A new star is born (even without her own reality show)

Celebrity Diagnosis is to increase health awareness and medical knowledge by blogging about common diseases affecting uncommon people. Back in August, we wrote about Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and singer Nick Jonas both of whom have diabetes. A young adult with type 1 diabetes named Miriam, who found out she had this disease at age 15, read our post and commented: “Wow, thanks for the information. This article is really helpful and it’s nice to know that there are other people…celebrities!…that have diabetes; and that they’re not letting it slow them down!”

We corresponded with Miriam who, it turns out, has her own web site dedicated to helping young people affected by type I diabetes to understand this condition, to let them know that they’re not alone and and to meet its challenges. Miriam kindly accepted our invitation to share some of her thoughts with our readers and her guest blog is below:

_____________

I read a subject the other day on Diabetes Forecast that was titled “what do you hate most about having diabetes?” There were pages of comments like “Poking my fingers all day long,” and “not being able to eat without taking insulin.” This frustrated me because it seemed that Diabetes Forecast was encouraging people to think negatively about diabetes! It’s easy to think negatively but what we really should be doing as diabetics is providing encouragement to others with this condition! I know it’s not pleasant having to deal with needles, insulin and looking different to your friends, but what about all the good things that having diabetes presents? I for one am glad I have diabetes instead of cancer. Or what about having the opportunity to show others it’s not really that bad? To show them that you can live a normal life with diabetes.

Okay so you gain some weight from insulin, no one said you couldn’t exercise. So, your numbers go down when you exercise, there are ways to take care of that. Be glad you’re alive!!! Be glad that you live in this day an age when effective treatment is available! There was a time, not too long ago, when diabetes was called “the wasting disease” because people who had it basically just wasted away. Remember in the beginning when you lost all that weight, well, this would happen to those people and they couldn’t do a stitch about it! They were just waiting around to die. Can you imagine being diagnosed with the “wasting disease” and knowing there wasn’t anything anyone could do for you? Well, these people had to live or rather die with that. So my advice to you is this, be happy that you can live a long, happy life even though you have diabetes. Have fun with your diabetes!

_____________

Miriam may not be as well known as Justice Sotomayor or Nick Jonas but she’s certainly a celebrity in our book! Thank you, Miriam, for sharing your insights with us and inspiring others.