When asked what pressure was difficult for me to handle in my life, the answer came to me faster than the solution to 2+2. My life defining moment happened on March 11, 2000, when I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In all the years I have had this disease, I have found it to be both a blessing and a curse. It has contributed to my positive outlook on life but it has also caused me physical and emotional hardships. While I wish I did not have to live with the daily grind of diabetes, it has made me a more responsible, mature and empathetic person.
The best way to describe the circumstances surrounding my diagnosis was that it was basically routine. I was very sick, worn out and nervous when I walked into Milad Hospital in Tehran. I was a frail and pale 11 year old boy weighing 90 pounds. My blood sugar was off the charts; they quickly hooked me up to an IV and diagnosed me with Type 1 diabetes. Being a young boy, not knowing what diabetes was nor having the capability to cope with its diagnosis, my first response was "cool." Fortunately, my condition was caught early unlike the young boy who came to the hospital in a coma and remained in intensive care for several days. He nearly died before he recovered sufficiently to join me in the training classes. In class, we learned how to stick our fingers so we could draw blood to measure our blood glucose, to count carbohydrates and to draw insulin to inject ourselves. We also learned about diabetic seizures from low blood sugar, DKA or comas from high blood sugar, and the long term complications of diabetes such as blindness, kidney damage and amputation of limbs. My initial reaction of "cool" quickly melted into lukewarm emotions of "why me?" But one of the best life lessons diabetes has taught me is to accept things as they are. To dwell on things that cannot be changed will drive one crazy, so I decided to change to