Fifty Years Ago Today

It was 50 years ago today, when I was nine years old, that my grandma passed away.  She was my dad's mom and lived in California, and since we lived in Chicago, I only saw her a couple of times.  She wrote us letters (nobody made long-distance calls in those days unless it was a dire emergency) and sent gifts for birthdays and Christmas, and I loved her.  She passed away at age 68 due to complications of diabetes.

Why I'm blogging about this today is because now that I'm almost 60, I realize that 68 is way too young to die of a preventable disease.  My grandma was a hard worker her entire life, my dad tells me that she was a good cook and a wonderful mother, and she was also obese.  Because she had diabetes so many years ago, I don't know if they knew then what we know now - that diabetes and obesity are closely linked.  I know that she only took her diabetic medication when she was feeling "bad" and skipped it when she was feeling "well," and this ultimately contributed to her early death.

Diabetes runs rampant in my family on both my mom and my dad's side and it has wreaked havoc in the lives of so many of my family members.  In addition to losing my grandma way too early due to diabetes, my mom's brother lost a leg due to diabetic complications six years before he passed away, almost all of my mom's cousins have diabetes and several of them have had complications leading to amputation, blindness, kidney failure and dialysis, stroke, and early death.  My mom is diabetic and has lost part of her vision and kidney function due to complications of her disease and my younger sister is diabetic.

My mom's diabetes has dramatically improved since she went on Take Shape for Life/Medifast's 5&1 program almost four years ago and she has all but eliminated her daily insulin (she takes a unit or two on occasion if she eats too many carbs), and her vision and kidney function have both stabilized.  My sister went on 5&1 a few months and has lost over 60 pounds so far, so we are hopeful that she will successfully avoid any complications from her own diabetes and perhaps be able to manage her blood sugar levels without the need for her oral medication.

My family history of diabetes always scared me, and knowing it is strong on both sides of my family made me genetically more vulnerable.  Even though I've been aware of this for most of my life, I continued to play Russian roulette with my own health until diabetes finally caught up with me in September of 2004. 

One of the things that ultimately brought me to the point of giving Take Shape for Life a try was my desire to be around to see my grandchildren grow up, and my desire to be actively involved in their lives.  Lord willing, I will be there to see them graduate from high school and college, get married, and someday hold their own children.  We have five grandchildren now and three more grandbabies dues this summer, so my motivation to stay healthy is stronger than ever! My life is in God's hands, of course, but I know that I won't die prematurely of obesity or obesity-related disease.  That is a wonderful thing to know!

My dear grandma didn't know that she had choices back in 1961, as anyone with diabetes was told that this was just the way it was and was going to be.  We know better today, and by making the choices we need to make today, we can and will live healthier, longer lives.  Perhaps diabetes isn't on your list of things to be worried about, and if not, that's a blessing.  However, carrying around even 30 extra pounds puts us at risk for disease, not only diabetes, but also heart disease and some types of cancer.  By changing what we do and by making different - better - choices, we have the potential to change our future.  Do it for yourself and do it for the people you love - and who love you.

The choice is yours - choose wisely :-)