Hope

The night of Corey's diagnosis the admitting doctor tried to console me by saying that diabetes research was at a very exciting point and that within another five years there would be a cure. I took his words to heart and refused to believe that this disease would be something that my child would have to live with for the rest of his life.

The following day I met a mother on the ward who had a son that had been diagnosed when he was barely two and now at thirteen was dealing with the effects of becoming an adolescent with juvenile diabetes. "Don't believe that five years garbage that they promise, they've been saying that since my son was diagnosed and it hasn't happened yet," she told me as she doused my precious flame of hope.

Learning the basics of diabetes in order to keep my son healthy was my main focus for the first months after the diagnosis but there were many times when I would remember that mother's words and have to choke back the tears of envisioning the following years without a glimmer of hope of a cure.

To my dismay I found that even health professionals that worked in the diabetes field held this same negative view as well. "I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you," one Endocrinologist told me, "I know there's research being done, but I don't see a real cure being on the horizon for many years." Later I came to understand that many people felt it safer to hold this cautious viewpoint rather than raise any possible false hopes in the families that are desperately waiting for the day of a cure.

I also came to understand that even those that work in the field of Endocrinology aren't always aware of all the research that is actually being done. I began to use the Internet to find out about any information that I could find about current research being done. There are plenty of scams and failed research attempts out there, that's to be sure, but once you begin to educate yourself in order to dig and sift through the garbage, you will find that there is definitely a precious commodity to be found. A commodity that is more precious than gold. Hope.

There are links on the welcome page that will take you to sites that share current diabetes research. Please take the time to go visit these sites and drink in the real hope that is out there.

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic