My youngest daughter, Skye, hates spinach . . . I absolutely love it. Skye loves raw carrots . . . I can’t stand them (cooked are great, though). My oldest son, Michael, is a very outgoing extrovert, while my second oldest son, Brendan, is intensely introverted (we have to pry his mouth open and force him to emit sounds during dinnertime conversations). Despite our very tight genetic bonds, we have these varying experiences, preferences, and personalities – it’s our individuality.
If the nearly 8 billion people on our planet were all identical clones, like something from a science fiction movie, then our human experience would almost certainly be really boring and painfully predictable. There’s an old saying that “variety is the spice of life,” and I couldn’t agree more. Drawn from William Cowper’s 1785 poem, “The Task,” that specifically worded sentiment has served to celebrate diversity for more than two centuries.
Today with our population so high, and social media becoming a primary source for connecting that staggering number of diverse opinion and personalities, the Internet has become a bit of a battlefield for espousing one’s particular view of the cosmos. With a seething cauldron of arguments on politics, movies, cable TV shows, celebrities, and weight-loss methods boiling around the cyber-sphere, it’s no wonder that some pretty divisive debates have crept their way into the diabetes online community.
Part of this exists because we know so much about diabetes self-management today, and our dietary, pharmacological, and technological options are many and growing. When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 25 years ago, you could practically enumerate the entire span of diabetes self-management options in one short sentence. Now we have a variety of human insulins, analog insulins, glucose meters, CGMs, pumps, and emerging technologies such as looping and islet cell transplantation. Then, there’s the dispute over daily therapy management strategies – do I go pump or MDI? And lest we forget the most divisive of them all – dietary strategies. Ranging from ketogenic diets and low-carb to “I’m gonna count my carbs and eat all that I want,” we’re witnessing a full-scale War of the Diabetes Worlds.
The Common Thread that Unites
Can you imagine what an intriguing novel War of the Worlds would have been if H.G. Wells had written it today and within the context of diabetes? The invading Martians would likely be replaced with some advanced alien/virus hybrids that enter the human bloodstream and trigger an auto-immune reaction in humans, causing them to destroy their own pancreases and develop diabetes. But despite their technological superiority, the alien/virus hybrids succumb to their own overconfidence and hubris as the human immune systems destroy them as well. In the end, the human race survives, but is left with an indelible mark and reminder of their own overconfidence in the form of diabetes mellitus. Ultimately, the theme of human complacency that sits at the core of Wells’ War of the Worlds would still play itself out, leaving the reader haunted with the questions of what military or biological defense could have been established to prevent such a tragic invasion.
Well, um, or something like that.
Fortunately, in the modern War of the Diabetes Worlds, the warring parties aren’t so insidious or ill-prepared. They’re just a group of souls who have different tastes, preferences, and tolerances, and each has been shaped differently through their own personal experience with diabetes. But despite our differences, I believe we share far more similarities.
We all got dealt a hand we didn’t want and didn’t ask for. We all are forced to stay attentive to our condition around the clock, 365 days a year. We all reach a point sometimes where the constant monitoring starts to wear on us. And I think that deep down, we all simply yearn for a normal life where we are free to pursue our passions and dreams without biological interference.
That normal life was what I desperately wanted when I was diagnosed. I didn’t want to be different, be looked at differently, live differently, or have anything compel me to manage some screwy health condition. That normal life was what I wanted, and I became determined to have it.
My quest for normal started with exercise to help control my diabetes. After becoming familiar with the various effects of exercise on my blood sugar levels, I moved on to an intense study of the effects of food on my blood sugars. Although I only had Regular and NPH human insulins and a blood glucose meter, I dedicated myself to learning how these assets could be used to keep my levels in the preferred 80-120mg/dl range.
I was always looking for cause and effect relationships and trying to chart patterns—EVERYTHING HINGED ON CAUSE AND EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS! I told myself that every effect had a cause and that the cause was something I had to understand for success to be possible. I really got crazy with the analysis. But each new pattern identified and each new lesson learned put more control in my hands, and my confidence and overall happiness seemed to grow proportionately.
Although I couldn’t avoid having to manage a screwy health condition, I now have my version of “normal,” and it’s pretty darn sweet.
Problematic Passion
That’s why I get crazy-jump-up-and-down-shout-from-the-rooftops-excited when I hear of new technologies, therapies, diets, and insights on exercise for diabetics. If someone online is passionately relating how their particular diet has helped them find success, I try to learn everything I can about how that diet impacted their diabetes self-management. I may never find the need to incorporate that strategy into my own diabetes self-management, but knowing about it is an important point of reference and another tool in my diabetes toolbox. Knowledge is power and options are a tremendous comfort with the challenges diabetes throws at us.
