Living a Fulfilling Life and Going After My Dream
Rachael Baker
Today marks 10 years since I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
Since that day, for the past 10 years and for every day ahead of me, all throughout the day, I have to test my blood glucose, think, calculate and inject insulin to maintain my life. No days off, 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. A day off for me means I don’t make it to the end of the day.
Whilst diabetes is ridiculously complex and hard to understand if you don’t experience it, it is important to know I did nothing to get it and I can not fix it! This is the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Type 1 is currently incurable.
So I have spent the past decade accepting that I can only spend every waking and sleeping moment working to make sure I stay alive. The balancing act of diabetes is affected by every daily activity and it is honestly so hard, I have spent days in tears, days where my blood glucose is so high I can barely stay conscious, and nights where my blood glucose is so low I can’t move enough to reach the lollies on my bedside table.
This is scary stuff and some days I don’t want to get out of bed and battle it and other days I don’t want to go to sleep just in case I don’t wake up, but despite this, I have never let it stop me from doing anything. I have kept up with my peers through every step of my life.
Being diabetic, whilst hard and extremely challenging at times, is amazing. It is an opportunity to continually grow and strengthen, as I face challenge after challenge and decision after decision, and still manage to see the next day.
I am healthy and continually strive to ensure my diabetes is optimally managed, whilst appreciating it will never be perfect - this has taken a long time to realize and I am so eager to help others do the same.
I am currently studying a post graduate course in Diabetes Education and Management whilst working full time in a Pediatric Emergency Department as a Registered Nurse. I volunteer as a Diabetes Educator at Camp Diabetes and help children and adolescents cope with everyday activities and teach them that they too can live a normal life.
I can easily lose my life if I slip up at any given second, but I can also live a long and healthy life and do everything a normal person can. This gives me the greatest perspective on life and makes me live to the fullest and appreciate everyday.
It has given me a passion and a dream to be a diabetes educator so I can motivate and teach other diabetics to achieve their full potential as well and I am now so close this dream. I cannot wait for what the next 10 years holds.
