Frank Cieciorka

Am I a man, or even a person- or just a type with an age?
Should I be mad at what they think-what kind of war should I wage?

"You can overcome diabetes and make it part of your past"
But as an autoimmune, I declare that their thinking should not last!

"Check your blood sugar; you seem to be having a bad day"
Must it always be related to diabetes in every way?

"Should you be eating that brownie, too much sugar you know"
Should I explain the meaning of bolus and my expertise in insulin flow?

"Why, here, did you go so low- you really deserve this excessive blame"
It is just one bad day- not always easy to play this daily game! (READ MORE)

It's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just because I don't have to take a pill to control my Type 2 diabetes, I'm "cured". After all, that's what so many people in my condition were told, so many times, over the past half-century. Some are still told that today. And given that most of the time, my blood glucose levels stay between 85 and 120, with the occasional high postprandial excursion (which occasionally -- like, when I'm low and having dinner at a restaurant -- will lead to a high fasting reading the next morning), there's nothing to alarm the unsuspecting practitioner that back in 2002, at fifty pounds heavier than I am today, the doctor's meter read 170 mg/dl after a ten-hour fast, with an HbA1c of 7.8. Or in lay terms, "I had diabeetus".

  (READ MORE)