Thank you diabetes

I've now lost a little over 80 pounds and feel so much better for it. The extra energy, from not carrying that extra weight, not to mention the pressure off my heart, lungs, the ease of movement from not having all that extra on my knees, on my feet, all this is amazing. I still have a huge amount further to go, but I'm getting there.
Now I've lost enough for everyone to notice the difference, it's amazing the little, and big things that pick me up and help me do this, each and every day. The compliments are wonderful. I appreciate each and every person who has told me how much better I'm looking, how I should be proud of myself, or how they are proud of me. Thank you so very much everyone who has told me this. I love you for it.
I love the fact that I can sit in armchairs now and not feel pain as my thighs are squeezed against them. I love that my clothes are baggy, or gone as they are just too big to wear any more. I love that moving is easier, so I do more of it, so it becomes even easier, so I do even more of it. I love the Lao folks for whom losing a great deal of weight is rarely a good thing, who didn't want to ask me directly why I'd lost so much, so called Kam, my housekeeper to see if I was alright and if they could help in any way. It is so very kind and thoughtful. I love that someone called the other morning to ask if I wanted to go to Zumba. I'm not ready for that yet, but I love the fact that you did that. You wouldn't have - for very good reasons - this time last year.
I love that I'm losing weight, and getting fitter and getting my life back and getting my spark back and I wouldn't have been doing any of these things if I hadn't got diabetes, so maybe, maybe I love that I got diabetes. Of course it would have been so much better to do this without getting something so serious. I don't like waking up and pricking my finger to test my blood before I've eaten. I don't like the odd time I screw up the blood sugar, going too low, then bouncing too high as I try to fix it and yoyo-ing around for a day or two until I sort it all out. I don't like the dizzy spells and the muscle cramps and the pins and needles and the nightmares I've had about going blind. I don't like that my stupidity with what I ate has caused me to probably shorten my life by several years. That is so very stupid. But if I'm truly honest, this time last year, on the path I was on, I didn't, deep down, expect to be around by this Christmas. And if friends and family are honest too, neither did they.  And now, thanks to diabetes, now I expect to live a much longer, much more active and much healthier life for many many years to come. We can't tell the future. God knows this year has shown that more than any other, but I feel so full of optimism, that had all but evaporated, a year ago.