Sacred, Cynical, & Protective Of The Diabetes Holy Grail

When I hear the term “diabetes cure,” I think of eradicating diabetes off the face of the earth for all people who live with diabetes, and preventing those who don’t from ever having to. And I will craw on my knees through crushed glass in order to support any person or organization that is working to make that happen.

So when you tweet me the word “cure” and then tell me that by cure you mean “managing diabetes and that I’m getting caught up in semantics re: the words cure vs. managing and Dr. Speak in general, and that endos and CDEs don't know anything about diabetes, and that you're a @cardiologistswife & that together, you write diabetes cookbooks.” Don’t be surprised if I take issue with what your saying; tweaching (tweet preaching,) or selling. And don't be surprised if I have questions for you.

Don't be surprised that I'm concerned that you tell some folks you have one type of diabetes and other people that you have a differnet type.

Be it your sincerity or your brand,I'm going to question both!

BOTTOM LINE:

Insulin is not a cure for diabetes, neither are oral medications.

A no carb diet is not a diabetes cure. It absolutely helps with blood sugars and weight loss, and I know a thinner waistline is better for our diabetes hearts, but it's not a cure.

Same goes for electrolyte waters that cost $100 bucks a case.

Prayer is not a diabetes cure. I’m not against praying, but it’s not a cure. Nobody prays harder than the parent of a chronically or terminally ill child. If all it took was prayers to cure diabetes, this disease would have been cured long ago.

Dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight while naked doesn't = a cure either, but it’s damn fine visual.

I look at the term “diabetes cure” with a mixture of sacred (like it's the diabetes holy grail) and cynicism – and cynical or not I’m very protective of it.

How you treat "your diabetes" is up to you & if it works for you, GREAT. But please don’t throw the term cure around and not expect others to question it.

When I was first diagnosed. I sat in my endo’s office and listened as he told me that science was 10 years away from finding a cure. I was so excited! My 8 year old self looked at my mom smiling, ready to say "IT"S GOING TO BE OK," until I saw her face and heard her words.

Mom: They told me the same thing 10 years ago when my other daughter was diagnosed, we’re still waiting- You're no closer now than you were then, are you?

I realized then and there that I would most likely live longer as a person with diabetes, then a person without.

That would be the exact moment that "Kelly The Cynical," came to be.

10 years later, as I blew out the candles on my 18^th birthday cake, I didn’t think about being legal or voting, those thoughts weren't in my head at that moment. No, I thought about the cure conversation from 10 years earlier. And yes, it really did put a damper on the celebration.

Years later, sometime in the mid 1990’s - before the DOC and broadband, back when the Internet was in it’s infancy, I sat my old Gateway computer and “dialed – up” the AOL so I could participate in a diabetes chat room.

There was lots people with and or affected by diabetes in that room – and there was also a snake oil salesman preaching a cure for diabetes courtesy of Taro Root juice - a magical elixer that had cured the ancient Hawaiians of diabetes.

Me being me, gave the taro salesman verbal smack down. I told that all the taro juice in the world wouldn’t cause my Islet of Langerhans to be produce insulin – if indeed they still existed at all.

I chided him for trying to make a profit off other peoples heartache. Eventually he left the chatroom and everyone was glad. A few hours later I received an email from a mother whose 18-month-old daughter had been recently diagnosed with type 1. She was willing to forgo her daughters insulin regiment for the taro juice/ battery acid/ voodoo if it meant her daughter would be cured.

We IM’d all night and I was really scared. I begged this woman to find a support group and to speak to a therapist. I told her that daughter would live a great life and that insulin, while not a cure, was a godsend.

This poor woman was so depressed that she was actually willing to harm her child if it meant curing her.

I felt helpless and was afraid for her little girls well being, and her own. The only thing I could do was listen and talk.

Finally, around 4 am, she agreed that she needed to seek therapy in order to accept her daughter’s diabetes. She promised me that she wouldn’t try any miracle cures – and to the best of my knowledge, she didn’t. I received a few more emails from her, telling me that her daughter was doing well on insulin therapy and that she herself was doing well since seeing a therapist.

In her last email she wrote that she was closing her AOL account and staying off-line for a while - at her therapists suggestion. I never heard from her again.

The memory of that woman and her daughter have haunted me everyday since.

I think about that woman and her daughter every single day and every single time I hear the words “cure” used in an egregious manner regarding diabetes.

Ever time I talk to a parent whose child is newly diagnosed - I think about that woman and her little girl, and yes, I also think about my eight year old self and my own mother.

So if your going preach a diabetes cure through a product or lifestyle, don’t be shocked when I have questions – I’m not just being a bitch or bully, and I'm not starting an argument for shits and giggles.

And I’m NOT just doing it for me.