Diabetes: Interesting - some tangents included

However, if the newspaper said "she spends about 17 minutes a day--all told--testing her blood sugar [x times a day] and giving herself injections [y times a day]" people would go "oh big whoop". So the writers have to make it sound like it's a big deal. Now, given the spotlight attention, I would think that she could have taken this opportunity to say that careful montoring of her blood sugar and her food intake is the big deal.

If all that diabetes entailed was (were?) a few injections a day it'd be such an easy breezy disease to have. But constantly watching your blood sugar and carefully monitoring every freaking thing that goes into your mouth is a royal pain in the butt sometimes, IMHO. A friend of mine, years ago, said that she was watching some programme about diabetes, and on that show, they said that the discovery of insulin was, in some ways, one of the worst things that could've happened. Because diabetics can live, now, there's no drive to find a cure. Well, maybe there's not the same degree of urgency to find a cure. No great need. They have insulin. They can survive just fine, man.

That's interesting. Probably true. And ultimately, as I've said before, if I had been given the option, a menu of diseases from which to choose one that I'd have to have for the rest of my life, I'd definitely have opted for diabetes. No contest, man. I get to be in the driver's seat on this one.

Speaking of diabetes, my hubby's father is about to get his foot cut off. He became gangrenous (sp?) while in Greece and got a toe cut off. Then his daughter flew over there, swooped him up and brought him to Canada, dropped him with older brother (not my hubby) and went back to LA. He's been here less than a month and is heading back to the hospital (a Canadian one this time) because infection has spread (an anti-biotic resistant one). I don't know what is actually going to to be removed (these family members have a tendency towards melodrama and embellishment) , but he's apparently not doing well.

He used to visit, and we'd talk to him about the urgency of good control and what might happen if he ignored his disease, and he smiled politely and nodded in the right places. But he's never been one to pay it much mind. And now he's paying for his neglect. I asked eldest brother (in California) "I know that this is kind of a horrible question to ask, but do you think he's long for this world?"
"I'm no doctor, but I'm thinking that once they start hacking off body parts? No."

I said to him "You know how some men when they leave the hospital after quadruple bypass surgery completely revolutionize their lives, while others leave the hosptital and head straight to Burger King? He impresses me as a Burger King kinda of guy."

Then again, he got a bit of a scare back in the seventies from the doctor (x-ray) and came home and threw out his cigarettes, never to smoke again. So he is capable if he sets his mind to it. But food is not something about which you can say "okay, none of it is allowed in the house", unlike cigarettes or even alcohol. So you are forced to deal with it and make your peace with it. He turned 78 in March, so he's not a spring chicken, but if he decided to bring his levels down, he could live 20 more years even without a foot. Again, though, I don't know if he's motivated. I hope he is, but I don't think so.