Jed Block, writer

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A diabetes speech

Editor's note: I do speeches. This is one I wrote for myself
to give at the Corporate Recruitment Breakfast
for the 2001 Promise to Remember Me Dream Gala, sponsored by the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Fox Valley Chapter.

Four years and eight months ago, our family was blindsided by the diagnosis of Juvenile Diabetes. It struck our youngest daughter, Caitlin, who was seven years old and in second grade at the time.

We were stunned. No one in our immediate families -- including our other two daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, or grandparents -- had diabetes. It never crossed our minds that one of our children would come down with it. But, suddenly, diabetes had taken over our innocent, otherwise-healthy little girl.

It was devastating. I can still feel the kick in the stomach, the gloom, and the blur that followed. For the first time in many years, I wept.

Bringing Caitlin home from the hospital with diabetes, my wife Mary and I felt as insecure and frightened as we had when we brought our firstborn home after childbirth. Only with diabetes, the joy that comes with starting a family was absent. We didn’t have nine months to prepare, and we were bringing home a child with a disease that can kill. Suddenly, we felt as if we were again responsible for a helpless infant who required constant care, changing, and feeding every three hours. This time, however, we were much more afraid for her and fearful of the life-threatening mistakes we could make.

It gave us an immediate cause to support: Finding a cure for diabetes.

Five thousand eight hundred and twenty-four shots later, we’re still hoping for a cure. Until it comes, children like Caitlin must give themselves an average of four insulin shots a day. She also must prick her fingers at least five times daily to check her sugar levels. Caitlin is now a pretty healthy, pretty normal, 12-year-old seventh grader, thanks to a rather strict diet, exercise and insulin regimen. But can you imagine sticking your fingers with a lancet, deep enough to draw blood, 8,000 times in less than five years or giving yourself 6,000 shots by the time you’re 12? That’s a lot of responsibility, stress and pain to heap on anyone. In all of my 48 years, I’ve had a total of maybe 30 shots, and that includes the Navy and the dentist.

My point is, for the most part, we take for granted the 16 million people in the United States with diabetes and what they have to go through. It’s an easy thing to overlook because many people with diabetes seem to be doing “okay.” But these people are not cured. Each day without a cure is taking a toll on their bodies and minds, and the vast majority of them are imperceptibly developing health complications that most people don’t have to worry about.

Insulin is not a cure. I can’t stress that enough. Insulin is a form of life support -- like plasma is to someone with hemophilia or dialysis is to a person with kidney failure.

If you think insulin is a cure, ask people with diabetes who are going blind, had toes, feet or parts of their legs amputated, or those whose kidneys no longer work. Ask families who have had loved ones die from diabetes or its complications, like heart attacks and strokes. Diabetes is a growing epidemic. One in 20 people worldwide, 151 million, suffer from diabetes. That number is expected to double in the next 25 years. According to the Center for Disease Control, the incidence of diabetes increased 33% between 1990 and 1999. And did you realize that last year, diabetes caused more deaths than AIDS and breast cancer combined?

If you don’t believe diabetes is fatal, I wish you could have listened in on a phone call I had with another father from the Fox Valley last winter. He called about two books that Caitlin and I have written because he thought they might help family members deal with the loss of his 17-year-old son, who had died from diabetes complications on New Year’s Day.

His son wasn’t sickly. He was a handsome kid, a wrestler and body builder who was very much into taking care of himself. He just happened to have diabetes. On January 1, he wasn’t feeling quite right. His blood sugars were high, just like the highs that Caitlin and about million other kids in this country experience occasionally from diabetes. He made some adjustments to lower his blood sugar levels and said he was going up to his room to rest. He asked his mom to wake him up at 4:00 if he fell asleep. But when that time came, she couldn’t rouse him. She found her son dead.

Stuff like that happens. It happens to kids around here and parents we know. But it wouldn’t have to happen if there was a cure. I can’t tell you how badly I feel for this young man, his parents and their family. Yeah, all of us who take care of children with diabetes are warned and aware of the remote chances that our kids could suddenly or inexplicably die. But none of us really thinks it’s going to happen.

