I've never had cancer but after witnessing people close to me go through it, I have to admit having the same thoughts. They are given medicine and they wait, hopefully advocating and getting support along the way, but it's definitely a different animal than diabetes. I try to avoid the thoughts that take me down this road. I did give some of my facebook friends a tongue-lashing about the DIABEETUS jokes though. "Hey, why not LOL CANCERZ or MULTIPLE SCLIZZEROSIS? Because those things aren't funny? This disease is making life difficult for your friend cat and really isn't funny either".
Tangential, but on my mind :)
Actually the original quotation is, "there are no atheists in foxholes." It goes back to WWII (probably Bataan but no one knows for certain). It is attributed to various people but most often to war correspondent Ernie Pyle.
Both are very bad diseases yes. But Iāve had diabetes since I was 3, and Iāve never really known what it was like to be ānormalā. Cancer is also very bad but type 1 is like a false hope. You can live a long life yes but having to check your blood every time you eat or if you play a sport and have to worry about going low and feel like your life is just awful. With cancer your odds arenāt very good of surviving if not caught early and it can come back but just the hope that you can eventually have a normal life without all the extra stuff you have to do is like a dream come true. It seems like with cancer you either die or have a normal life. I wish that was an option with type 1. You wouldnāt have to deal with bad sites or ketones or bed wetting, or fainting because your bloodsugar is too low.(the list goes on). When people say you can live a long life with diabetes, I think is it actually living? But who knows Iāve never had cancer but with my luck I probably will.
Is this a serious topic? One is quite often fatal and you have no control over the outcome whatsoever, the treatment can make you deathly ill and still not even workā¦ The other is literally completely manageable (albeit a huge pain in the ass) and the treatment involves eating healthy and avoiding cakeā¦ I donāt even know what else to say. Iāll take diabetes any day.
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I have been type one since 1971 and was diagnosed with stage 4 base of tongue cancer in 2012.
I was very upset obviously and felt like lightning had indeed struck me twice.
I learned through Dr. Google that diabetics face twice the chance of most types of cancerā¦ and we get diagnosed at a later stage because often we be
I eve our symptoms (weight loss, tiredness, etc.) are diabetes related.
Treatment for cancer while diabetic is a real nightmare because many of the tests and procedures have no specific diabetic protocol.
I have a Facebook page, Diabetics with Cancer, and plan to write a how to book for those of us who are ādouble winnersā in this.
If someone mentions cancer is worse than diabetes, do me a favorā¦
Educate yourself and answer, well, yes both diseases are awful and diabetics are twice as likely to get cancer as non diabetics, so we do have to be vigilant about testing and symptoms.
That ought to stop their rude and ill informed questioningā¦ and then you have educated one more person about this.
I am in remission for over 5 years and thus am ācuredā but I do suffer lingering weakness.
But hey compared with being dead I think I am in excellent spirits!
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You guys rock
Iāve had two different types of cancer, one of them with less than a 20% survival rate which meant surgery and then very strong chemo and radiation. I also have fibromyalgia, which is a constant and as of yet has no cure either.
Now, granted, Iām a T2 and despite being insulin-dependent for 33 years and on a pump for the last 16 years, I may have it easier than T1ās, especially as I donāt seem to produce ketones no matter how high my bg goes (over 1,000 prior to chemo days and no ketones), but for me, diabetes is quite manageable. Yes, it requires constant attention, carb-counting, testing, etc., but if I manage it well, I can feel pretty good.
The aftermath of chemo was two years of needing a cane because one of the chemoās did so much damage to my nerves that it took that long to recover (interestingly, I have absolutely NO neuropathy from D), and fibromyalgia and previous health conditions caused me to have to go on disability. If all I had ever had was D, my life would have been a whole lot easier and more productive.
I guess itās all in the perspective one brings to anything. And the term YMMV applies to ALL of life, not just D.
Ruth
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