Sweet and Sour

A Diabetic Life by Peter Corris

Reviewed by Mary Anne Patton

Thank god, somebody has finally done it! Written an account of living with diabetes that actually tackles some of the hairy issues. 

The book recounts Peter Corris’s life with diabetes from diagnosis at the age of 16, when “the presence of a couple of young, good looking nurses” served to amplify his dread of impotence. It follows him through a bohemian, alcohol–laced academic period at Melbourne Uni, where it seems he let things slip a bit with the diabetes, and made an enduring and insidious friend in alcohol. 

He recounts some fascinating and totally scary (from a diabetic point of view) experiences he had in the Solomon Islands, where he spent time researching the labour trade for his PhD.

He talks about his relationships: his first university girlfriend; an early marriage which ended, and his current marriage to Jean Bedford. He is frank about the effects diabetes has had on these relationships and on his sex life. 

He also talks about the complications he’s encountered, and how some pretty tough words from the late “pipe puffing runt”, Dr Fred Hollows, (whom he actually greatly admired) really shook him up and forced him to clean up his act. 

For people who’ve had laser on their eyes for retinopathy as I have, the accounts of waiting for three hours at a time in the doctor’s waiting room will be all too familiar. 

But the interesting thing about this book for me, is the glimpse into the psychological. The thought processes and emotional wrestling tournaments that go hand in hand with having diabetes.

I could certainly relate to the 16 year old Peter’s feelings of shyness, and how he was hit by diabetes just when he was on the brink of gaining confidence in his life. 

“Although diabetes did not change me outwardly, it was causing important changes psychologically and physiologically, in fact determining the shape and direction of my life.”

“The shyness and lack of self-confidence that had inhibited me sexually and socially, intensified. I had a feeling that my life was artificially maintained, that it might well be shortened by vascular disease and the shadow of impotence hung over me as it was to do for much of my adult life.”

And this is not to say the book is full of woe. It’s a pretty amusing tale and the early bits should especially appeal to the young blokes among us. But there’s no denying it is a cautionary tale. Peter states clearly in his introduction that he hopes the book “may help some people avoid the mistakes I made and tread a more responsible and intelligent path”. 

“I spent the first half of this time behaving precisely as a diabetic should not.… When I look back I see how foolish I was to neglect my diabetes as I did not know how lucky I’ve been to escape the worst consequences of that neglect.”

But how do you cope with this condition and it’s regimen when you’re shy, 19 and at uni? Peter says his ignorance of the disease was inexcusable, but to me it seems only natural that diabetes would take a back seat to a new life of friendship, eating out, hanging out, and parties, as well as a few drinks in the Staff Centre with fellow academics. At least for a while. 

In fact, his days at university sound like a brilliant, wild and magical time to me, and it really makes me wonder, just where should we draw the line as diabetics?

I once spoke to a Sydney psychologist who believed it was important for children and teenagers to have a period of growing up without an absolutely strict diabetic regime so that their personalities could develop naturally ‘outside the diabetes’. 

I wonder, had Peter Corris been the model diabetic, would he still have been able to enjoy his halcyon days, and would he be the same creative soul he is today?

As someone who’s had a lifestyle similar in many ways to Peter, and who has also ‘paid the price’, I can’t help feeling that the secret is to have some freedom, but not to go entirely off the rails. To embrace the adventure, but avoid crossing the line into self-destruction. Of course, this is much easier said than done, that’s for sure…

Peter talks about being ashamed of diabetes, which I think is something that affects most young people who get this condition to some extent. I can only imagine that as a boy, with all the additional macho pressures, these feelings must be compounded.

Peter’s biography reminds me that diabetes doesn’t just affect a stable automaton, as the sanitised diabetes books and magazines of my childhood would have had me believe. It impacts differently on different people with their myriad personalities, depending on their stage of life. 

It makes its first impact at diagnosis, continues to hang around like a bad smell during study and career choices, job changes, and relationships, and has the potential to influence countless decisions including decisions about having children.

Most nastily, complications of the “bloody disease” as Peter charmingly refers to it, can wreak havoc on a vibrant young life, and can strike at the most inconvenient and pivotal times. Getting complications, especially when relatively young, can lead to overwhelming feelings of loneliness and alienation. 

By documenting his rich and spirited life, and by sharing his own experience of diabetic complications, Peter’s book like no other before it, sheds light onto this challenging period of many of our lives, and hopefully helps us to deal with it. 

The turn around in his own diabetes care and management, including his exercise-mania, and cutting down on the booze, is also pretty damn impressive.

The only frustration of the book for me, as someone who is trying to live a healthy, nourishing life, (Saturday’s hangover excluded ;-) is that Peter, who has now had diabetes for 41 years, pretty much left his story off 20 years ago just after his turn around to a more wholesome lifestyle. He gives hints as to some of the developments in his life over the next 20 years, but little detail.

I wanted to know about his life today. What are the daily hurdles he faces with his diabetes and his life and how does he work with them? Has diabetes impacted on his life decisions over the past twenty years? Perhaps it might not make as dramatic reading, or perhaps it might be too ‘close to the bone’ for Peter, but I for one am looking forward to ‘Sweet and Sour part 2’!

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