Showdown with Diabetes

by Deb Butterfield

W.W. Norton & Company, 1999

Reviewed by Zoe

This book is not for the weak or faint-hearted. But it is unexpectedly compelling. I devoured each page masochistically, hungry to know what could happen to me, 'a diabetic'. At the same time, my stomach was queasy and tears stung the backs of my (fortunately healthy) eyes, as I met a real person who had suffered the textbook complications of Diabetes: retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy.

In 1994, Deb Butterfield underwent a successful kidney/pancreas transplant and is now insulin independent. Following her 'cure' Deb and her husband Tom founded the 'Insulin-Free World Foundation'. The Foundation is described by the author as a non-profit charitable organisation that provides information on how advances in clinical Diabetes can benefit people with Diabetes now and in years to come.' The Foundation has a 'focused objective - to act as an information exchange by compiling and redistributing information to bring science closer to people whose lives depend on it.' Showdown with Diabetes is a good start.

The second half of the book discusses Diabetes treatments, from the discovery of insulin to the emerging islet transplantation technology and notes a number of frightening statistics about the prevalence of complications in the diabetic community.

Deb does not necessarily advocate transplantation as the only viable treatment for Diabetes. Rather, she seeks to make Diabetes sufferers aware of its possibility. She is critical of what she perceives as the medical profession's general failure to advise and discuss meaningfully with its diabetic patients the pros and cons of the treatment. If we are ignorant of the option, Deb argues, we haven't made a true choice about the management of our Diabetes.

I was left with a philosophical and melancholy mood after reading this sobering book, however I would recommend it.

It gives a human face to all that textbook knowledge.

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