Death and Relations Can be Painful

Other Painful Life Experiences

Death and relationships can be painful, but so can other things in life.  Learning that you have a disease for which their is no cure, AMD, HIV, diabetes, lupus, Sarcoidosis, and scleroderma jus to name a few.  Each of these have future outcomes that cannot be stopped even with modern medicine.

I can speak on two  or more of these diseases with some authority.  I have diabetes and AMD.  Two first cousins have sarcoidosis  and scleroderma.  The latter two diseases have caused tremendous suffering to both.  The diseases are similar in many ways and often confused, but the cousins know the difference.  They also spend a great deal of time in hospitals, and doctors' offices.  Following is a brief discussion of my conditions.

Most everyone has heard of diabetes.  It is a disease of the blood.  When a person has diabetes, it means that they have entirely too much glucose in their blood.  Too much glucose is a great danger to your health and may lead to other serious problem including age-related-macular degeneration (AMD).

AMD simply means that the veins in your eyes are bleeding similar to a dam that has worked for years, and then develops a leak.  You plug the leak, but the vein is no longer as strong.  After several leaks, the blood that is leaking from the vein cause damage to the retina's central vision.  You can see, but you have dark areas where you cannot see.  you can read, but you may not see all of the word, but because the eyes compensate for what it does not see, you are able to determine what the words mean.  The eye may no longer work well in bright sunlight.  Dark glasses are needed almost 24 hours a day.

Both are painful experience that one would want to avoid, but may not have the luxury of doing.  Both are disease that you can live with, IF you choose to take the right steps to have them treated, and actually follow your doctor's orders.  I am learning to live with both without fear.