Dear 16 year old me!

Dear 16 year old me!

How are you doing?  Wait don’t answer that…I know exactly how you are because I am you!  I am older, greyer, and a lot smarter now!  I think!   All I know is that I have never once wanted to return to the age you are now.  If I did, I want to know what I know now!

Right now it is 1981 and you just got your drivers license.  A top of the line computer was just announced by IBM at a press conference in New York. This is the computer that as manufactured by IBM and in clone form becomes the de facto standard for business use for the remainder of the decade and beyond. The base model retails for $2880 and includes 64 kilobytes of RAM and a single-sided 160K 5.25" floppy drive.  You only have seen a handful of computers at school! By the time you reach 46 computers are EVERYTHING! Ronald Reagan is President and he is a good one, but you don’t pay much attention to politics.  You should because things are going to get pretty hairy on the political scene.  You are very aware that gas rose above $1 a gallon for the first time…wait till you see the prices now…they are approaching $4 a gallon!  Then there is health stuff!  All the health issues you are currently dealing with are something called autoimmune issues.  Our immune system is whacked up and it is going to get more so! Our body just decides to attack itself for no reason!  Just roll with it.  The more you fight it the angrier it makes you.  This is not something that you can control…you just manage it! 

You are going to have to learn to take care of the body!  If I could go back and change ONE THING that you are currently doing that you should stop now it would be to STOP SMOKING!  That will help all the health stuff more than anything else!   You are a driven cuss and will even be more so in the future!  Learn to use it instead of fighting it. 

Open yourself to exploring the world.  Think outside the box and don’t ever be afraid to try!  It is going to take awhile for you to wrap your head around that…but when you do you will find that life smooths out and becomes peaceable! 

Enjoy the small things and learn to listen to your heart!  Life is way to short to waste any time!

See you in the future, I think you will like who we are!

I write about my health because...

I write about my health and health related issues for a couple of reasons. 

The first reason is because if I write about it, it keeps my focus on doing what I need to do.  If I don’t keep it at the forefront of my mind it easy to get lax and let things slide.  Trust me, I would LOVE to just not have to keep anything health related at the forefront of my thoughts.   There are plenty of others things that interest me more than my health. 

The second reason I write is because if maybe, just maybe something I say will help others!  It never ceases to amaze me how un educated people truly are about diabetes!  It never ceases to amaze me how that same lack of education applies to dogs!  I guess I can understand it easier in animals that I can with health issues.  I mean the diabetic health industry is making BILLIONS off of those of us that have diabetes… the less we know the more money they make!  In animals it is easier…because a lot of folks have never seen an animal as anything more than a pet!

I would also hope that by sharing the good and the bad that others learn not only from my successes but also from my failures.  Diabetes is disease of trial and error…what works for me may not work for you and visa versa.  Sometimes when chatting with others they mention something very helpful, knowledge that they take for granted maybe something I don’t know!  Sometimes it could be something as simple as a low carb snack that I hadn’t thought off, while other times it could be more complex things like how to handle a bolus for pizza!

In my humble opinion knowledge and real life experience should always be shared as much as possible!

SUPERPOWER DAY

I have been granted a superpower for the day!  It can be anything I want it to be, but it is just for this day!  So many choices…I could say I want the ability to heal things, but I am thinking that would take more than one day.  I could say I want to ability to lift heavy objects….Lord knows I have lots of stuff that needs to be moved!  I could say I want the ability to make money, but it only last one day. 

The list could go on and on…but I think if I had one superpower for the day I want the ability to make people BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES and their own abilities.   I figure this has last effects…even if the power goes away.  People will remember what that feels like and always and evermore strive to get it back. 

Believing in yourself is never permanent…but once you have experienced it you always seek to maintain that feeling!  It makes us TRY and TRY HARDER!  Effort is all that can be ask of anyone or anything! 

In many cases…effort does NOT equal outcome but somehow effort seems to enhance our self-esteem.  If we know we tried…if we know we gave our best then we can let go of crappy outcomes.  We then learn to take it one moment at a time.  A friend always reminds that we have to take it one set of numbers at a time with the diabetes.  Don’t look ahead and don’t look back.  This moment, this time, this choice at this exact moment is all we truly have power over! 

It is never going to be perfect we can only TRY!

Quotation Inspiration

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in square holes, the ones that see things differently. They are not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify them or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world...are the ones who do.”(Excerpt from an Apple commercial)

The first time I saw this I thought, “WOW…that kind of fits me”.  I have always felt I was a square peg trying to fit in a round hole.  Just about every aspect of my life has been that.  It isn’t that I dislike rules…I just wish that we didn’t need them.  I wish that people could simply learn to trust their instincts and do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do!  Not for money, not for fame, not for credit but simply because it is the right thing to do. I am not sure what ever happened to the Golden Rule but it seems that we have somehow lost it! 

This whole diabetic alert dog thing…you have no idea how many people have told me I am CRAZY for thinking that self training a DAD can be done.  You have no idea how many have accused me of not playing by the professional rules (unwritten) that only dog trainers can do this.  I learned that that ANY competitive venue professional dog trainer will tell you that the stiffest competition comes from an over qualified amateur trainer.  Here is why…an amateur spends the time developing the relationship with their dog!  When a dog learns the job and then gives you their love and respect they find deep with in them the ability to give more, do more, and be more!

I firmly believe that I can take ANY dog handed to me and make them a better dog…but here is the problem if the OWNERS/HANDLERS do not commit to learning how their dog learns and thinks and if they do not practice this daily what happens is that the dog will work really well for the professional and not so much for the owner! I am not smarter than average. If I can do it I believe anyone can!   What I am is driven to know WHY!  What is the cause and effect and how can my actions change the effect?  What more can we learn? 

All of this also applies to my diabetes!  My diabetes doc thinks I am a whiz with this diabetes stuff…I am not.  I am driven to figure things out!  I refuse to lie down to things.  I know that diabetes is a disease where all of your best effort may not match the outcome. but I am going to die trying!  It is MY disease…not the doctors.  It is MY RESPOSIBILTY to figure out all of the things that work best for MY BODY.  The medical knowledge for the most part runs 10 years behind…the average GP spends a 2 week rotation in an endo clinic and they know more about my diabetes than I do living with it 24/7.  I don’t think so.  What has to happen is that we have to learn to work together as a TEAM.  Each bringing to the table the absolute best that we have to offer! 

It is the same with our dogs. We are a TEAM.  No one part is greater than the other. But if we don’t all do our share then it falls short! We must think outside the box to get the best results! 

If any of the above makes me a rebel or a misfit…I DON’T CARE!  I am going to keep on doing what I am doing as long as I am convinced it is the right thing to do!  Dare to live outside the box on all levels!

Health Activist Writers Challenge

Well this should be entertaining!   I agreed to participate in a 30 day, 30-post challenge from Health Activist Writers.  So over the course of April you should see a new post daily. After that I have been soliciting ideas from folks about what they want me to write on…so if you have any ideas please feel free to post up!  Enjoy that which is to come!