I also can’t tell you how scared this phone call made me feel. Since then, when Caitlin is gone or asleep, the conversation with the other father often comes back. I check on my daughter or remind myself that I must let go and allow her to live her own life. But the letting go is the hardest part.

When Caitlin leaves the nest or graduates from college, and she no longer qualifies for our family health insurance, where is the essential coverage for her expensive treatment going to come from? Will she be able to get a job with good insurance, considering the health and economic liabilities she would bring to an employer? Will she be discriminated against, officially or unofficially, due to this condition that was dealt to her?

These aren’t far-fetched questions. Try purchasing life insurance if you list diabetes as a medical condition. And, like other families, we’ve experienced a number of minor instances of tactlessness, insensitivity or discrimination (however you want to categorize them). In addition, our own branches of the military even reject people with diabetes.

What will happen when it comes time for Caitlin to have a baby? Will she have been able to avoid complications that would prevent her from being a mother? Will she have the resources to cover a high-risk pregnancy that could easily cost $125,000 today? It’s not difficult to understand why so many people with diabetes have been forced into medical bankruptcy. And a number of studies show that it would be much, much less expensive and much, much more efficient to find the cure once and for all, rather than to continue putting band aids over the symptoms.

Please bear with me while I share four alarming statistics with you:
• Diabetes accounts for $105 billion in annual U.S. health-care costs.
• One of every four Medicare dollars pays for care of people with diabetes.
• The average lifetime cost of diabetes care for a person diagnosed at age three is $600,000.
• Annual health costs amount to $9,600 for the typical person with diabetes, compared to $3,600 for someone without the disease.

Thanks to organizations like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, treatment for diabetes has advanced incredibly and, hopefully, a cure is not far away. But one of the most important elements for final success is adequate financial support which, of course, is the purpose of the Promise to Remember Me Dream Gala on September 21.

After Caitlin was diagnosed, one way our family tried to cope with the situation was focusing much of our energy on helping to find a cure for diabetes. Besides trying to heal Caitlin, working for a cure was a way to convey hope and responsibility. We told her: “The more money we raise for Juvenile Diabetes research, the sooner it’s likely that you won’t have to give yourself shots anymore,” or “If you take real good care of yourself, you may prevent permanent damage and be as good as new when a cure is discovered.

”I’m a volunteer, and our family also is very proud to be part of JDRF’s efficient, honest fundraising efforts and wonderful achievements. JDRF is one of the most effective and trustworthy charitable organizations in the world, with more than 80 cents of every dollar raised going directly to research and education. Since being founded in 1970 by parents of children with diabetes, JDRF has donated more than $420 million to research. During the past fiscal year alone, it raised $145 million.

If you would, please indulge me one more minute to return to Caitlin’s future to give what I think is perhaps the most important reason for us to join together to find a cure. When I said I want her to be able to grow up and have children, it’s not just that I want her to experience the joy of being a parent and having a family, like I have. I want Caitlin to live and be healthy enough to be a mother because even though she’s only 12 years old, she is one of the most caring, loving, sensitive people I know. It probably has to do with the adversity, responsibility, and hard lessons that all children with chronic diseases must face. Caitlin and other kids like her who themselves will be working at the gala to help find a cure possess a resilience, strength, courage and character that I’ve yet to acquire. With their capacity to love, feel, care and be sensitive, we need to cure them to be parents, role models and leaders in our world tomorrow.

Please...help us cure them by supporting the gala in whatever way you can. And, finally, I extend my heartfelt, personal thanks to each and every one of you for being here today. Thank you.

