A Tribute to the Medical lCommunity

Image via WikipediaIt's been awhile since I've contributed but life has been busy, interesting and sweet.  (I guess literally AND figuratively!)  However, I was looking through some writings I've been working on forever and came across one that I'd like to share.  I might even send it to The Doctors which is a current tv show.

COMPELLED TO SHARE  Written in 1998.


I was 5 years old when I was put into a hospital for six weeks because it was suspected I was a diabetic  In 1945, that was the course of action.  My mother and father were devastated.  Putting a 5 year old child at such a distance from home; (walk to the bus and then 1/2 hour or more later get off a bus and walk a distance to the hospital), seemed too far away..  Mom and Dad had a son who died at 5 years of age before I was born.  They were frightened. 

My diagnosis was Juvenile Diabetes which today is called type 1.  My mother and father learned all they could about the disease (See My Angel Mother in another blog entry) and for the next 8 years it was my mother who gave  my injections of insulin.  she always acted as though it was no big deal.  She cemented the attitude I still have today; that diabetes is just an inconvenience.  My parents decided they WOULD NOT send me to diabetic camps or meetings and would definately NOT have me learning to do my own injections at 5 years of age.  The medical community suggested that in 1945.  My mother decided that once she got a handle on things, she would stop reading "all the complications that can happen to diabetics" and let me have my childhood.  SHE WOULD DO THE WORK and I would be the child.  Amazing how smart she was even without a high school diploma.


Thee were many times I remember my mother "just happening to be walking past the school yeard at lunch time.  She stopped at the chain link fence where we were in the school yard and asked,

"Did you eat all your lunch?"

"Yes, Mom.  I ate it all.  How come you're here? '"

"Oh, I'm just going over to see Aunt Irene."

Years later I realized Mom walked a good two miles over to the school at exactly the same time  and then walked back just to check on me.  'Aunt Irene' was a friend she would visit every few months or so, not as often as she walked by.

When I was 13, I told my mother that I'd do my own injection that day.  She just said, "o.k.".  I couldn't seem to get the courage to stick myself and asked Mom to do it.  She did, with no reaction to it.  The next day I did my own and of course have been doing it ever since.  

WhatI learned about being a diabetic was that our whole family ate sensibly, cared about being healthy, got our exercise and had a great childhood with the inconvenience of insulin injections for me.  Guess what?  That was the medical community's recommendation for diabetics minus the scare tactics.   

I have maintained this attitude for more than 65 years now.  (Originally written it was 53 years).  I've stayed away from the diabetic meetings, and diabetic community because I didn't want to see what was happening to those who were not as disciplined as I.  However, others may not have been as lucky as I becase bodies do different things ; (See YOU'RE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT AND IT'S NOT WORKING) But, I still didn't want to see it because I might lose my upbeat attitude.

Until now.

You see, I have won.

And I must share that.

The medical community has been right in most things.  If we maintain ourselves as they have suggested all along, we can live a full, healthy and passionate life.  

I wrote in 1958...KI am 58 years old.  I have had Brittle Diabetes (Type I) for 53 years.  (Now for 65 years at age 70)

I went through legal blindness because of diabetic retinopathy.  I travelled with the blind community for 5 years.  My vision was 20/200 but after much laser and cataract removal, I am driving again and my vision is 20/70.  

I was tired of taking 4 shots of insulin a day.  I went onto an insulin pump.  It has enhanced my life.  

We finally figured out why I was having bouts of 'breathlessness' after catherizations and the continuing caring of angel doctors.  One year ago at age 69 I had a pericardiotomy at the Mayo Clinic to remove half of the pericardium that had calcified to the point of making it difficult for the chambers of the heart to fill properly.  This was causing breathlessness and inability to ballroom dance as I so love.

I MUST tell diabdetics and other people that their bodies CAN be maintained.  Being a diabetic doesn't mean you will lose your eyes, kidneys, have loss of limbs.  These things can happen to non-diabetics who do not take care of their health too!  And for those who HAVE had some of those complications, move into compliance.  It's worth it!  You CAN have a better life.

If I were to vacate this Blue Planet tomorrow, I still have won.  

The medical community is right.  Bless them..