From the Publisher

Covers the latest glucose meters and insulin treatments The straight facts on treating diabetes successfully and living a full life

Want to know how to manage diabetes? Leading diabetes expert Dr. Alan Rubin gives you reassuring, authoritative guidance in putting together a state-of-the-art treatment program. You'll learn about all the advances in monitoring glucose, the latest medications, and how to develop a diet and exercise plan to stay healthy. You'll also see how to overcome insurance and on-the-job obstacles.

Discover how to:

• Reduce your diabetes risk
• Understand the different types of diabetes
• Manage diabetes in children and the elderly
• Prevent long-term complications
• Get the support you need

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Read a Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Read a Sample Chapter

Diabetes For Dummies

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

In This Chapter

* Meeting others with diabetes

* Coping with the initial diagnosis

* Upholding your quality of life

* Finding help

As a person with diabetes, you are more than the sum of your blood glucose levels. You have feelings, and you have a history. The way that you respond to the challenges of diabetes determines whether the disease will be a moderate annoyance or the source of major sickness.

One of my patients told me about working at her first job out of college, where each employee birthday was celebrated with cake. She came to the first celebration and was urged to eat a slice. She refused and refused, until finally she had to say, "I can't eat the cake because I am diabetic." The woman urging her said, "Thank God. I thought you just had incredible willpower." Twenty years later, my patient clearly remembers being told that having diabetes is better than having willpower.

Another patient told me this: "The hardest thing about having diabetes is having to deal with doctors who do not respect me." Several times over the years, she had followed her doctor's recommendations exactly, but her glucose control had not been satisfactory. The doctor blamed her for this "failure."

And unless you live alone on a desert island (in which case I'm impressed that you got your hands on this book), your diabetes doesn't affect just you. Your family, friends, and coworkers are affected by how you deal with your diabetes and by their desire to help you. This chapter shows you some coping skills to help you deal with diabetes and its impact on your important relationships.

You Are Not Alone

Are you as pretty as Nicole Johnson, the 1999 Miss America? Are you as funny as Jackie Gleason or Jack Benny? Are you an actor with the talent of James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, or Elizabeth Taylor? Can you hit a tennis ball like Arthur Ashe? Can you paint like Paul Cézanne? Do you have the charisma of Gamel Abdel-Nasser? Can you write like Ernest Hemingway or H. G. Wells? Can you sing like Ella Fitzgerald or Elvis Presley? Do you have the inventive powers of Thomas Alva Edison? You have at least one thing in common with all of these famous people. That's right - diabetes.

Keeping good company

Diabetes is a common disease, so it's bound to occur in some very uncommon people. The list of people with diabetes is long, and you may be amazed at the caliber of the company you keep. The point is that every one of these people lives or lived with this chronic illness, and every one of them was able to do something special with his or her life.

Many politicians have diabetes - perhaps the result of eating too many fundraising dinners full of alcohol, starchy foods, and calorie-rich desserts. (See Chapter 4 for the role diet plays in the onset of diabetes.) Among the Russian premiers who have had diabetes are Yuri Andropov, Nikita Krushchev, and Mikhail Gorbechev. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had diabetes. Balancing him on the Arab side is King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Winnie Mandela of South Africa has it. President Clinton's mother, Virginia Kelley, a politician by association, had diabetes. Rounding out the list are Clinton Anderson, a U.S. Senator from New Mexico, Fiorello LaGuardia, a New York mayor, and Josip Tito, former ruler of Yugoslavia.

Among actors and comedians with diabetes, Jackie Gleason is memorable for his motto, "How sweet it is!" (Could he have been referring to his diabetes or his blood glucose?) Among the other great talents with diabetes are Halle Berry; Mary Tyler Moore; Kate Smith, who sang "God Bless America"; and Mae West, who told men to "Come up and see me sometime."

Walt Kelly, who drew the Pogo comic strip, joins Paul Cézanne in the category of artists with diabetes. Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, joins Ernest Hemingway and H. G. Wells among the great writers. In the business world, Ray Kroc founded the McDonald's chain while dealing with diabetes.