Return to Archives

© 2000 by Jed Block

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Copyright © 2000 by Jed Block. All Rights Reserved.
4300 Knollwood Lane • Appleton, WI 54913-6307
Voice 920-735-6061 • Fax 920-735-6067 • jed@jedblock.com



	ARCHIVES
	A diabetes speech Editor's note: I do speeches. This is one I wrote for myself to give at the Corporate Recruitment Breakfast for the 2001 Promise to Remember Me Dream Gala, sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Fox Valley Chapter.
	Four years and eight months ago, our family was blindsided by the diagnosis of Juvenile Diabetes. It struck our youngest daughter, Caitlin, who was seven years old and in second grade at the time. We were stunned. No one in our immediate families -- including our other two daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, or grandparents -- had diabetes. It never crossed our minds that one of our children would come down with it. But, suddenly, diabetes had taken over our innocent, otherwise-healthy little girl. It was devastating. I can still feel the kick in the stomach, the gloom, and the blur that followed. For the first time in many years, I wept. Bringing Caitlin home from the hospital with diabetes, my wife Mary and I felt as insecure and frightened as we had when we brought our firstborn home after childbirth. Only with diabetes, the joy that comes with starting a family was absent. We didn’t have nine months to prepare, and we were bringing home a child with a disease that can kill. Suddenly, we felt as if we were again responsible for a helpless infant who required constant care, changing, and feeding every three hours. This time, however, we were much more afraid for her and fearful of the life-threatening mistakes we could make. It gave us an immediate cause to support: Finding a cure for diabetes. Five thousand eight hundred and twenty-four shots later, we’re still hoping for a cure. Until it comes, children like Caitlin must give themselves an average of four insulin shots a day. She also must prick her fingers at least five times daily to check her sugar levels. Caitlin is now a pretty healthy, pretty normal, 12-year-old seventh grader, thanks to a rather strict diet, exercise and insulin regimen. But can you imagine sticking your fingers with a lancet, deep enough to draw blood, 8,000 times in less than five years or giving yourself 6,000 shots by the time you’re 12? That’s a lot of responsibility, stress and pain to heap on anyone. In all of my 48 years, I’ve had a total of maybe 30 shots, and that includes the Navy and the dentist. My point is, for the most part, we take for granted the 16 million people in the United States with diabetes and what they have to go through. It’s an easy thing to overlook because many people with diabetes seem to be doing “okay.” But these people are not cured. Each day without a cure is taking a toll on their bodies and minds, and the vast majority of them are imperceptibly developing health complications that most people don’t have to worry about. Insulin is not a cure. I can’t stress that enough. Insulin is a form of life support -- like plasma is to someone with hemophilia or dialysis is to a person with kidney failure. If you think insulin is a cure, ask people with diabetes who are going blind, had toes, feet or parts of their legs amputated, or those whose kidneys no longer work. Ask families who have had loved ones die from diabetes or its complications, like heart attacks and strokes. Diabetes is a growing epidemic. One in 20 people worldwide, 151 million, suffer from diabetes. That number is expected to double in the next 25 years. According to the Center for Disease Control, the incidence of diabetes increased 33% between 1990 and 1999. And did you realize that last year, diabetes caused more deaths than AIDS and breast cancer combined? If you don’t believe diabetes is fatal, I wish you could have listened in on a phone call I had with another father from the Fox Valley last winter. He called about two books that Caitlin and I have written because he thought they might help family members deal with the loss of his 17-year-old son, who had died from diabetes complications on New Year’s Day. His son wasn’t sickly. He was a handsome kid, a wrestler and body builder who was very much into taking care of himself. He just happened to have diabetes. On January 1, he wasn’t feeling quite right. His blood sugars were high, just like the highs that Caitlin and about million other kids in this country experience occasionally from diabetes. He made some adjustments to lower his blood sugar levels and said he was going up to his room to rest. He asked his mom to wake him up at 4:00 if he fell asleep. But when that time came, she couldn’t rouse him. She found her son dead. Stuff like that happens. It happens to kids around here and parents we know. But it wouldn’t have to happen if there was a cure. I can’t tell you how badly I feel for this young man, his parents and their family. Yeah, all of us who take care of children with diabetes are warned and aware of the remote