[il-talk] With articles such as this, it's no wonder people fear and dred blindness.

[Leslie Hamric]

I agree. As well.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 31, 2012, at 5:47 PM, "Pattichang at att.net" <pattichang at att.net> wrote:

> I a agree!
> 
> Patti S. Gregory-Chang
> NFB, Scholarship Committee Chair
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Jul 31, 2012, at 5:24 PM, Jenny Keller <jlperdue3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> OK, 
>> 
>> I usually don't post much on this list.  but have something to say now, and please pardon me if it comes across offensive, cause that's not what it's meant to do.
>> 
>> My husband is a type one diabetic.  As a child, he tried to manage it as best that could be done in the 70's and early 80's.  
>> 
>> When his parent's insurance ran out, so did his ability to afford testing supplies and sometimes, insulin.  He always tried to have insulin on hand, but he just couldn't afford all that was required for him to test his sugar.  
>> 
>> He worked and made too much for Medicaid to help him, so he was on his own.  He worked jobs that paid minimum wage and when you're trying to afford the staples of life, a roof over your head, food, electricity, etc, insulin was all that he could afford to control his brittle diabetes.  
>> 
>> In the 90's his kidneys could not hold out and eventually his eyes went too.  Because of rejection of a kidney and pancreas transplant, he went back on dialysis for four years and got another kidney, which thank GOD is still going strong.
>> 
>> The attitude that people with diabetes can always prevent blindness or complications such as kidney failure and the like is offensive to me.  
>> 
>> I know many diabetics that because of lack of insurance and the types of jobs that don't provide it, and lack of money, prevented them from taking care of their needs.  
>> 
>> the insinuation or even the judgement that it is their fault that they didn't take care of their situation so that's why they went blind is something that unless we are in their shoes we have no right to make.  
>> 
>> I have watched a dear friend die because of rejection of a transplant and now I am married to a man who would walk through fire for me, and I know, for an absolute fact, that had he been able to afford testing supplies to control his diabetes, he would've. 
>> 
>> You have no idea what it is like to watch this kind and gentle man stab his fingers over and over and over again to get just enough blood to get a test result, and to watch him perform household tasks with those same fingers that ache from those constant pricks from a needle to at times, never get the opportunity to even test because blood won't come due to cal-laces from doing it all his life.
>> 
>> Until you live the life of these people, and walk in their shoes, you have no right to judge whether they could've prevented their blindness, or kidney failure.
>> 
>> I'm sorry if this sounds offensive to you and if it does, there's nothing I can do about it.  But I live it every day with him, and know that he didn't neglect his diabetes, and he sure didn't ask for all the crap that he's gone through because of it.
>> 
>> Walk a mile in someone else's shoes before you cast judgement.  As it's been said "Let those without sin cast the first stone,"
>> 
>> Jennifer L. Keller 
>> On Jul 29, 2012, at 9:07 PM, Kelly Pierce wrote:
>> 
>>> Bill,