The list of singers and musicians with diabetes contains some of the greatest voices you will ever hear. Besides Ella and Elvis, the list includes Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash, Carol Channing of Hello, Dolly! fame, jazz musician Dizzy Gillespie, and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. The great composer of operas, Giacomo Puccini, also had diabetes.

Diabetes doesn't prevent the achievement of great records in sports. It didn't stop Arthur Ashe from winning the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament more than once. Jackie Robinson lived with type 1 diabetes all of his life - and, unfortunately, at a time when doctors didn't possess the tools that we have today to control diabetes. Catfish Hunter could strike out many a batter, even when his glucose was a little off. The great Ty Cobb got plenty of hits despite his diabetic condition. Billie Jean King put women's tennis on the map when she beat Bobby Riggs; diabetes certainly didn't slow her serve. (To read about the role of sports and exercise in your life, see Chapter 9.)

Realizing your potential

REMEMBER

The names in the preceding paragraphs are just a few examples of people with diabetes who have achieved greatness. My point is this: Diabetes shouldn't stop you from doing what you want to do with your life. You must follow the rules of good diabetic care, as I describe in Chapters 7 through 12. But if you follow these rules, you will actually be healthier than people without diabetes who smoke, overeat, and/or don't exercise enough. If you follow the rules of good diabetes care, you will be just as healthy as the person without diabetes.

Perhaps the many people with diabetes who have achieved greatness used the same personal strengths to overcome the difficulties associated with diabetes and to excel at their particular callings. Or maybe their diabetes forced them to be stronger and to persevere more, which contributed to their success. Chapter 15 shows you a few areas (such as piloting a commercial flight) in which certain people with diabetes can't participate - due to the ignorance of some legislators. These last few blocks to complete freedom of choice for those with diabetes will come down as you show that you can safely and competently do anything that a person without diabetes can do.

Reacting to Your Diagnosis

Do you remember what you were doing when you found out that you had diabetes? Unless you were too young to understand, the news was quite a shock. Suddenly you had a condition from which people die. Many of the feelings that you went through were exactly those of a person learning that he or she is dying. The following sections describe the normal stages of reacting to a diagnosis of a major medical condition such as diabetes.

Experiencing denial

Your first response was probably to deny that you had diabetes, despite all the evidence. Your doctor may have helped you to deny by saying that you had just "a touch of diabetes," which is an impossibility equivalent to "a touch of pregnancy." You probably looked for any evidence that the whole thing was a mistake.

Ultimately, you had to accept the diagnosis and begin to gather the information you needed to help yourself. But perhaps you neglected to take your medication, follow your diet, or perform the exercise that is so important to maintaining your body.

REMEMBER

When you accepted the diabetes diagnosis, I hope you also shared the news with your family, friends, and people close to you. Having diabetes isn't something to be ashamed of, and you shouldn't hide it from anyone. You need the help of everyone in your environment, from your coworkers who need to know not to tempt you with treats that you can't eat, to your friends who need to know how to give you glucagon, a treatment for low blood glucose, if you become unconscious from a severe insulin reaction (see Chapter 4).

Your diabetes isn't your fault - nor is it a form of leprosy or some other disease that carries a social stigma. Diabetes also isn't contagious; no one can catch it from you.

ANECDOTE

When you're accepting and open about having diabetes, you'll find that you're far from alone in your situation. (If you don't believe me, read the section "You Are Not Alone," earlier in this chapter.) One of my patients told me about experiences she had that helped her feel part of a community. She arrived at work one morning and was very worried when she realized that she had forgotten her insulin. But she quickly found a source of comfort when she remembered that she could go to a diabetic coworker and ask to borrow some insulin. Another time, she was at a party and stepped into a friend's bedroom to take a shot of insulin, and she found a man there doing the same thing.

Feeling anger

When you've passed the stage of denying that you have diabetes, you may become angry that you're saddled with this "terrible" diagnosis. But you'll quickly find that diabetes isn't so terrible and that you can't do anything to rid yourself of the disease. Anger only worsens your situation, and it's detrimental in the following ways: