In early 2008, I took a look at Passover through the lens of diabetes. One of the traditions I discussed was Dayenu, a song we sing after the recitation of the Ten Plagues visited upon the Egyptians. The word "dayenu" is sometimes translated as "it would have been enough/sufficient". The Haggadah with which I grew up -- a highly-abridged, poorly-translated version, to be sure -- chose instead to title the English version, "We Are Grateful".
The list I drew up included things to be thankful for in terms of being able to live with diabetes (rather than die from it), including:
- The understanding of what diabetes is;
- The discovery of insulin and its therapeutic use in treating diabetes;
- The development of home glucose monitors; and
- The development of oral antidiabetic agents
This Thanksgiving, I'd like to take time between fussing over the dressing and the candied sweets to be thankful for positive things diabetes has given us, including:
- The opportunity to improve our health and become the healthiest and fittest we have been in our lives;
- The opportunity to reach out and touch the lives of others touched by diabetes -- and hopefully, improve them;
- The community of friends that we have adopted, among whom diabetes is the common thread;
- The ability to learn more about diabetes -- both our own and those of our friends and colleagues -- and thereby improve our own, and our loved ones', qualities of life.
dLife is one of the venues in which we can keep up on diabetes news, learn to care for own (and others') diabetes, share our frustrations, and find others with similar concerns and issues. And while lately I'm more often found on Twitter (@tmana) than in the forum or any of the social networks, dLife was my introduction into this whole online world known as the Diabetes Online Community (DOC). Thank you, dLife and DOC for all you (and that's every one of you, who reads, comments, or otherwise contributes to the dialog!) for making life better, better-understood, and healthier for all of us touched by all types of diabetes.
