Klarinet Archive - Posting 000100.txt from 2005/06

From: "Andy Jablonski" <ajablons@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Brittle Diabetes (was Clarinet Concerto progress)
Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 02:49:02 -0400

Sir, I just recently witnessed my Grandmother die of diabetic
complications, and I wish you the absolute best, and I will pray for
you. If you ever have a recording of your wonderful compositions I'd
love to hear it.

Mind over matter, always remember.

-andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Bear Woodson [mailto:bearwoodson@-----.net]=20
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 11:38 PM
To: Klarinet List
Subject: [kl] Re: Brittle Diabetes (was Clarinet Concerto progress)=20

> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 19:17:13 -0400
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Curtis Bennett <curtis.bennett@-----.com>
> Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinet Concerto progress
> Message-ID: <17319630506021617294df46a@-----.com>
>=20
> At the risk of going off-topic, maybe you should
> stop composing and check your blood sugars
> periodically? My wife has diabetes (type I) and
> has since she was 6, and she never has this
> problem. It's totally managable.

No it isn't, but then you don't have all the facts.
I don't have "Type I Diabetes", (which is also called
"Juvenile Diabetes" or "Totally Insulin Dependent
Diabetes").=20

(By the way, there was a time when they'd say,
"Diagnosis Age plus 10 years equals Life Expectancy
for kids with Juvenile Diabetes!" As the years have
gone on, and as medical progress has developed, that
saying has now extended to 15, 20, 40 and even more
years. Brava, and may God continue to bless your
wife with many more years of life! I'm sorry that she
should have to suffer such a terrible disease!)

I have "Type II Diabetes" (which is also called
"Adult Onset Diabetes" and may, or may not, require
the use of Insulin Injections). But my "Type II
Diabetes" had a deadly twist: I was also born with a
rare genetic trait for a Bad Liver. Having a bad
secondary gland with Type II Diabetes can cause
the extremely rare, painful, incurable, "End Stage"
and "Terminal" Condition which I have, which is
known officially as "Brittle Diabetes".

The Liver does thousands of chemical changes
for the body, including to: 1) send hormones to the
Pancreas, telling it to make Insulin, when you are
eating, and 2) to create and send out a little bit of its
own Insulin, as a back-up system to the Pancreas.

Type II Diabetics get "sudden, unpreventable,
random, bursts of Insulin (from either the Pancreas
and/or Liver) which cause "Diabetic Crashes" which
are "sudden drops to Dangerously Low Blood Sugar
Levels". Getting "Diabetic Crashes" is bad enough
of an ordeal for Type II, and even some Type I,
Diabetics, but "Brittle Diabetics" are defined as
getting "crashes" SO often and SO severely, that
they "have Frequent Periods of being Unconscious",
or rather what we call "Diabetic Black-Outs".

Each "Diabetic Black-Out" has me "completely,
unresponsively Unconscious" for one to eight hours,
after which I revert to Normal Sleep, which can last
for mere minutes or hours, (depending on if I had
had no sleep, or a lot of sleep, before the unconscious
episode). They cause me extreme body aches, blinding
headaches, weakness, blurred vision, and dizziness,
which for me usually last for 2 or 3 days. By then it's
time for my next Black-Out. (I routinely go for weeks,
waiting to feel well enough to go to the store to get
groceries.) I get Diabetic Black-Outs at a rate of one,
to three times each week, for the last few years! I've
had well over 200 Diabetic Black-Outs in the last
few years!=20

Also in Medicine, "passing-out" specifies "only
losing a few minutes of memory, from just before
and after an unconscious event", while a "black-out"
specifies "losing hours, days or weeks of memory,
from before and after the unconscious episode". I
get True "Black-Outs", which is very disruptive to
the memory, when writing long works of music that
take months to complete!

My liver disease is genetic. Other relatives have
died from extreme liver vulnerability. Science has
no cure for ANY genetic disease. The random
spurts of Insulin from my Liver are more erratic
than from people who only have Type II Diabetes.

I have "Brittle Diabetes" which means "Type II
Diabetes" plus the "Genetically Erratic Liver". No
one can stop my Diabetic Black-Outs from
happening and ANY next Black-Out can be fatal!
My doctor (an "Endocrinologist", a "Specialist in
Diabetes") explained this to me a few years, when
he declared me officially to be "Fully Disabled",
"End Stage" and "Terminally Ill". I've had to make
my own Funeral Arrangements, my Will, and must
politely explain this to all friends, relatives and new
business people in the last few years, so that they
will know why, sooner or later, I will die suddenly.
It's possible for me to live another 20 years like this,
but the Black-Outs will only get more severe, with
eventual amputations of feet, and/or blindness, and/or
deafness, and/or dialysis, and other agonies to look
forward to!=20

Too many people die each year from
Complications from Diabetes. In many cases this
means that the people around them did nothing, or
the wrong thing, that could have saved them while
waiting for an ambulance to arrive. If any of you
know a Diabetic, PLEASE find out what to do for
them, when they are in danger. Each person's case
of Diabetes is drastically different than the next. It
is an annoyingly individualized disease! I have a
number of diabetic friends, and the medicines and
dosages for each of us, would kill all the others!
(Especially me, since my Bad Liver, is akin to
being allergic to most normal, legal medications!)

No, Mr. Bennett:
Not All "Type I Diabetics" are manageable.
Not All "Type II Diabetics" are manageable.
And according to my doctor, ALMOST NONE
of the few living "Brittle Diabetics" like me, are
"manageable". The disease can be slowed, but the
damage continues.=20

Bear Woodson =20
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA

Home: 520 - 881 - 2558
"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>
=20

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