chances that our kids could suddenly or inexplicably die. But none of us really thinks it’s going to happen. I also can’t tell you how scared this phone call made me feel. Since then, when Caitlin is gone or asleep, the conversation with the other father often comes back. I check on my daughter or remind myself that I must let go and allow her to live her own life. But the letting go is the hardest part. When Caitlin leaves the nest or graduates from college, and she no longer qualifies for our family health insurance, where is the essential coverage for her expensive treatment going to come from? Will she be able to get a job with good insurance, considering the health and economic liabilities she would bring to an employer? Will she be discriminated against, officially or unofficially, due to this condition that was dealt to her? These aren’t far-fetched questions. Try purchasing life insurance if you list diabetes as a medical condition. And, like other families, we’ve experienced a number of minor instances of tactlessness, insensitivity or discrimination (however you want to categorize them). In addition, our own branches of the military even reject people with diabetes. What will happen when it comes time for Caitlin to have a baby? Will she have been able to avoid complications that would prevent her from being a mother? Will she have the resources to cover a high-risk pregnancy that could easily cost $125,000 today? It’s not difficult to understand why so many people with diabetes have been forced into medical bankruptcy. And a number of studies show that it would be much, much less expensive and much, much more efficient to find the cure once and for all, rather than to continue putting band aids over the symptoms. Please bear with me while I share four alarming statistics with you: • Diabetes accounts for $105 billion in annual U.S. health-care costs. • One of every four Medicare dollars pays for care of people with diabetes. • The average lifetime cost of diabetes care for a person diagnosed at age three is $600,000. • Annual health costs amount to $9,600 for the typical person with diabetes, compared to $3,600 for someone without the disease. Thanks to organizations like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, treatment for diabetes has advanced incredibly and, hopefully, a cure is not far away. But one of the most important elements for final success is adequate financial support which, of course, is the purpose of the Promise to Remember Me Dream Gala on September 21. After Caitlin was diagnosed, one way our family tried to cope with the situation was focusing much of our energy on helping to find a cure for diabetes. Besides trying to heal Caitlin, working for a cure was a way to convey hope and responsibility. We told her: “The more money we raise for Juvenile Diabetes research, the sooner it’s likely that you won’t have to give yourself shots anymore,” or “If you take real good care of yourself, you may prevent permanent damage and be as good as new when a cure is discovered. ”I’m a volunteer, and our family also is very proud to be part of JDRF’s efficient, honest fundraising efforts and wonderful achievements. JDRF is one of the most effective and trustworthy charitable organizations in the world, with more than 80 cents of every dollar raised going directly to research and education. Since being founded in 1970 by parents of children with diabetes, JDRF has donated more than $420 million to research. During the past fiscal year alone, it raised $145 million. If you would, please indulge me one more minute to return to Caitlin’s future to give what I think is perhaps the most important reason for us to join together to find a cure. When I said I want her to be able to grow up and have children, it’s not just that I want her to experience the joy of being a parent and having a family, like I have. I want Caitlin to live and be healthy enough to be a mother because even though she’s only 12 years old, she is one of the most caring, loving, sensitive people I know. It probably has to do with the adversity, responsibility, and hard lessons that all children with chronic diseases must face. Caitlin and other kids like her who themselves will be working at the gala to help find a cure possess a resilience, strength, courage and character that I’ve yet to acquire. With their capacity to love, feel, care and be sensitive, we need to cure them to be parents, role models and leaders in our world tomorrow. Please...help us cure them by supporting the gala in whatever way you can. And, finally, I extend my heartfelt, personal thanks to each and every one of you for being here today. Thank you. Return to Archives
		© 2000 by Jed Block

\| Home \| Current Piece of Work \| Resume \| Business Samples \| Test \| \| Diabetes Book 1 \| Diabetes Book 2 \| Clear Window \| Mr. Big Shot \| Can't Say It Better \| \| It's My Job \| Poems \| Feedback \| Archives \|

Copyright © 2000 by Jed Block. All Rights Reserved. 4300 Knollwood Lane • Appleton, WI 54913-6307 Voice 920-735-6061 • Fax 920-735-6067 • jed@jedblock.com