Thanks, diabetes

Afsan Chowdhury
Published : 8 April 2016, 01:01 AM
Updated : 8 April 2016, 01:01 AM

I have been a diabetic for almost 35 years. I was 29 years old when I was diagnosed with it. It means for almost my entire professional life I have been a diabetic. I was married when I was 26 years and have two kids, a daughter who is embarking on her professional life and a son who is in High school.  Though I may be an extreme case but I am glad I became a diabetic because if I hadn't become one, I would be dead by now.

I come from a family of diabetics on both sides. My mother was one who lived till 86 years with 46 of them as a diabetic. My father was not and died peacefully at 88 years. My mother was ailing due to diabetes related complications but my diabetes free father had no such complications. But his eyesight had gone bad and he was unable to read the newspaper. My mother at 82 years, with good sight, was reading the sports news to him, a rare cricket victory for Bangladesh in 2007.  Not hearing any response from my father, she looked up and saw he had simply drifted away, passed on. There could be no happier death.

But my mother was mentally very strong and refused to budge from the apartment she shared with my father and move in with her sons. I had called her from Toronto a few weeks before her death. She refused to move to be taken care of. She died in what she thought was her home, which she shared with her husband. In no way was her mind affected. She went unwell but proud, but on her own and now lies buried in the same grave with my father.

This is not how my Nana went in the 70s, his mind gone and his body ravaged by long term untreated diabetes.  When he died, I was the one at home and asked by the doctor to witness that the oxygen ball was not moving anymore and he was going to shut the cylinder supply. I was so relieved. He was not going to suffer anymore. His life was the opposite of his daughter's. The big difference was management of diabetes. One did, one didn't.

I was medicine free for the first 10 years after diagnosis and my medical tests showed no trace of sugar due to a careful lifestyle. I took medicines the next 10 years but slowly the efficiency of the body declined and I have been on insulin and drugs for the last 15 years. I am 64 years old but barring peripheral neuropathy in my feet, I am almost free from complications. My doctor tells me this is not usual.

What helps me cope I think is my attitude. I don't let it boss me but I treat it as an adversary which must be kept in check, controlled. I was in very good health in Canada and when I was being tested for cancer, my doctor told me, that the readings were that of a normal person. It was good to hear that.

But after I returned to Dhaka in 2012, I let things slide and gorged on fried street food like peanzu, beguni, samosa etc. I gorged and ate like a fool and let myself go. It was bad and one day my blood sugar reading after breakfast was 17 + although I was on insulin and drugs. It was a great kick in the ass and I immediately went on total control.

With the advice of my doctor I brought it down to normal level and soon started to get hypo attacks which was bad but meant the body was responding to radical measures. I began to manage much better and in the last six months have halved my drugs intake and reduced insulin intake for the first time in my life. I have also lost 10 kgs.

My body has slowed down and it takes longer and longer to get rid of the sugar from my system but I am at my 10 year medication low. I walk to and return home from the University and take every chance to use my limbs. And I test 3 times a day to know how I am doing. I am in better shape than I can remember. No white carbs in any form for me, no indulgences of any kind but a fierce resolve to keep the beast under control. I will never be defeated. The battle will just end, that's all.

So my advice to new and old diabetics is that you need to be in charge of your life. Believe that you can and you will be able to do it. Most diabetics feel sorry for themselves or cheat by having forbidden food. I don't. I miss snacks and as I have acute acid redux, it's a problem as my hunger is often high but I take drugs for that – not very effective – and just move on. Maybe a little bit of safe snacks and then manage the next meal.

So I am writing this to say that I have lived a complication free life after 35 years of diabetes. I don't complain, I control. I don't cheat on sugary food, I feel proud of not having them and the purpose of my life is to be healthy for the next few years and not weep and end life early before my promised work and obligations are over, just because I have a health condition.

And because I control my life I am still alive. In 35 years I would have eaten, drank and indulged myself to an early death, almost certainly.

Thanks diabetes, for keeping me alive.