time ticks on............

Day 10 of WEGO Health Blog HAWMC's challenge asks you to write a letter to your 16 year old self.

Instead, i decided to write the letter to my husband, who at the time was my 17 year old boyfriend.




Hey you!

so i decided to write you a letter.  this is not the typical "love letter" that a 16 year old girl writes to her boyfriend.  now before you get all freaked out i am not breaking up with you. 
i am writing to you from the future, so you kind of have a heads up on whats in store if we continue dating. 

you already know about the diabetes, but what neither of us know is the toll it will take. 
we will get married, have kids (3of them!!) and move to another town.  things will be difficult at first with no family or childhood friends nearby.  jobs won't be easy to come by and we will have struggles.  doctors are also hard to find.  we are in the midst of a huge shortage of doctors in our town.

money is tight and the drugs i need to manage my diabetes are expensive.  sometimes i have to make decisions based on what i think is most important.  the decisions i make eventually come at a cost to myself.  but because i feel fine, i pay no attention.

time ticks on.

eventually,  in 2001, after 27 years of living with D, i will go on MDI's (multiple daily injections).  up until that point i had only been doing 1 needle a day.  at some point, a countdown had begun in my body, and things were happening on the inside that the outside was not aware of.

my eyes start to betray me.   i need laser surgery because of Retnopathy.
my legs and feet start to betray me.  Diabetic Nueropathy has begun.
then my heart has had enough.  Triple Bypass surgery. 

all this and i'm not even 50 yet!

but it's not all bad.  we have an incredible family!  we are close, and supportive of each other.
3 great kids, a great son-in-law and daughter-in-law,  2 wonderful grandchildren.  we have awesome friends and through it all we still love each other. 

you are strong, and when it all comes down to it, you are a big old softy.

you are my rock, and i hope, after reading this, you choose to stick around.

it'll be a helluva rollercoaster ride, but you always did like the rides at Canada's Wonderland!

love,
kim (from the future)