Diabetes, YOU SUCK!!! It’s not often you’ll hear me whining about my disease, sure it’s not the most fun disease to have, and it is a bit of an inconvenience, and as a kid I hated it, but compared to other things, it’s not the end of the world, so I try and make the best of it. I mean it’s not going away right, so there’s no real point in spilling tears over it. But, then again, there are times when the damn thing just out and guts you. And for seven months now, the knife has been poking me, jabbing me, taunting me. Today, it full on broke the skin.
Having diabetes, you’d think, would be punishment enough, that the gods would look more favourably on me when it came to other viruses and diseases because I’ve already suffered, right. Wrong. At 18, I was put on two doses of synthroid because I was one of the 5 per cent of diabetics – FIVE PER CENT!!! – who had a lethargic thyroid. Awesome. And if that wasn’t enough, today I got confirmation that I have yet another autoimmune disease thanks to my bloody diabetes. And I repeat, Diabetes, YOU SUCK!!!
One morning back in November I woke up to low blood sugars and my cheeks chewed raw, so raw, they were purple with blood-clots. I waited a couple of weeks for them to heal, but they didn’t. So I went to the dentist and he told me to wait it out. A month passed, and sores were starting to form in my mouth. Citrus, salty, minty, spicy, hot foods – even freaking toothpaste burned. I went to the doctor and he referred me to a throat specialist, who then referred me to a different kind of specialist in Vancouver, who had a six-month waitlist; I still haven’t cracked that list. I went back to my dentist and he referred me to an oral specialist, who never contacted me. I went to my childhood dentist and he prescribed a week of antibiotics that didn’t work, he then referred me to the same oral specialist as my other dentist, but this time I got in right away. That specialist thought it was oral lichen planus, but wasn’t sure. He prescribed a 5-week antibiotic mouthwash regime, which didn’t work. When I went back and saw him, he told me there was nothing more he could do, I had to suffer.
That wasn’t good enough – not when Google and my endocrinologist were both telling me that oral lichen planus, and continued irritation for that matter, can lead to cancer. I found another specialist in Richmond who specialized in oral lichen planus and mouth cancer cases. I went back to my childhood dentist and got a referral. Today, I saw the specialist. After just five or 10 minutes of talking to him, and him investigating my mouth, he confirmed that he was 98 per cent sure that I do in fact have oral lichen planus.
So what is oral lichen planus? Another bloody autoimmune disease that is attacking my cheeks making it impossible for the good cells to regrow and the cheeks to heal! Apparently my immune system went a little overboard when I chewed my cheeks raw, which is the suspected cause of the oral lichen planus. Are you freaking kidding me? Diabetes, YOU SUCK!!!
Diabetes up for grabs, any takers?
Hmmmmm, no takers, I see.
But I’m NOT surprised … I’M certainly not going to jump at the chance to take on diabetes!!
Because, frankly, you are a better man than me – and I KNOW it!!
I wouldn’t last a minute in the ring with diabetes, given my complete and utter lack of self-discipline.
(Did I mention that I am also a shameless weenie?)
But I’ve noticed, pretty as you are, that you have an IRON will underneath all that prettiness, which allows nothing, not even diabetes – or work colleagues with a twisted sense of humor – to get in your way.
So, you just keep on kickin’ ass, dear princess.
It’s what you’re good at 🙂
Among other things 🙂
I feel you. Would somebody get a cure on already?