- Disabled since 1998 due to degenerative disc disease.  I've had 5 back surgeries (3 last year).

- I have Type 2 Diabetes (diagnosed in 2000) and have endless complications because of it.

- I'm in Stage 4 Kidney Disease and taking 30 units of Novolog 3 times per day and 50 units of Levemir at night before bed.

- I wish that doctors back in 2000 would have been more honest with me and would have scared me into taking better care of myself concerning diabetes.  It's just been recently that my endocrinologist has taken time to really talk about the complications of diabetes.  In addition, my Nephrologist is really watching me carefully and has taken extensive time with me, answering my questions.  Both doctors are relatively new to me and are not in any way responsible for my lack of knowledge about diabetes.

- I'm basically very upbeat despite the fact that I have had 20 operations over my life time.  I believe that life is made up of what you, as an individual, put in to it.  Being kind to others is extremely important to me and I want to treat others as I would want them to treat me.

- I am a born again Christian who knows the only way to get to Heaven is by believing Christ died for all my sins and that he rose again to give me new life.  There is nothing that I can do to deserve Heaven because Christ did it all for me.

- Upon arriving in Heaven and when I am asked why I should deserve to be let into Heaven, my answer will be: "because I came to a point in my life, where I realized that I was a sinner and deserved hell.  Then I confessed all my sins and asked Christ to save me from all those sins and make me a child of His".

- My husband and I have been married for 17 years.  He is the most amazing man I have ever met and I still wonder what I ever did that was so good that God thought I deserved such a blessing.  I'm 66 and my husband is 64.  Because of the economy and because we haven't been able to sell our house, he works 64 hours a week at 2 different jobs.  I know that most of what he does, he does for me.  I've never met such a dedicated man in my life.

- This is my third marriage and believe me when I say "the third time is the charm".  I wish that I had met him when I graduated from high school.  Had I met him then I wouldn't have had to go through being married to my first husband who drank excessively, was unfaithful after we were married just 6 months and after drinking all evening, one time, he came home and shoved me around, pushed me down on the sofa and sat on me.  The bad part of all this is that our two young children watched that and I was 6 months pregnant with our third child.

- Then my second husband had a sex addiction problem.  Because of that two different times (that I know of because he got arrested and put in jail) he solicited a prostitute and the first one was an undercover police person.  After I found him walking into our apartment with a hooker, I moved out two days later.  A month later I found out from my daughter that he had molested her for 8 years, from the age of 7 to 15.

- My father was killed by a drunk driver when I was 15, my sister was killed by a drunk driver about 14 years ago and a nephew of mine was killed by a drunk driver several years ago.  So as you can imagine, I have no patience or tolerance for people who drive while intoxicated.

- My mother died 10 years ago from congestive heart failure.  She had fallen in her home and was taken to the hospital and died two days later.  I miss her so much and now have no immediate family members from my original family.

- I have three children, the first one (a boy) is 48, my second (a girl) is 45 and my youngest (a boy) is 41.  My two older children have decided to have nothing to do with me for the past 2 years.  I don't even know what the problem is because they have chosen to keep that from me.  The most difficult thing about this, besides our lack of relationship, is the fact that they have turned my three grandsons against me also.  At first when things started to go bad, it was so difficult to deal with.  I would cry myself to sleep at night along with crying about all day long because I missed them so much.

- For my health, I had to get past that.  During my three back surgeries last year, my youngest son was there for me all the time.  He came to visit me in the hospital, would take me grocery shopping, and because my entire back is now fused from S-1 up to my rib cage, it's difficult for me to drive because I can't turn.  So he takes me to all my doctor's appointments and anywhere else I need to go.  He has helped me with so much that I could never re-pay him for all his kindness.  I'm so proud of the way he has pitched in and helped me so much and has never once complained about any of it.  As a matter of fact, he gets upset with me when I drive myself somewhere and didn't ask him because he wants to take care of me.  So much different from the treatment that I get from his older brother and sister.

- My life has been a complicated one, but I am so blessed.  There are so many people who are much worse off than I am.  I have nothing to really complain about.

- As I wrap this up, there are a few things I would like to pass on to others who might read this.

- There are three things in life that are so important: your health, your relationship with other people and most important, your relationship with Jesus Christ.

1 – I wish that someone would have really sat down with me and thoroughly gone through all the problems that come as a result of diabetes.  I mean really scared me so that I would have taken it much more seriously.  I wish that a doctor would have shown me pictures of parts of the body that are affected by the disease (and I mean very graphic pictures) so that I would have taken it more seriously.  No one in my family anywhere has ever had diabetes, so I thought it wasn’t a threat to me. 

2 – Be sure that the person you “think” you’ve fallen in love with is the person that God wants you to be with.  Be sure they have morals and that they would be willing to do anything for you, as you would do for them.  There’s so much more to a relationship than sex, looks, or all the things the other person may do to impress you.  Look for someone whose character will build upon your character so that together you become a strong, honest, law-abiding unit always looking out for each other.  Remember the relationship and marriage is NOT 50% - 50%, no matter what people have told you.  A strong relationship is 100% - 100% and there’s no other way to look at it.

3 – As soon as possible, make a commitment to Christ.  Have a true relationship with Him and be sure that in all you do, it’s all about God.