Has this thread gone off the rails?
Is that aimed at me? @phoenixbound? I apologize if I’ve caused you to think that. The guy’s TED talk is about Words—losing them and finding them and their importance in communications. I thought it apt—and fascinating…
Perhaps I have no idea anymore what “on and off the rails” means in this platform. I tend to free-associate when I read and think and write–never know where I might go…
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Judith - that was powerful testimony on the ultimate meaning of words! Thank you for making that video available here.
I don’t mind most thread migrations to adjacent ideas. This broader discussion of the weight of words is certainly germane to me.
Sixteen years ago I had a benign tumor removed from a nerve bundle in my neck. I woke up from that operation without my usual voice, something totally unexpected. The nerve bundle that was severed normally powered my right vocal chord. Now my right vocal chord lay in an open position unable to beat and vibrate against my left vocal chord to produce a normal volume speaking voice.
I was still able to speak in a loud whisper but I had to expend much more effort. Communicating with others at a loud socially gathering was very difficult. Customer service people on the phone starting referring to me as “ma’am.” I was immediately reminded that the ability to speak communication was a large part of being human and even touched on gender identity!
Luckily I found a doctor in a distant city that had pioneered a fix for people like me. None of my local doctors, even those consulted at a highly regarded major academic teaching hospital knew about this doctor. Five months after losing my voice I underwent a procedure that propped up my lazy vocal chord with a prosthesis so that my existing good vocal chord could produce an acceptable speaking volume and voice.
That brush with almost losing that easy and natural way to communicate reminded me of how important being able to speak is to humans.
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My goodness. I can barely imagine. I did have an actor friend go through difficult treatments for throat cancer, losing his voice entirely, then only able to whisper and finally coming back to his full, theater-spanning voice. Avery long haul with an emotional toll, too, I know. I’m so happy for you that you found that surgeon. Research is so important…blessings, as ever…
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That TED struck a personal note with me. I am the father of a completely nonverbal child. That’s part of the reason I look about 50 already at age 33. I have spent years wondering what’s actually going on inside his mind. I have also struggled with a lot of guilt (although I grasp that it’s not reasonable) for having been able to devote the resources necessary to manage diabetes as effectively as I do, while meanwhile having failed to allocate the resources necessary (whatever they might have been, not knowing if they do or ever will exist) to teach my own son to speak…
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Blessings Sam, on you and yours. I hope you have a solid support network; a circle of friends or colleagues that are close by. And I hope you get the hugs you deserve…They are important, too…
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Aside from the blame game issues - “lifestyle choices” implying poor judgement, describing the onset of diabetes - esp type 2 (although as a long time T1 I get the accusatory remarks) it allows people who do make healthful choices to believe they are “safe” (and better than PWD’s). But what about the fact that their family is riddled with PWD2’s? Knowing the hereditary major factor means that they can be on the lookout and catch things early. At least with rapid onset type 1 (I was 30 years old) the symptoms were obvious - I knew something was wrong. Type 2 is so sneaky, that often (from what I hear) it isn’t until symptoms of complications - like wound healing or vision problems occur that they get medical attention.
I am hoping for more coverage of November as Diabetes Month this year. For years I have written letters to the news media requesting accurate info. Mostly to no avail. In deed in Portland Oregon last year there wasn’t a single article or announcement re: diabetes. Since it is October, it is time for me to start my 2015 campaign again.
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You Go Girl! …“Type 2 is so Sneaky.” That sums it up nicely. I also use the phrase "diabolical whimsy when talking about trying to manage it after one is diagnosed!..Nice to cross paths again, Artwoman…Blessings, as ever…
That’s for sure! I got “lucky” I suppose. I was one of those who was making "healthy choices and thought I was “safe” " – but T2D was sneaking up on me… A chance staph infection got me to a doctor who decided to send me for blood tests.
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I have a life, not a lifestyle. And I’ve been living with diabetes for 49 years, not living a ‘diabetic lifestyle.’
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Perfectly said @Roger212. Thank you…Judith in Portland
Man do I hear you on that one, particularly the guilt that no amount of rational self-persuasion can fully argue away because it’s your child and you’re the Dad. Especially when it comes to these problems that occur somewhere deep in the mind, where strong distinctions between what’s physiological and genetic and what’s situational and emotional are so elusive. My daughter suffers from a condition like that, and I know from experience that whatever my forebrain tries to say about it not being my fault, there’s a deep-seated instinct that says “You are her Daddy, it’s your job to protect her from harm, it’s your job to fix what’s wrong.” That can be a crushing feeling at times, and you have to evolve ways of keeping it at bay or you can’t be a real help to them let alone yourself. But it never entirely goes away.
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Am I wrong to be annoyed that the day they decided to pick for World Diabetes Day is November 14? Because, seriously, this is the LAST thing I want to think about on my birthday. :-\
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@DrBB, you share a birthday with Dr. Frederick Banting. He was the first person to use insulin on humans. His work provided a key finding that enabled the isolation of insulin, the hormone that gave millions of us a second lease on life. Banting was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923 that recognized this important medical breakthrough. I think that’s a nice coincidence! Think of all the extra birthdays his work has given you.
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Indeed–way cooler than Prince Charles, anyway. Or Veronica Lake! Aaron Copeland OTOH is still my favorite. 
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My husband works with a guy that every time I see him, he starts a conversation about how as a Type 1 I’m blameless for my disease, but Type 2’s are to blame because of “lifestyle choices”. I call BS on guys like him every time I hear it, and I’m getting feistier about it by the moment. I’ve known lots of morbidly obese people who have no signs of diabetes, and several people who are normal weight or maybe just a little chubby who have full-blown Type 2, and some are on insulin. Maintaining a healthy weight can help some people postpone Type 2 until later, but if you’re genetically predisposed to it, you’re pretty much doomed to get it at some point. But people don’t want to accept that - it’s our finger-pointing society that wants to blame someone when something goes wrong.
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Words do matter to me but in this instance not so much. Lifestyle change is just the latest attempt to make an inconvenient truth sound even more palatable. Diabetes or no diabetes there are people that need to lose weight.
If tomorrow we find an even nicer way to say that a person needs diet and exercise it will come to be a hated term also because it will still be referring to the same thing and we will still think of our self or some else as fat.The problem is not what we call fat, excess weight or being slim challenged . The problem is the stigma of weight. If being fluffy, so to speak, was OK then these word would not hurt as they do.This is not a T2 or a T1 problem it is a society problem. When we make fat shaming go away then the words will not be offensive.
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