{"id":22621,"date":"2026-03-11T13:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/the-courage-to-speak-out\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:14:37","slug":"the-courage-to-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/coping-with-illness\/the-courage-to-speak-out\/","title":{"rendered":"The Courage to Speak Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a PWD\u2013a person with diabetes. Please note that the word person <\/em>comes first. Dealing with being a PWD hasn\u2019t always been easy for me. And I know I\u2019m not alone. That\u2019s why I\u2019m doing all I can these days to dispel myths and misconceptions about diabetes. That\u2019s why I\u2019m telling my story here.<\/p>\n

My parents had six children and three of us had Type 1 diabetes. So did my dad. I was diagnosed in 1977 on\u2013of all days\u2013Halloween. My parents had brought me to the hospital because I\u2019d been losing weight and incredibly thirsty for weeks.<\/p>\n

Instead of being a normal eight-year-old out trick-or-treating, I spent the evening receiving an insulin IV drip from a nurse dressed up as a clown.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know for sure that I even have diabetes,\u201d I challenged her. I mean, she was dressed like a clown! \u201cJust let me go trick-or-treating and I promise I\u2019ll come back tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, honey, you do have diabetes,\u201d she said, \u201cand you\u2019ll be taking shots for the rest of your life.\u201d Right then, I knew two things for sure. This was the worst Halloween ever. And I hated clowns.<\/p>\n

I put on a happy face for my parents even as I saw the sadness in their eyes. But alone at night in my hospital bed, I thought of giving up my beloved Reese\u2019s Peanut Butter Cups and felt the tears slide down my cheeks.<\/p>\n

Soon I was back home and bringing needles to the dinner table so I could inject myself with insulin. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. Basically, my immune system attacked my pancreas so that it was no longer able to produce the hormone insulin.<\/p>\n

Type 1\u2019s like me had no choice but to inject themselves with insulin to stay alive.<\/p>\n

At school, I became the class cutup. I was not <\/em>going to be known as the Girl With Diabetes. I\u2019d sneak a Reese\u2019s Peanut Butter Cup, then ride my bike to the other side of Margate, our Jersey shore town, to bring my blood sugar down.<\/p>\n

These little escapes didn\u2019t change the truth. I never got a day off from diabetes. Every day was full of challenges, and too many times I felt like I was failing. I had a lot of diabetes guilt.<\/p>\n

My sister Debbie understood. She was older than me by 14 years, but we\u2019d both been diagnosed as kids. She\u2019d battled more than diabetes; she was also a recovering alcoholic. Alcoholism and diabetes are a deadly combination. Her health had forced her to stop working and move back home.<\/p>\n

Debbie was a beach girl, through and through. We\u2019d swim and bodysurf, letting the powerful waves carry us away\u2013if only for a while\u2013 from the cares of life. We\u2019d walk the beach, Debbie picking up shells. \u201cLook how God has made each one unique, so beautiful in its own way,\u201d she\u2019d say. \u201cIsn\u2019t it amazing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, we\u2019d see a rainbow arching across the sky. In those peaceful moments my heart overflowed with love for her. Debbie kept getting sicker. With the rest of my siblings out of the house, I helped my parents take care of her. Debbie suffered from brittle bones, heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like to use the word hate, <\/em>but I hated diabetes for what it was doing to my sister. Scared and angry, Debbie lashed out and I fought right back. I was angry too, angry at how diabetes was affecting my family, angry at what it might do to me.<\/p>\n

Sometimes in fits of anger, Debbie put into words my deepest fear: \u201cYou\u2019re going to end up just like me, Kelly, if you don\u2019t watch out. You\u2019ll be dead before you\u2019re forty.\u201d<\/p>\n

I went to a local college, eager to be anything other than the Girl With Diabetes. I just wanted to be normal! So I\u2019d binge on pizza with my friends or eat cookies while studying. I\u2019d do the bare minimum to keep my diabetes from getting totally out of hand.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Debbie\u2019s condition deteriorated my sophomore year. During my winter break, she was admitted to the hospital. I visited her before a risky procedure to drain fluid from her lungs. She looked so tired.<\/em><\/p>\n

I sat beside her and squeezed her hand. She asked me to sing \u201cOver the Rainbow\u201d with her. Her voice was barely a whisper.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to take care of yourself, Kelly,\u201d she said, hugging me weakly. I clung to her. If only I could take her away from all this like the waves that used to carry us away toward that distant horizon, that rainbow. A few days later, my sister was gone, dead at 34.<\/p>\n

