. Yes, he will die like all of us - but not until he and God decide. When he does, we both know where he is going. By the way, I had an hour chat with David today and he is doing great although London is getting pounded with bad weather.
Love at first site
Many of you might know I am a Catholic and my wife and I also attend a non-denominational church. So we go to two churches on Sunday. Today, like many times the sermons were the same and each reminded me of the small things we should do in life to live as our High Power wants us to live.Love at first site and what does that truly mean. We were asked in the Catholic service if we believed in love at first site - and there was a split. Father went on to explain how God sees love at first site and how the things in us do not allow us to see other humans for who they are and not to prejudge - but see them as his children. If we come to meet someone with prejudice, anger, hate, and any other mean attitudes, how could we see the other person with love when all of that exists in our heart.
In the ADA community, we have an individual who posts things and gets beat up by the professionals and I am not sure why - other than his means of doing that do not come across right to the other members. I think if they saw him as someone who was near death and pulled himself back out of his situation or if they saw him as someone who did that a certain way and had a certain believe, I think they would not be hard on him - they would actually congratulate him for fighting back. You see, he appears to have different thoughts than many of those on the site. Does that make him a bad person, no just has different thoughts. So my God ask me first to see him as a Child of the King and then start there. If I disagree I can do that without being mean or prejudice.
Us diabetics go through this all of the time and so do many people with ailments. It is like when I am at a party or place for the first time and say "No thanks, I am a diabetic"; people will stop to think and then treat me different. Why is that, I am a human being who happens to have a disease that cannot be cured call diabetes. The reason, they have no knowledge of the disease and their first impression is I am a person who has not taken care of myself and therefore I am a bad person. Too bad the world usually judges a book by its cover first.
Our Higher Power teaches us to love unconditionally and accept those around us for who they are. If we march through life being frustrated we are diabetics and carry a chip on our shoulder - we might miss seeing Love at First Site. We might miss that small moment when we get a chance to enjoy a small slice of life and create a moment.
Building friends
In the other church, the lesson was on building friends and how studies are now saying that friends and close friends are what gives long lasting life and helps manage so many ailments. The concept is that building close friendships allows one to be free of mind and find support in others. You did hear me right, having close friends can help with many ailments.
The example used was David and his relationship with Saul's son - Jonathan. David and Jonathan had a life time friendship that was a priority to each in their life and that friendship helped them accept the adversity of life. The friendship turned out to save them both in the end.
There are friends we have had for life time and we should nourish those relationships and also create new ones. A person who has two or three close friends they can share their frustrations and joys with, be honest with, support and get support is invaluable in this attempt of ours to fight this disease. Our friends will never judge us a bad because we are diabetics.
For me, I think the internet and communities allow us to develop a different kind of close friend - one we share the same situations (like diabetes) so we have the ability to generate close friends and share with each other, our ups and downs.
Back to the person who the community is a little rough on, then it does not always work out that everyone is going to be friends - some people will be and some people will not be friends. We need to chose our friends so they bring these things to our life; support, openness, honesty, and the ability to express our deepest thoughts with someone who cares.
So if you have diabetes and reading this - join a group, build some relationships, get involved with those that suffer from the same disease - it will help. Do not try to fight this as a lonely person, you must reach out to your High Power for all they provide, learn to live, get some friends, and go through life noticing love at first site in all of life's little moments.
God grant us the ability to learn how live and die. Give us the first love site we need to go though life and enjoy all the moments we are presented and to get the full view of the benefits we have received. May you fill our hearts with lots of friends to help us manage our emotions along with our blood glucose levels.
Bob,
The story of your friend in England was one of true friendship, thank you for sharing the beautiful and lasting friendship. In this world we have many friendships, but not many true lifetime friends. Those we should cherish.
ReplyDeleteOn the person at the ADA, research on the person leads some to believe he has ulterior motives. He is a self-proclaimed online marketer on another site, has two personal websites regarding online marketing, one of which is for multi-level get rich quick scheme and when I prompted him to send me an invitation to the site, I was ignored by him. His style of writing changed drastically from when he first joined in August. When a person will share nothing of himself, but rather links to what I see as possibly harmful information to the newly diagnosed, I will speak-up. You were accepted because you were willing to share of yourself and your personal battle with the disease. You also live the life you discuss and how different approaches did not work and how your green drink is helping you to control your diabetes without medication. Honest and open Bob. Posting multiple information regarding information from places that sell supplements or books without that sharing or using the method, willing to share the experiences of the method personally is just not going to go over with many others in the group. Sometimes people bring out the worst in others and it certainly did in me. I am usually accepting of people as they are, but in this case I cannot accept someone that I see as a fraud.
Everyday that someone lives with diabetes and does not have good control is a day that can lead to complications from the disease. It does not have to be excessively high blood glucose even. Since the smallest nerves in the body are effected the most, we are all in danger of this happening. I am watching someone I love going through small nerve damage now.....did you know that the esophagus can be damaged from diabetes, the anal nerves, the vagus nerve that controls gut function which can cause serious damage to the motility of food and digestion? Seeing a gut specialist this week has affected the way I feel about controlling the numbers....no I am not going overboard, if I can stay in the high end of non-diabetic numbers I am ok with that. Do I want fasting levels in the 80s, yes I do, do I not want to go over 130 at my peak, yep....I guess I am just not willing to chance having complications by experimenting with unproven methods to control MY diabetes. Do I worry about my friends online who are not in good control, yes I do....but each of us has to chose our own path. Am I willing to let those newly diagnosed with diabetes get off to what I consider the wrong path....no way...but it is just telling them my way, it is their choice to what path they follow. It has been a great experience for me to watch people get control using methods that are proven to lead to better control.
Anyway, whatever we do to control the beast if our own personal path and I do respect that, but I do disagree with using unproven methods that may lead to complications. Just my 2 cents worth on a stormy warm winter morning here in my neck of the woods.
Marty (and you know I welcome rebuttals...LOL)
Marty,
DeleteJust getting back to doing this - been a very stressful work month trying to get our conversions done. Anyway, once again I apologize for going quiet and will be in and out again for another month.
On the individual on the ADA site - I agree 100% with your comments and analysis. Not sure what to make of it all as I reached out to him personally and found a different person. He has had the opportunity to market or sell me something and has not taken the time to do that. I think he has truly been near death and does not work - so he uses all kinds of methods to try to make some money - that happens to a lot of people in this day and age. My point was to be simple - we should not be hard on people who appear different. If he tries to sell something - then yes he is doomed.
I also agree that using crazy ideas is one that can be very harmful and we must all be on guard for that one. However, I think too many times people have a tendency to think proven must come from the medical industry - and I think it should. I have just found a network of doctors, pharmacists, and other professionals who know and believe there some excellent ways to control our blood sugar levels without taking medicines. Coming from the healthcare industry I know the pluses and minuses of that industry.
On the nerves, I think that is what scares me the most. They are every where in our body and yes they can be damaged. I am going through some of that now and hoping it is not from diabetes but something I have done to damage my hand.
I also agree on people going down a wrong path and damaging themselves. I am one of those that see guidance coming in a softer tone and not some of the harsh words I see on the site. I do not recall yoru posts being harsh, I do see them as firm and probing and I think that is what we should do - hold each other accountable to what we are saying and doing. So I think your approach has been fine - I see others being a little more on the attack side versus firm guidance side.
As always I have enjoyed all that we share and I am so looking forward to getting a little time back now to work on my body again. I have kept up the exercise ( not daily as I was but getting back to that - golf season is upon us so I get more in a sense), I have selected a diet plan and will be discussing that in the blog.