Continuing the discussion from BIG news out of Washington, D.C:
I’ve posted here before about my own experience there as a T1 but thought it might be of interest to share on its own thread. We went there about ten years ago for my brother’s wedding to a woman of the Jing Po people in a mountain village in SW China. Very traditional culture, minimal electricity, mud brick compounds, dirt floors with open-pit fires, had to walk up 3 hrs from the main road through the rice paddies to get there. Tulum, brother-in-law to-be, guide and translator, was an amazing guy, a surgeon (the only one in the region), a fact that was very fortunate for me b/c he explained that virtually no one had any kind of clue about D or T1. He said that a village woman had died of D recently (probably T2) but trying to explain about injecting, all that–forget it. And of course during a wedding they pull out all the stops, food-wise. What’s a T1 to do when handed a softball-sized ball of rice and honey by smiling, supremely hospitable people you don’t share a language with and who have no concept of D…
Why was it so unknown to them? He explained that advanced pharmaceuticals and trained medical professionals were essentially unavailable, so it was just a matter of so-and-so having a wasting sickness and dying. I know there is a big effort on to raise D awareness over there so maybe that’s changed now. And of course the life these people were leading was the farthest thing imaginable from sedentary, but talk about yer hi-carb diets. Not to mention high high HIGH capsaicin…
It was a hugely moving and wonderful experience getting to know those people and be made a part of their family. Tulum was particularly dedicated to preserving the Jing Po culture and educating his people about the ecological problems that threaten it. The choice to do a full-blown traditional wedding was itself part of that mission. I was on Lantus/Novolog MDI at the time, and ran into problems toward the end because bad weather extended our stay–I’d brought extra stuff but I was using a lot more test strips than usual and we’d left the bulk of our luggage and supplies back in the city. I was hoarding my last couple of strips by the end. MDI without test strips and far from any kind of emergency medical help–kinda scary if I’d thought about it, but I was too enthralled by the whole experience. Had one nasty low hit me out of the blue during the dancing the night of the wedding, but fortunately there were rice-honey softballs ready to hand. I actually shot a lot of video, including some footage of the dancing, which I’ll post here. The bit at the end looking down on the compound was shot from the sleeping area where I was recovering from my low.
