What would you say if you had the symptoms of a common medical condition, but if after a year, none of the usual therapies worked?

What would you say if your doctor insisted that he had correctly diagnosed the disease as something chronic, but not necessarily debilitating, and was giving you medicines that all should be working?

Now, what would you say if there was a less-common form of that medical condition that had all the same symptoms, but was caused by a completely different disease -- one that was immediately life-threatening -- and which required a different form of therapy? What would you say if your doctor refused to consider the possibility of that less-common disease? And what would you say if there were two common tests that could confirm whether or not the less-common diagnosis was correct, but your doctor refused to order them?

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Yesterday, I merged inspiration from Ecclesiastes with the liturgical forms of responses and contrasts to highlight some of the variables that make each person's experience of living with diabetes unique.

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"The human race can be divided into two groups: those who produce their own insulin, and those who don't."

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Canada and the United States of America both celebrate their "birthdays" on this long weekend. Flags are flown, fireworks launched, parades marched, and we perceive a sort of unity and interallegiance to our governments and our fellow citizens. While the United States celebrates it's independence from England, we also understand the various states' interdependence upon each other in matters of commerce, transportation, and national defense. It would seem to me that the Canadian provinces are similarly interdependent upon each other.

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I am not a number. -- "Number 6", The Prisoner

One of the questions asked in a recent #dsma chat had to do with the people we live and work with who are familiar enough with our diabetes care to support us, make sure we have appropriate food and drink as needed, who know how and when to administer glucagon, and what to tell the folk at 911 about us. Some debate arose over the common patient-community designation of these individuals as "Type 3s".

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I've always loved my hair. I used to say it was one of my best features. Once I understood and appreciated my curls, I learned how to take care of them. Throughout college and before having kids, I had long (mid-back length), curly hair.

I started cutting my hair shorter around the time No. 1 was born. I would go back and forth between wanting it short and wanting it long. The Mr. has always liked my hair long, and I think for the most part I prefer it that way.

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