So why are we spending so much time bickering when we should be applauding our collective diversity, our technological advancements, and the amazing modern era of diabetes self-management? Well, the answer to that question lies in good ole human nature—it’s a problem of passion gone awry. We believe deeply in our methods, and we often assume that what works for us will necessarily work for others. In a more technical sense, that probably holds a lot of truth. But again, we’re not clones. Our individuality, psychological makeup, and needs get in the way. Ultimately, success is a very personal thing and relative to each diabetic’s goals and their particular vision of the future. We have to be sensitive to that.
I like to think of the Internet as a vast and open cafeteria of diabetes self-management strategies. We can stroll down the line as often as we like and choose what whets our appetite. If we get tired of our favorite chicken-fried steak, we can always give the liver and onions a try (well, that is if you dig liver and onions—ugh).
Case in Point
Over the past 2 years, I have made a ton of new diabetic friends and acquaintances through my blogging and book-writing efforts. One of my most cherished friendships is fellow type 1, Vickie McWatters. Vickie is the Development Manager for the JDRF Arizona Chapter, and she is my go-to for no-nonsense, honest and straightforward opinions. I first met Vickie when she volunteered to be a test reader for my upcoming book, The Gift of Diabetes.
When the idea for this blog post started bouncing around inside my head, I immediately thought of Vickie. “Why?” you may ask. Well, it’s because we’re two diabetics who’ve found two completely different paths to diabetes self-management success. We’re different in strategy, but we’re the same in our commitment to control.
Vickie was diagnosed 20 years ago, and she’s been on a pump almost since day one. I, as you know, was diagnosed 25 years ago and have always been MDI. Vickie sticks to a very low-carb diet, I watch my carb intake (that is, I watch the carbs as they enter my mouth), but certainly wouldn’t consider myself a “low-carb” guy. Regardless of our differing methods, we’ve both been able to find our definition of success and a confidence in our diabetes self-management. And, at the end of the day, isn’t that the point? It doesn’t matter how we get there as long as the destination is reached.
But there’s another, equally important, reason why I chose to tell Vickie’s story. Her story starts off like so many that I read in emails and online – but her conclusion is encouragingly different. Vickie McWatters didn’t always feel the level of confidence that she does today. I interviewed Vickie recently for the “Diabetes Success Story” segment of the podcast version of this blog post. In that interview, Vickie talks about how only in the past few years has she really learned to “embrace the disease and take ownership of it.” For many years she “felt like a failure” and didn’t take good care of herself. She tried “textbook” self-management protocol, but she just couldn’t get it to work for her. However, over time she did a lot of experimenting, and her determination paid off as she finally found the secret that had been so elusive. Vickie will tell you that her greatest pride is in that long-awaited, hard-earned success. Today, working with JDRF and helping others has helped her find real fulfillment in her life. Way to go, Vickie!
Every single day, I pray to God that struggling diabetics will stay diligent long enough to discover what Vickie, myself, and so many others have – that diabetes self-management success is possible, and when that magical moment occurs, it can transform your perspective and your life and take you to levels of happiness that you never dreamed could exist!
“With infinite complacency men went to and fro . . .”
That partial quote is from the beginning of War of the Worlds. The topic of human complacency was one Wells would address in some of his other works, including The Time Machine. Looking at the industrialized and ever-growing technological world of his time, Wells was concerned that our smugness and dependence on technology would weaken us as a race. Our progress would begin to reverse as our survival skills and sharper intellect all but disappeared.
Sometimes it feels that with all of the technology to aid us in diabetes self-management, we are getting worse at it. We are becoming too dependent on the technology, and we’re forgetting that it is just a tool. Yes, we must have insulins and meters to control our glucose levels, but we were born with the most perfect tool to manage our diabetes – our minds. We must never forget that. We must stay sharp so that when screwy health conditions strike, we’ll be ready!
–Tad
P.S. I’ve had a lot going on lately with final work on the book and a barrage of personal and family stuff going on. I want to say thank you to all the readers who’ve emailed and sent contact forms over the past few months, concerned that I might have decided to give up blogging and spreading my message of hope and success. Well, don’t worry – I’m not going anywhere. I may not be posting as often until the book is released, but I’m still here and still thinking of you all. TR
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The podcast version of this post with the full Vickie McWatters interview is now available below!