Maybe…concretes is more appropriate?
I am currently in a tangle. And so, so frustrated. It
got me thinking how “Diabetes” is so concrete. It’s one of those things: you
either have it or you don’t. Maybe that’s a good thing at times, but at other
times I feel unfairly singled out. Just because I have this disease, which one
is either diagnosed with or is not, and just because it is often misunderstood
and scary to those who don’t live with it, doesn't mean I should get slapped with
increased paperwork and requirements to prove my control. If a state’s driver
license form is going to ask me point blank, “Do you have Insulin-dependent
Diabetes?” then they should also ask, “How often do you frequent drive-thrus?”
or, “How often do you exceed your caloric intake requirements?” “Have you been
to the gym lately?” “Do you actually read your prescription labels?” …oh, and
go ahead and prove all that. kthanksbye
I am faced with the fact that because heart attack and
stroke episodes, or the possibility of them, are nebulous – the opposite of the
concreteness of Diabetes, these people are my driving peers. And while I have
to prove my control even though I
have never even been in an accident (knock on wood) or received a traffic
ticket, they get a free ride. I am treated like it was my fault, like it was
something I actively did to get Diabetes, like I can’t be trusted to report my level of disease control on my own – only my doctor has the right credentials to administer such
a judgment.
I looked into all of the statistics while completing my
Master’s thesis, since there is very little information about Diabetic pilots I
had to use Diabetic drivers to cross compare. The reality is, overall, medical
conditions only contributed to 1.3% of all traffic accidents included in the report
compiled by the DOT in 2009. Twenty percent of these crashes were caused by “Diabetic
Reaction” which did not specify between insulin-dependent diabetics or
non-insulin-dependent diabetics. “Seizure” and “Black Out” were the two most
common medical conditions identified as the cause of traffic accidents with 35% and 29%
respectively. It is clear that mechanical failure or driver error are much
greater contributors to traffic accidents, at least in the US, and during the
study period.
In general, I’m frustrated at the boxes we get pushed into
as members of the oh-so-concrete “Diabetes Club”. I’m frustrated people can
throw that word out…”Diabetes”…and feel like they know what they are talking
about, or have control over us just because they are un-afflicted.
Diabetes is a concrete diagnosis – either your pancreas is
busted (or semi-busted) or it’s not, but I hate being singled out just because
they can pin this one on me un-nebulous-ly.
Yes, I added a generous amount of pre- and suffixes. Judge away.