Even though she\u2019d been so sick for so long, it was hard to accept she\u2019d actually died of diabetes. I didn\u2019t know how to cope with her death, and I was suffering from a serious case of diabetes burnout.<\/p>\n

I found myself not checking my blood sugar as often as I should have, which only made me feel more guilty. Deep down, I was terrified my sister\u2019s warning might come true.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I made an appointment with a new endocrinologist, a doctor who specialized in diseases affecting glands, hormones and the endocrine system, including diabetes. Has the damage already been done? <\/em>I wondered as I waited in the exam room.<\/p>\n

I found myself praying it wasn\u2019t too late. I didn\u2019t want to die like Debbie.<\/p>\n

There was a knock and a tall man with a kind face strode in. \u201cI\u2019ve looked at your labs, Kelly, and you have some work to do, but I\u2019m going to help you get things under control. We still can\u2019t cure Type 1 diabetes, but we\u2019ve found better strategies for managing it.\u201d He told me about new ways to figure out how much insulin I needed.<\/p>\n

I followed his advice. I checked my blood sugar regularly and learned how to count carbs and cover my meals with the correct amount of insulin. I started looking at my blood-sugar numbers not in terms of success or failure but as tools to get me where I needed to be.<\/p>\n

Suddenly I was the Model Patient. Still, for years I resisted getting an insulin pump\u2013a small pager-like device that mimics your own pancreas by continually delivering insulin through an infusion site\u2013even though my doctor insisted it was a total game-changer.<\/p>\n

I was in great shape and loved wearing tailored clothes. And bathing suits at the beach. I figured the pump would cramp my style.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust try it for a year, Kelly,\u201d my doctor implored.<\/p>\n

All right. I\u2019d give it a year.<\/p>\n

All it took was a week. The pump used short-acting insulin, so I could eat when I wanted instead of at set times each day. I programmed it with my blood-sugar number and carb count and it delivered the amount of insulin I needed. A bit more work, yes, but it gave me a freedom I\u2019d never known.<\/p>\n

Finally, I could reach what I called blood-sugar nirvana\u2013the ability to take the right insulin dose to cover a special treat like a cupcake. Even the occasional Reese\u2019s.<\/p>\n

I wanted every person living with diabetes to discover the freedom I had. I wanted to evangelize for the pump! I got involved with organizations serving the diabetes community. I became proud of owning my diabetes\u2013instead of feeling it was owning me.<\/p>\n

One night I saw a famous actress on TV talking about diabetes. She claimed that through lifestyle changes, she\u2019d changed from having Type 1 diabetes to having Type 2 diabetes and didn\u2019t have to take insulin anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s ridiculous, she was misdiagnosed in the first place!\u201d I yelled at the screen. What she was saying didn\u2019t make sense medically and was totally dangerous.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There was so much misinformation out there! The kind that made people ask me things like whether I got Type 1 diabetes because my parents gave me too much sugar as a kid. (The answer, in case you were wondering, is no.<\/em>) Enough was enough.<\/p>\n

On an impulse, I started a blog called Diabetesaliciousness <\/em>on what living with diabetes is really all about. I talked about Debbie, which was liberating. People slowly began to comment on my posts and I drew a following. Blogging changed my life as much as the insulin pump did\u2013which is saying something.<\/p>\n

By reading other people\u2019s blogs, I discovered the diabetes online community, an amazing group of friends I could learn from and joke with about stuff like getting my insulin pump tubing caught on a doorknob (yes, that happens).<\/p>\n

People who \u201cgot it\u201d\u2013the guilt, the frustration, the anger. But also the joy and excitement of living really great lives with diabetes. Yes, I\u2019m a PWD. I also happen to be a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend, an advocate and a lover of cupcakes.<\/p>\n

On my fortieth birthday, I imagined Debbie smiling down on me as I blew out the candles. I imagined the pounding surf, a rainbow on the horizon. I imagined my big sister, proud of me.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Download your FREE ebook, Rediscover the Power of Positive Thinking, with Norman Vincent Peale<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a PWD\u2013a person with diabetes. Please note that the word person comes first. Dealing with being a PWD hasn\u2019t always been easy for me. And I know I\u2019m not alone. That\u2019s why I\u2019m doing all I can these days to dispel myths and misconceptions about diabetes. That\u2019s why I\u2019m telling my story here. 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