by Ed Bryant
From the Editor: On July 13, I spoke to actress, singer, and diabetes advocate Della Reese (Touched By An Angel). She only had 15 minutes, but she packed a lot in. Here's what she said:
I was diagnosed with diabetes about 3-1/2 to four years ago. I'm a type 2 diabetic. What happened was, I was on the way downstairs, in the house I was living in. I had no indications, no symptoms; It did not run in my family, so it was not hereditary. I was coming down the steps -- and I'm not given to headaches. It seemed like something hit me on the head -- so hard that I sat down on the steps.
I don't know how long I sat there -- but as quickly as it had come, it left. I got up; the car was there to take me to work; I was doing Touched by an Angel at the time. I went on to work.
I went through hair, make-up, I got dressed, I went on to the set. I was conducting a scene where Wynnona Judd was singing, and there was a choir behind her. I was standing on a box, so that the choir behind her could see me.
I was conducting, and I heard the director say "action," but I don't know what else happened in the scene, because I heard nothing else, no music, Wynnona, nothing, until he said "cut," and when he said that, I had to get down off my box, and two of the gentlemen standing there helped me off the box. About 20 feet ahead of me was a fence, and my instincts, or my intuition (put whatever name on it you want) told me I should get to that fence and hold on.
I made it to the fence, and I didn't just lay on the fence; I grabbed the fence. The director saw me, and he asked: "What's the matter with Della?"
They said: "Nothing, she's fine."
He said: "No, look at how she's holding that fence. Call the paramedics."
They did, and they took me to a doctor's office. He couldn't find out what was wrong with me, so when I left his office, I called my husband, who was in Los Angeles. I told him what had happened, and he said: "Get on the plane, right now; come home."
I did; he put me in Cedars Sinai Hospital, and they discovered type 2 diabetes was attacking my body.
The first doctor didn't catch it, didn't do a blood glucose test. Well, let's look at it. I'm the size that I am, so when they first took me in, they started looking for things that should happen to people who are my size. When all my vital signs were fine, and there was nothing else wrong with me, I am a black woman, an entertainer, so it must be drug related... That's what they were looking for; rather than trying to find out what was wrong with me, just to be candid with you.
But when I got to Cedars, and my husband was with me, they tried to find out what was wrong, and Diabetes is what they found. When they first took my blood sugar level, it was 350. If I ate a cracker, it was 500 or better. Now I took it this morning, and it was 97. That [result] is proof to me that what I have been doing is correct.
I have signed on with Glaxo Smith Kline, to be a spokesman for a product called Avandia, that I take. I took this oral diabetes medication for two years before I signed on to speak about it, so I know it works for me. I tell people: "It works for me; you find out what works for you."
What I do is, I travel, and I speak to audiences, and I talk to them not in doctorese (doctors have a language they use, that we don't understand, though they understand it perfectly when they talk to each other), and I explain it, right down front, in conversation like we're having now. I explain to them what I have done, how I have done it, and what they can do about it. I talk to them; I ask for questions, and they talk to me.
After we have this session, I do autograph signing, which gives me an opportunity to speak to each person individually.
What made the difference for me? What I had to do was change my mind. When you change your mind, you can change your life. I had to change my mind about several things. For example, I used to go to bed every night with a bowlful of butter pecan ice cream. I can't do that anymore. It's not that I'll never have another dip of ice cream, but I can't do that anymore.
My favorite sport is laying down. Not basketball or football or baseball; laying down. I had to change my mind: Laying down's all right, but sometime I'm gonna have to get up, and do what you all call exercise, get some kind of activity. Now I'm not gonna run any miles; If I gotta go miles, I need an automobile; but there are things I can do.
We have a pool. I can do the aqua-exercise. My husband has things we can do. I have a bicycle; I can ride some of that. I can get some kind of movement to help my insulin to work.
And the portions of food -- I don't have to eat straw; I just have to work on the portions of food I eat, and when I eat them. You see, I had to change my mind about a lot of things.
I do everything by the grace of God. I stand by his promises, and he has promised me that I am in charge, that I have power, dominion, and mastery over all things. So, I'm using that on diabetes.
I'm taking oral diabetes medications now, not insulin; I caught it in time. I've lived my life in front of the people; I started when I was six; now I'm 73. I'm hoping that my being a celebrity will make people say: "We've been seeing her all these years, and she's never lied to us. She's not lying to us now. Della can do it -- so we can do it, too. That's what I'm counting on."
There are 17 million people with type 2 diabetes. The horrible thing is, it's now reaching our children, because we've taught them to eat badly. You can get anything in the school cafeteria but a glass of milk. So the children are beginning to have type 2 diabetes.
My advice about diabetes? You can be stronger than it. This is not terminal cancer. You can be stronger than this; you just have to change your mind and change your life.