I'm getting tired of people thinking that they know whats best for me and my diabetes. These people in particular are the health freaks in the world. The ones that found some amazing diet plan that they swear by and commit to as if it is a new religion that saved them. Ironically, these people are more of the vegetarian variety and feel that because they watched some documentary about thier diet they know how to "cure" me.
I'm going to state this once in caps underlined in bold in hopes to get my point across clearly : THERE IS NO CURE FOR TYPE 1 DIABETES. IT IS NOT A LIFESTYLE CHOICE. YOU DO NOT GET TYPE 1 DIABETES FROM BAD EATING HABITS. TYPE 1 DIABETES IS AN AUTOIMMUNE DISORDER AND IS USUALLY GENETIC BUT CAN DEVELOP FROM STRESS, ENVIRONMENT, AND VIRUSES.
Do you understand that statement? Did you read it? Did you reread it? Did you digest and analyze this statement? If not, reread it.
A vegetarian lifestyle change WILL NOT CURE me. A raw food diet WILL NOT CURE me. My diabetes was NOT A LIFESTYLE CHOICE. In fact, once upon a time, I was a health food freak. In fact, I have always eaten right. In fact, my last three years up in Boston, I walked 2 miles or more a day, did 20 minutes of cardio 3x a week, and ate salads everyday. In fact, when I moved back home after undergrad, I spent 2 hours in a gym almost eveyday working out. So if my diabetes was a LIFESTYLE CHOICE, I wouldn't have fucking diabetes.
You know what type of diabetes is a lifestyle choice? Type 2 diabetes. I DON'T HAVE TYPE 2 DIABETES because if I did, I would already be cured of it.
She says, " Healthy eating, healthy body."
I reply, "I do eat healthy. And yet I have type 1 diabetes."
And then she says, "Isn't type 1 diabetes the one where you get it as a child?"
My reply, "Most people get type 1 when they are a child, but it means that thier pancreas does not produe insulin at all.
How can you even tell me to go on this diet because in a documentary it cured diabetic patients of thier diabetes and reduced thier insulin intake when you don't even know the difference between type 1 and type 2?!?!?!?
I DON'T HAVE A PANCREAS. MY PANCREAS IS FRIED. MY WHITE BLOOD CELLS ATTACKED THE BETA CELLS IN MY PANCREAS WHILE I WAS TAKING ANTIBIOTICS FOR THREE VIRUSES BECAUSE THEY MISTAKEN THE BETA CELLS FOR INFECTION...
Do you understand?
Yes, I believe my diabetes is stress induced. Yes, I believe my diabetes is psychological to a degree. But the only way I can be "CURED" is if I have a pancreas transplant or if they approve stem cell research and shoot a batch into my pancreas creating new beta cells. But even if we did any of those, there's no guarantee that I would be cured. Hell, techincally we all have cancer and diabetes and other disease in our DNA, but over time our DNA changes, becomes damaged, and flips switches on that were originally turned off. If I could turn it off, if I could figure out how to turn it off, don't you think I would have done it already, wouldn't I be more than happy to jump at the opportunity?
And if I did half the things these damn health food freak homeopathic psychopaths, yes, I called you psychopaths, I'm pissed and I'm venting, told me would "cure me", I would be dead. One person once told me to stop taking my insulin and drink nothing but watermelon juice for a week and my system would straighten itself. Ok, if I STOP TAKING INSULIN, I DIE.
Then she says, "Well no one should eat sugar."
My reply, "If my blood sugar is 36, guess what, I have to eat sugar."
If I don't eat sugar, guess what happens, I collapse, loose cognitive functioning, start having seizures, go into a coma, and die.
Then she asks, "Well what do you do to help you immune system?"
And I couldn't help myself, "I do written disclosure." (technically this blog is written disclosure for my diabetes)
She looks at me weird, "What's written disclosure?"
I smile, "Written disclosure is writing about certain subjects that bother you. Studies have shown by doing written disclosure it can improve your immune system."
"I meant nutrition wise."
"I eat food that is high in vitamin C."
Then she says, "Well the American diet is not designed for optimal health."
My reply, "My diet is more European than American. And I know exactly what I need to eat to have the right numbers."
Then she says, "Well the raw diet can help you acheive the numbers and reduce your insulin intake."
My reply, "I have to have protein."
"Vegetables have protein."
"But not enough for diabetics. Protein helps me by slowly releasing the sugar into my blood."
Then she says,"Well I just want to open your eyes to what possibilites are out there to cure you. If I had that disease I would do anything and everything to cure it."
Open my eyes. Maybe you should do more research on type 1 diabetes before talking to someone that battles the disease every single day. You don't have diabetes you don't know what it's like. You don't know the frustration. You aren't pricking your finger and using a syringe 4 times a day. Food is not only part of the problem.
So please, PLEASE, don't tell me you know how to cure me. Don't tell me there is a cure out there and doctors are hiding it from us in order to get more money and control us. Don't tell me that doctors would rather have us settle with the fact there is nothing we can do other than cure us. Don't tell me they are taking away my hope. Because you aren't fighting everyday to stay alive. You aren't dying, you don't have a chronic disease that will ultimately kill you.
I fight for my life everyday. I eat right, I take my insulin because I want to stay alive as long as possible despite having this disease. I have goals, I have memories that I have to be apart of like watching my friends get married, hanging out with my amazing friends laughing and having a good time, having kids, watching my kids play with my friend's kids, watching my husband get his degree, watching my kids grow up, growing old with my husband. Everyday, this is what I fight for. And everyday, I pray, I pray that one day during my lifetime, there might be a cure. Because I know there are amazing people out there dedicating their life's work to find a cure. And until they find it, I fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment