{"id":22180,"date":"2011-11-19T10:21:42","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T15:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22180"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:44:23","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:44:23","slug":"telling-diabetes-like-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=22180","title":{"rendered":"Telling Diabetes Like It Is"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to the dermatologist on Tuesday with my eight-year-old son.\u00a0 The appointment was for both of us.\u00a0 As I always do at doctors’ appointments, I said, “I have diabetes.”\u00a0 Usually doctors respond with a question like, “Do you use insulin?”\u00a0 But not this doctor.\u00a0 This doctor made a face like I was telling her something very unimportant and said, “You just need to walk a little bit.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

I was so taken aback, I couldn’t even respond. How do you even begin to respond to such an infuriating comment?\u00a0 And then, right after implying that I could make diabetes go away with an after-dinner stroll, she told me that I’m thin and that I look like my son’s older sister.\u00a0 Flattery gets you everywhere with me.\u00a0 So, naturally, after a compliment like that I forgot that she’d irresponsibly dismissed my diabetes.<\/p>\n

Now that the flattery has evaporated, I’m screaming at myself a little bit.\u00a0 It’s Diabetes Awareness Month, for goodness sake! I should have stood up for my disease!\u00a0 I should have told that dermatologist that she may know a suspicious mole or a foot fungus when she sees one, but she knows nothing about diabetes.\u00a0 But then again, she did give me like the best compliment ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Putting my inflated ego aside for a minute, I’m going to swing back to JDRF’s “1-in-20<\/a> people with type 1 diabetes will die of hypoglycemia” ad.\u00a0 I hate to keep talking about the same thing, and I don’t mean to bore you, but I can’t seem to shake it. \u00a0\u00a0Yes, I’ve openly supported this ad, but have I mentioned how much it scared me?\u00a0 It scared me big time.\u00a0 It scared my husband, too<\/a>.\u00a0 How much more in your face <\/em>can something be? \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Just a few days after the ad ran I read about a young woman who died of hypoglycemia in her sleep.\u00a0 And soon after, Kerri Morrone Sparling wrote a chilling post<\/a> about almost not waking up while hypoglycemic.\u00a0 I wonder, had the aforementioned dermatologist seen JDRF’s ad, would she have been so quick to tell me to talk a walk?\u00a0 People with and without diabetes have told me how shocked they are at the hypoglycemia statistic.\u00a0 People noticed it.\u00a0 People said, hey, diabetes isn’t just an annoying but manageable condition that we see in news headlines.<\/p>\n

In a certain way, diabetes suffers, I think, from being talked about too much.\u00a0 Look at any newspaper or magazine, online or print, any day of the week and you will find some tidbit, new study, or nutritional tip about diabetes: losing weight may prevent diabetes, drinking sugary beverages<\/a> (ahem, JDRF!) and eating fast food every day are bad ideas for people with diabetes, ten ways to beat diabetes, etc.\u00a0 The over-saturation can make diabetes seem trivial.\u00a0 It’s true that there are different kinds of diabetes, but most people don’t really understand what the differences are (and not all scientists think they’re all that different, but rather a long spectrum<\/a> of the same illness).\u00a0 Ultimately, like it or not, it’s all one big diabetes mush-pot.\u00a0 Trust me, I’m a LADA patient, I know.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After my husband wrote<\/a> about the anxieties he felt from JDRF’s ad, I rattled off a famous Flannery O’Connor<\/a> quote, “The truth doesn’t change according to our ability to stomach it.” \u00a0\u00a0That quote keeps running through my mind.\u00a0 I don’t mean to sound preachy here, and I’m sorry if I do, but I really believe we have to keep telling diabetes like it is.\u00a0 We shouldn’t let this JDRF ad blow over as a single incident that we did or didn’t agree with.\u00a0 We shouldn’t let Diabetes Awareness Month just come and go.\u00a0 The people around us, the doctors, the FDA, and most of all we, the ones with diabetes, need to know what we’re up against, whether or not it sits well in our guts or in our minds.\u00a0 November is nearly over.\u00a0 The blue circle t-shirts will go back into closets.\u00a0 The noise will dissipate.\u00a0 But quiet shouldn’t fool anyone. Diabetes awareness isn’t over until there’s a cure.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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