Living Beyond

This week's tweet chat was all about living beyond Diabetes and how we live beyond. The first question was all about if we see diabetes as a barrier, if we see it as something that stops us from achieving our dreams and it's safe to say that was a unanimous no. Most of us do not see it as a barrier and in fact a lot of us see it as something that spurs us on to do better, to prove people wrong, to prove that actually we can do anything we set our minds to despite having diabetes.

The thing about living with Type 1 Diabetes is that it's 24/7, it doesn't stop and we can't take a break from it, so Type 1 can have an affect on your general life let alone trying to live beyond and do amazing things. However, for the people who achieve incredible things like running marathons with Type 1 or scaling mountains, Type 1 diabetes is irrelevant. It's a challenge, it's an extra precaution but in the grand scheme of things, in the bigger picture, Type 1 diabetes is not a barrier. In fact, it makes the achievement even sweeter, because you did it all while proving Type 1 Diabetes cannot stop you. You will however, not find me up a mountain, not because I have Type 1 Diabetes but because I'm lazy and I hate heights, and that was the general consensus with a lot of us who don't harbour the desire to be adrenaline junkies or do extraordinary things, it's not Type 1 that stops us...it's our character as people, ha ha.

We also got into a discussion about personal achievements. I think it's really easy to forget that everything is relative, and people's circumstances are different and living beyond your circumstances alone can be an achievement. What may be something really insignificant to one person, might be really significant to another and to the person achieving it. You don't have to do something extraordinary to live beyond, everything is relative. For example, Jules (hope you don't mind me mentioning you Jules!) wants to walk down Clacton Pier again and for her, that will be a hugely significant personal achievement.

I'm rambling a little bit but I hope I'm still making sense...

Life with Type 1 Diabetes is a challenge and it's not easy and it's not a barrier, unless you want to fly a commercial aircraft or join the army! Plus we make small achievements in living with Type 1 every day that all add up, like having good blood sugars all day or trying a new cannula site you were nervous about using or getting your repeat prescription in on time! Life in general is full of little achievements and extraordinary achievements and they all matter.

Type 1 Diabetes seems to have the ability to either make or break you, and I think it's better to let it make you. Let it spur you on, let it make you live your life to the full because it may be a challenge but as I said, it's certainly not impossible to live with Type 1 and it's certainly not impossible to live beyond Type 1.