New Book: "Diabetes! A Lifetime Of Being Too Sweet"

Online, May 21, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The book opens with a description of what it was like growing up in the 60's and 70's in Lafayette Square in St. Louis. I talk about how the old Civil war era mansions had deteriorated into run-down rooming houses and a slum complete with its own skid row. I describe how I grew up a couple of blocks from the housing projects and right next to the St. Louis version of The Sopranos.

The book describes all of the pitfalls of dealing with diabetes way back then including the urine test tubes, boiling syringes and the strict diet that required weighing your food.
"In the hospital, they gave me an insulin overdose without telling me about it and I passed out in the hallway outside of my room. Their reasoning was: "So you could see what it felt like." I soon developed an unreasonable fear (phobia) of low blood sugar."

I also talk about bad doctors and the fact that I had to diagnose my own diabetes when I was 14. The family doctor at the time just thought I was being a hypochondriac because my uncle had just been diagnosed with it. I talk about my kidney transplant years later and how my legs swelled to the point of my skin splitting open and water falling on the floor. I also describe in detail the time I hemorrhaged blood into both of my eyes and nearly went blind.

In the final section of the book, I address the current diabetes epidemic; problems like food desserts, poor diet, and lack of exercise. I also write about potential treatments and hope for the future for both diabetes and kidney disease. I give some practical advice so the reader maybe won't have to face the complications and problems that I had. My hope is to describe some of the things that I did wrong and impress others to take care of this sneaky and potentially deadly disease that runs rampant in America today.