Yesterday, when I was checking out at the corner store I saw a magazine that read OJ Simpson only has "months to live", I was intrigued. So when I was on the way to a friends BBQ, I looked up the cause of this terrible diagnosis on my phone. To my surprise, another confusing and skewed public announcement on "Diabetes". Supposedly, now OJ only has a few months to live from "TERMINAL DIABETES"!! Being the passenger in the car of a friend that knows I am diabetic, he says, "Good thing you don't have terminal Diabetes, huh". Then he paused and stated, "What is terminal Diabetes?" I looked at him as said, "sorry buddy, but I too have terminal diabetes!" He kinda looked at me funny and probably didn't fully realize what was going on. I said, "Yeah, if I refused to take care of myself, I would die too". My friend then looked at me and says, "So, he thinks he might be able to get out of jail by not taking care of himself, but then he will die? Doesn't that seem like a lose-lose situation?"
I honestly do not know the whole story here, but I was pretty irritated by the whole newspaper post that I honestly didn't even want to read the article. When the the headlines says, "OJ Simpson has three months to live", and they blame it on "Terminal Diabetes", in my mind, he is literally committing suicide. He is in jail, with no real chance of seeing the outside world, so he has basically given up on life and is blaming "Terminal Diabetes"! What does that F*cking mean? I could just as easy refuse to take my insulin and monitor my blood sugar and commit diabetes suicide. It's a pretty scary thought to be so checked out of life and choose to die that slow death. It really is terrible that he doesn't have anything to live for, but I was so disappointed to see that the article linked diabetes as being "Terminal". There is already so much misinformation in the media about diabetes that this just adds another confusing point of view on a terrible disease. The rationale for my blog first started as a way to provide information to people with diabetes and loved ones with diabetes to help prevent serious complications from diabetes. I suffered from a scary situation on my honeymoon, which could have led to serious life threatening complications. As I become more involved in the conversation of diabetes, it is really disheartening how it is used in the media. This is a prime example. In my mind, every case of diabetes is "Terminal", it is how you respond to the adversity and take on the daily challenges to overcome the diagnosis. It really bothers me when people think they are a victim, I don't want to think of it that way in my life, be a victor and don't let it control you or your life!
4 Comments
9/24/2013 10:05:13 pm
It's so crazy how people dont think diabetes is a serious disease! It makes the rest of us look bad when we are having a bad day with our D.
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Francesca Thomas
8/10/2015 11:22:22 am
I have read that those who are imprisoned with no chance of parole, do have much higher rate of killing themselves in some way than those who may be up for parole. This is because yes they do GIVE up. They have no hope of parole so they have no reason to live. So why should they live? They are not going to be released so if they are going to die in jail, they might as well do it now rather than later. I do agree that blaming terminal diabetes is wrong. OJ is clearly giving up on life and using the EXCUSE of diabetes. That is - IF he has diabetes. If he does have diabetes, then it is most likely Type 2, not type 1. If he is going to kill himself, then he may as well just go on a hunger strike. That plus type 2 will do the job faster!!!
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