Diabetes means pain, fear and death to me.

This may sound morbid but it is grounded in fact. Regarding the pictures^©, the first grave marker is for my youngest brother, the second grave marker for my parents.

My youngest brother, Charles Andrew Bell, was a juvenile onset (around age 14) type one. He fought the disease for years but I think he got tired. He lost a good job with good benefits and after that, either did not

have medical insurance or grossly inadequate medical insurance.  Due to inadequate health insurance, he would go to the emergency room when he got sick and then would go to hospital when he was very sick. He also smoked and “partied” too much. He died of congestive heart failure at age 44.  I think that being able to routinely see an MD could have extended his life.

My Father, Jack Warren Bell, was diagnosed as type 1 when he was in his late 50s. (I was in the Navy and not in close contact with my family.) My Father was retired USAF and, in theory, had excellent health

insurance (CHAMPIS). However, my Mother told me there were problems with the Portland Oregon hospitals accepting CHAMPUS patients. My Father smoked unfiltered Chesterfield cigarettes for 35 years (his count). He flew an SA-16 in the mid-1950s and flew into and out of lagoons in the vicinity of nuclear tests; this exposure to radio-isotopes lead to future health problems (his thyroid). He had triple bypass surgery and they took a vein from his left leg when he was 49. When he was diagnosed, he lost weight, worked out, and tried to eat right.  Later, when his diabetes began to overwhelm him, he lost his left leg to unstoppable infections. He died of congestive heart failure at age 68.

I am a type 2, with reasonably good medical insurance and have an MD and VA Doc I trust.  I am doing what I can to stave off the complications of diabetes and hope to outlive my Father. I have never smoked, consumed illegal drugs and got my “hard drinking” phase out of the way when I was junior enlisted (Navy) in the early 1970s.

Diabetes is a way of life.

It is also a vicious opponent with a multitude of tricks and fighting it can be most discouraging. Yet, I still feel hope.

^© Picture copyright belongs to my brother Jim.

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