Many people, usually those who are not diabetic, assume that type 2 diabetes ruins a person's life.
Indeed, left untreated this is the case.
Renal failure, blindness and amputations are the possible results of untreated diabetes, but with proper control and monitoring, this need not be the case.
It is definitely true that those who keep tight control of their blood sugar levels are the ones who enjoy a better quality of life.
This is true if they are controlling their sugars by diet alone, and if they are using a combination of diet and oral medicine.
As a type 2 diabetic myself, I have had to make adjustments to my diet, and diet and oral medication alone has not proved to be sufficient to control my sugars.
I am therefore now injecting myself with insulin.
However, this is no real problem, just a bit of an inconvenience sometimes.
I have a very smart looking metal cased insulin pen.
I hate injections, and decided that syringes were not for me! Even with the pen, that has a needle of only about 1 centimetre long, I remember my first injection.
I was going to inject into my outer thigh, and sat on the edge of the bed for some time with the needle hovering over my bare skin.
I just couldn't summon up the courage to stick it in! It wasn't until I came downstairs and explained this to my wife, that she volunteered to do it for me.
This was too much! I went back upstairs and sat on the side of the bed, needle poised.
I suddenly realised that the needle was in my leg.
I think I must have been sitting in a sort of daydream, during which time I relaxed and my arm holding the pen sank down, pushing the needle into my leg! I hadn't felt a thing.
That came as quite a relief.
I inject twice a day using a mix of short and medium term insulins, and it's really not a problem at all.
The other thing I do is check my blood sugars when I get up and before a meal.
This can be a nuisance, particularly if we are eating out, but it can be done discretely and again, is relatively painless.
One of the most important things about coping with diabetes is attitude.
In Britain, we increasingly seem sometimes to live in a society that says "poor me" quite a bit.
The trouble is no one really cares, other than close friends and relatives.
The fact is, when first diagnosed with diabetes 2, and sometimes later on as well, we can feel a bit sorry for ourselves, and a little angry.
We even start to consider our own mortality, and those TV adverts offering cheap insurance to pay for your funeral expenses seem like a good idea.
The fact is, stress increases blood sugar levels, and all these attitudes, however justified, are stressful.
It's important that one gets a psychological grip here.
It may sound harsh, but the only person who can make a difference to your diabetes is you.
Try and look on it as a positive thing, because in some ways it is.
The fact is, proper glucose control is dependent on regular self monitoring.
Exercise is also vital to maintaining balanced blood sugars, and is something that can be put into effect immediately.
The point I'm trying to make here, is that in perhaps a perverse way, diabetes offers the sufferer who takes it seriously, the opportunity to regularly check their health, and indeed live a healthy lifestyle.
In my case, I was perversely pleased to find I had diabetes, as I felt so ill.
I now have loads of energy and don't want to sleep all the time, my sugars are stable, and I can even eat the odd amount of cake or chocolate.
Funny thing is, as you move away from these things, your health improves and you don't miss them.