Wednesday, July 13

The Story of my Little Sister

230. Clearly a strong indicator of Diabetes. Strangely, I was really calm inside. I wasn't scared. I wasn't upset. I was numb. Really nonchalant about the whole thing. In fact, I kept making myself laugh, as I am prone to do, by telling myself in a thick southern accent in my head 'Well hun, looks like you got yourself the Shuga' Die-bee-tees' (Trust me, it's funnier if you could hear me saying it!) And I think this is why I was so calm about it: August 10, 1999 my little sister Courtney died suddenly from Long QT Syndrome. She was only 24 years old. A week later me and my other little sister Kindel, who also happened to be Courtney's identical twin, had heart surgery to implant ICD's. (ICD's are a combination pacemaker and defibrallator).
If you have a moment or want more info on Long QT Syndrome and the annual benefit my family holds in Courtney's memory, check out our website:
www.courtneyscrusade.com
(There are lots of links to good information and pictures of me and my family and of past benefits! A good site for a good cause!)
So after being through all of that TRAUMA and DRAMA, most things in life tend not to scare me too bad. Most things. I did worry about telling my mother. The thought of her losing another daughter is sickening. What it would do to her. But she really surprised me. She was very upbeat and glad that I had finally gone to the doctor and as I told her the news of my diagnosis, she said, quite matter of factly, 'Well, if you have to have a disease, Diabetes is the one to have!' 'What??' 'Well, it's so treatable and managable.' The woman had a point. So ever since I got diagnosed I like to tell myself that Diabetes is treatable and managable. And for some reason, that makes me feel better.

3 comments:

Shannon said...

Hi,
You're another diabetes blogger I found through Kerri's blog.

I'm a mom whose son has diabetes.

My husband came home from work saying that someone asked how Brendon was doing with his "sugar diabetes". I was laughing.

I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. I'm checking out the site right now.

Your mom is right in that diabetes is so manageable. Keep blogging, keep educating yourself AND MOST IMPORTANTLY keep up with your endo visits every few months to keep track of your A1C's.

I'll be checking in often.

Nicole said...

I read up on Long QT Syndrome after I found your blog.

I read a few months ago about a researcher who had cured diabetes in lab rats through an easy method, not involving stem cells. I can't remember her name and when I search for information on it using google, too many sites come up for me to search all of them.

It was encouraging, yet also depressing. I remember that she couldn't get significant funding from any one because it didn't follow the most popular theories about curing it, namely stem cells.

Anyway, it seemed like she was at a major university like Harvard or some other Ivy League place like that.

Keep writing. I'll keep looking for that woman.

Nicole said...

I worked hard, forced myself to remember more of that article, did a search and found a lead.

This isn't the article I read originally, but it discusses the doctor and Lee Iaccoca who is funding this woman's research. I don't know much about diabetes or diabetes research, but this article is interesting and I wanted you to have it. You can judge for yourself.

http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read,1025,3010.html