I recently drove across many of the United States with my husband and kids. We drove over 3000 miles and saw some very impressive and powerful sights (starting with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and finishing up with Mount Rushmore – need I say more?).
I have thought a lot, over the past few days, about how our drive related to diabetes. This may be a stretch, but maybe not.
The only unfortunate part of the trip back to Colorado was the fact that our cruise control stopped working pretty much right at the start of the trip. I realized that driving without cruise control is a lot like managing diabetes day in and day out. It can be a pain! Driving without the cruise control actually caused me pain in my right leg. Luckily, my husband did most of the driving, and he didn’t mention if he pulled any muscles…
When the cruise control isn’t working, we have no choice but to keep a foot on the pedal. With diabetes management, there’s no break either. We can certainly choose to blow it off. But just as taking our foot off the pedal would cause us to slow down and eventually stop moving, ignoring diabetes would also stop our progress. Lack of attention to diabetes can lead to devastating complications.
I choose not to focus on the down side of diabetes, including complications. Instead I choose to focus on taking care of myself and being positive. I do, however, acknowledge that a break would be nice. Sometimes the way I deal with that is to check my blood glucose a few less times a day when I’m on vacation. Or I may eat something that I would usually choose not to eat. A good example is ice cream. I do not eat ice cream routinely, and I honestly can take it or leave it in my “usual” life. For some reason, though, when I’m on vacation I tend to have ice cream. I’m not sure what that’s about. I always feel better when I choose not to get my own ice cream and instead finish up my daughter’s (she inevitably has leftover ice cream).
I was happy to have only ordered my own ice cream twice during the time I was on vacation. It tasted good and it felt good. And it was my choice.