I wrote a paper a couple of years ago about living with chronic disease, the disease in question was kidney failure. As a part of the paper, we, the students were required to adhere to some sore of a regimen. I chose training for a half marathon, because I was training for a half marathon. It was an eighteen week program that was set out for me. I was highly motivated, knew the end point, really wanted to do this but I was unable to adhere to the schedule, I had to take a few days off, I was sick or just tired of the whole thing. It really helped me to understand what living with a chronic illness is like and the judements that go with it from health care providers.
On a different note, living with my daughter, provides me with the same kind of day in and day out attention to detail, to keep things running smoothly, that just grinds a person down to the very nub of their existence.
There are no easy answers I guess, the most we can do is our best and that varies from day to day.
Thanks for the insight. It helps me as a nurse.

Quick FYI--it was a non-diabetic radio interviewer who gave Hirsch the most publicized hard time for reproducing, and the diabetic community pretty much went after the interviewer for being misinformed. The radio announcer ended up (I think) taking back some of his comments (he'd thought Hirsch's diabetes had more of a genetic component like type 2).

Hirsch's book is great, though--I reviewed it when it came out for the publication I work for and Hirsch himself emailed me to thank me for the review--so you may end up hearing from him yourself.

You mention Type 2 diabetics - do you think it would be a good read for my mother and father, who are still dealing with dad's unexpected Type 2 diagnosis (unexpected in that he had none of the markers or risk factors for Type 2 - they think it might in part have been induced by medications)?

Its a different thing to be dx'd with Type 2 at 60 than it is to have Type 1 from childhood, I know, but my mom is the type who is looking everywhere now for more reading material on this...

Deb, IMO, that should be required of every health care provider that works with people with chronic illness. IT's easy to be judgmental about lapses in care until you've tried to adhere to such a regimen yourself. Good for you for doing that.

Lyrehca, that's interesting. I hadn't heard the interview, or heard of it--my only contact with the book prior to seeing it at the store had been some of the reviews of the prologue saying, in essence, what kind of idiot has kids when they have diabetes? Which makes me bristle for obvious reasons--and these were people who had diabetes, and figured that if only no one who has it reproduced, the disease would somehow end.

Sara, I loved it. He does equal air time to type 2, I think. It's not a how-to book, and if that's what she's looking for she might not get much from it; it's more the history of it, the psychology and emotional impact, the medical culture, etc. I'd actually say to read it yourself, and then judge whether you think your parents will like it or not.

Thanks for this, Andrea. The CHC I volunteer at has a Diabetes support group, cooking group, etc. I will make sure it also has a copy of this book.
You are *always* worth a visit.

Well, you convinced me!
I just ordered it off Amazon!

Thank you, I will look for this. My mom had Type 1 her whole life and died from it last summer. I am still processing all the ways it affected our relationship--especially at the end when she was so brittle and I was so angry and scared at how she was caring or not caring for herself-- and what she went through over the years, just trying to live a normal life. And I could write a book about her medical care.

This is my newest favorite book. I would lend you my copy too, but it's currently with my friend who I have already lent it to.

Thank you so much for this brief mention of "Ally". It intrigued me enough to go looking, and I've now read "City of Pearl" and "Crossing the Line" - Traviss is my latest favourite author. I'm now searching frantically for the rest of the books in the series, which don't seem to have been published in Australia yet - Amazon here I come.