While promoting the Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research I asked New York Times Best Selling Author Brenda Novak if her son Thad would like to share a message with other teens about living with diabetes. Thad’s response is: “Whenever I start feeling as if it’s unfair that I have to take so many shots and test my blood so many times a day, I think of people who have it worse. At least my disease is one I can fight by trying to eat right and manage well. Looking on the bright side helps.”

Wow! That I am so impressed. If all my patients I’d treated in the past had that kind of attitude the would have done much better. Thad is a great example for his peers. I know it’s tough having to eat different than your friends, and poke yourself so many times a day to check your blood sugar. He will be blessed with less complications than those patients that don’t follow the recommendations and watch their diet, exercise and keep close track of their glucose levels. What I’d like to elaborate on the most is your last sentence about looking on the bright side.

There is a story that is credited to Gulistan of Sadi’. “I was barefooted and unable to procure slippers. But when I entered the great mosque of Kufah with a sore heart and beheld a man without feet I offered thanks to the bounty of God.”

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