Tuesday, November 9, 2010

6 Things You Should Know About Diabetes

Wow - I've been absent from the DOC for a while. I didn't realize it's Diabetes Blog Day until just now, when I turned on my computer. This year's topic that everyone's writing about is Six Things You Want People to Know About Diabetes. I wanted to write mine without reading everyone elses first, so without any preparation, here goes:

1. People die from complications of diabetes every day. In Rwanda, the average life expectancy of a child diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes is 5 years. Right here in the US, even well treated, seemingly healthy diabetics die from Dead In Bed Syndrome, the most recent case I know of was October 20th. A cure is desperately needed.

2. Just because my daughter appears to be a healthy 9 year old girl, doesn't mean her body isn't ravaged daily by high and low bloodsugars. A cure is desperately needed.

3. A diabetes diagnosis affects the entire family. Ask my other two children who also had to give up most of their Halloween candy. Ask my husband who worries the most about his oldest child. Ask my mother-in-law who's had to perform an insulin pump site change for the first time ever with me giving her instructions over the phone. Ask me, the mother of a diabetic. I can't put into words how much my life has changed since my daughter's diagnosis. A cure is desperately needed.

4. You don't get Type 1 Diabetes from eating too much junk food, you can't cure it by exercising more, and you never outgrow it. It's a lifetime sentence. A cure is desperately needed.

5. There are people out there today, adults and children, who are denied health insurance coverage because they have Type 1 Diabetes. Insulin saves my daughter's life, and it should be a crime for insurance companies to say someone is "too expensive" to cover. If you really want to save the system money, give diabetics the best care out there to prevent the cost of future complications. A cure is desperately needed.

6. I couldn't decide what to write for this one, so after a while I asked Grace. Her answer probably summed it up the best. "Diabetes sucks." A cure is desperately needed.

6 comments:

  1. Your MIL rocked that site change mentioned in #3 btw! AND Bridget would agree...the "whole" family is affected daily.

    Great SIX sistah!

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  2. Yes my dear...DIABETES DOES SUCK! (((HUGS HUGS HUGS)))

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  3. This is a great list. If only we could beam it through the TV air waves of the world!

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  4. Awesome post....# 5 -- seriously -- that's SO TRUE!!!!!

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  5. yep...diabetes sucks! our kids rock though (and so do we)!

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  6. Amen, sister! A cure is desperately needed!

    I'd never heard the Rwanda statistic before. How upsetting!

    And #5 hit home. We were denied health insurance because of Jack's T1D. The ONLY insurance coverage we could get was through a group plan through our local small business association. The plan offers horrible coverage through a high-deductible plan, and it costs a fortune. We pay more for health insurance and diabetes supplies each month than most families pay for their mortgage. It's ridiculous! But we would never put a price on our son's life. The insurance industry is so messed up. I completely agree with you in that the insurance companies should provide the very best care today to save money on costly complications later.

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