Mac Back (From The Road)

“It’s A Death Sentence!!”

Well, despite being an active participant, and presenting on behalf of two group topics at the recent “Easing The Burden Of Diabetes” conference in Toronto, I will likely be remembered best as the frazzled individual that blurted out “It’s A Death Sentence!!”, in response to a persistent participant. Wattaya gonna do??

It was in reaction to continued discussions regarding elevating the status of the disease, as it is a chronic, progressive disease that shortens your life, along with potentially devastating health consequences along that path. Often linked to heart disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol, it is without question a serious disease.

I think the participant was disagreeing with our group from a treatment/care level. Which I can respect, even though I do tend to feel that ignoring the severity of the complications without proper treatment is building the affected person up to fail, I think the group was pretty much unanimous in agreeing that we need to elevate the status of diabetes, to a place at the table with the other serious diseases. And make no mistake, it is a disease, doctors don’t diagnose and prescribe lifelong treatment for “may be bad”...

So, clearly I overreacted. My bad. But we did succeed in fleshing out a comprehensive set of topics for The Canadian Diabetes Association to consider, moving forward.

Chow for now!