| I too was, until recently, someone who did not take overt care and control of his diabetes. In 1999 I was diagnosed with type 2 and immediately made some diet changes including switching from real Coke to diet Coke (which is a big deal when you drink 4-6 cans of the stuff a day) and cut back on sweets. Those diet changes stuck but I never measured my blood sugar and while I cut back on chocolate bars and pastries I still had them from time to time and made no changes to my carb intake. In short for the last seven years I basically ignored my diabetes beyond some superficial changes.
Two months ago I got pneumonia which led to DKA. I ended up spending possibly the worst week of my life in a hospital feeling like I got ran over by a truck. When I was admitted I could barely walk and string a coherent sentence together. It took most of the week recovering before I could handle solid food again. Two months later I'm still suffering the after effects with increased muscle stiffness and soreness, twitchy legs and sore feet.
As a result I've resolved to never go through that again. I'm now on five shots of insulin a day and measuring my blood four times a day. At first I thought this was going to have a major impact on my life, but surprisingly it has been no big deal. I added up how much time a day I spend taking care of my diabetes and found it was a grand total of fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes a day is a no brainer to me, as someone else posted it's about in the same category as good oral hygiene.
At the end of the day, my opinion is that good diabetes control doesn't have to mean a big change in your lifestyle and considering the upside why avoid it? If nothing else, give control a try and you might find it's not as bad as you think.
I know for me I sure wish I had spent those fifteen minutes a day over those seven years as I wouldn't be going through the problems I am now.  | 
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