Years ago, my aunt was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes--something my mother always worried about, since she had always carried a little more weight than her other sisters, and she had (well, has) a bad sweet tooth. My mother told me I was likely to get it, too--hasn't happened yet, but I have inherited that sweet tooth.
My little cousin, in his twenties now, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was a baby, and the health scares he had as a kid would make your hair stand on end. To look at him, you wouldn't think anything could be "wrong" with him. He looks like the Brawny man without the mustache. But the kid can't eat an ear of corn without having to mentally tally what he ate that day, can't have more than two beers without thinking about his liver.
He and my aunt have had their struggles with diabetes, and I've learned from them. I have also learned from friends, co-workers, and exes. Some managed their diabetes like accountants, measuring every calorie. Some were dangerously negligent--I'm think of one guy I knew who would get out of his mind drunk with the rest of his frat, then take his insulin like nothing was wrong. I'm praying he is taking better care of himself now.
In case you don't know what life with diabetes is like, let me give you some highlights:
-No more soda. Your diabetes doesn't care how thirsty you are for a Coke, root beer, or black cherry soda (my personal favorite). I think soda would be the hardest thing for me to consider giving up, though one of my cousins swears by seltzer and says it satisfies her carbonated cravings.
-Pricking your finger every day to test your blood. When I was a little girl, I thought finger pricking was exciting because that's how Sleeping Beauty entered her magic coma. Now I know it is a life-saving, pain-in-the-butt fact of life for diabetics, no magic involved.
-Medication with scary side effects, like bladder cancer and heart attacks. (Oh hello Actos! We were just talking about you!)
-Medication with annoying side effects, like weight gain. (Well, speak of the devil: Actos again!)
-People treating you like it's your fault, if you have Type 2.
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| Cake-loving "Diabetty" from The Simpsons. |
-People treating you like the sickly boy in The Secret Garden, if you have Type 1.
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| Pitiful little Colin (left) from The Secret Garden. |
-"Helpful" suggestions about weight loss from strangers who are not doctors or nutritionists.
The pity some people feel for Type 1 diabetes sufferers is as misplaced as the contempt some feel for Type 2 diabetes sufferers. Being born with it or developing it later in life don't change the fact that it's a hard disease to manage and live with, and that diabetics are just people with a blood sugar problem. They're just like everybody else, except they can't afford to be as reckless with what they put in their bodies.
I've become a healthier and more considerate person from knowing and loving people who suffer from diabetes. I'm nowhere near perfect, but I know that knowing people with diabetes has helped me treat my body with more care, and treat the people around me with more care. I want to share that, and I want to stay up to date on medical news by joining the diabetes blogosphere. There is so much more for me to learn.
XOXO,
Brenda
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| Pricking your finger on a daily basis: NOT FUN. |
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