Our Diabetic Family

Our Diabetic Family

OUR DIABETIC FAMILY
by Eva Jo Bess

"Diabetes can run in families,"
the doctors say, and our family has had more than its share. My son Bill was
diagnosed in 1980, my son Jim in 1987, and I moved from glucose intolerance
to adult onset diabetes in the fall of 1990. This is our story.

Late in 1980, my son Bill was working at a

sheltered workshop and living in a group home in Portland, about 40 miles from our rural

home in Rainier, Oregon. Christmas was coming. Our extended family was to celebrate a

reunion in Portland for Christmas, and we picked Bill up for this party.

We were shocked when we saw him. He had lost 50

pounds. He said he was thirsty all the time, and he complained of flu-like symptoms. We

were worried.

Instead of taking him back to the group home

after the party, we decided to have him spend the weekend with us. We would have him

checked out at our doctor's office.

Tests showed his blood sugars were over 500mg/dl.

It was diabetes.

Jim went straight to the hospital, and then into

a week-long education program. He left the group home, and moved back in with us, but

there were no job prospects in our small town, and he didn't drive. So we all moved to the

city of Portland, where Bill learned to manage his diabetes and ride the buses. There he

got job training from Vocational Rehabilitation.

Meanwhile, Mom (that's me) was going to college,

studying to become a registered nurse. One day, in chemistry class, we had to carry out

urine tests. Mine had sugar in it. Diabetes again.

I controlled my diabetes with diet and exercise

for the next nine years, but in 1990, my doctor started me on an oral agent.

In 1987, shortly before Thanksgiving, I gave Jim,

my youngest son, a routine blood test. His fasting blood sugar was over 300mg/dl. Diabetes

again.

Like his brother, Jim had learning disabilities.

He was living at home, and was in a Vocational Rehabilitation program. He and his brother

eventually found work as dishwashers and bussers at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Of course

this was a challenge to them, to stay on their diets with food so plentiful, but they

managed, and did manage their own household, until their employer went out of business in

1992.

After a while, Bill found work again, as a

courtesy clerk for Safeway in Tigard, Oregon. Always friendly, caring, and cheerful, he

excelled in this job. Many of his customers remembered him from his restaurant work. The

job at Safeway expanded the circle of people who love him.

Jim returned to Vocational Rehabilitation, for

more training. In 1994, he was placed in a janitorial job with a cabinet-maker in

Hillsboro, Oregon. There he has done very well.

Since spring 1995 Bill's retinopathy has

worsened. He's had numerous laser surgeries, two cataract surgeries, and a vitrectomy on

his left eye. He's had a surgery to remove scar tissue from the retina. Like his brother,

he has neuropathy in his feet and is battling beginning nephropathy.

As Bill's eyesight is failing, his brother and

his parents assist him with filling syringes and testing blood glucose. Neither boy

drives, so parents provide transportation.

What have we learned from our struggles with

diabetes? We're all in this together. All of us are helping each other, in our continuing

battles—and all of us are living each day to the fullest.

FROM THE EDITOR: Mrs. Bess is

right—"all pull together," is the best way to deal with a condition like

diabetes. The Bess family's courage is a wonderful example to others. Note, though, that

loss of sight does not inevitably mandate sighted assistance. There are simple and

reliable talking blood glucose meters, and devices to let you accurately draw up insulin

without sight. I have sent Mrs. Bess articles describing both.