Have you ever gotten a real life experience crossed up with a dream? Well it happened to me just the other night. Having attended the Red Ink play at the Mixed Blood Theatre, I found one of the play’s scenes wormed its way into my nighttime dream — I’m in a car with my diabetes doctor and her team who were driving me to the clinic. Or so I thought… Instead, they took me out on a strange rural road, smiled and kicked me out of the car! All alone… At least they left me a bag of meds before I got the boot! Now in the actual play, the cops hauled Cochise out in a rural area on a freezing night, took away his boots and coat and just left him there. In the middle of nowhere! Chilling, but it’s a true story for some we’ve known… So my dream wasn’t so bad after all, compared to that freezing friend in the play.
So how does my little dream meet reality? Yesterday became my final day as a diabetic participant with the ACCORD study — the world’s largest and longest study of diabetes in history. Like in the dream, they sent me away with a bag of meds and a certificate thanking me for my participation. Now I’m on my own. Me and my diabetes…so to speak! So this is the time to begin my new journey.
In the upcoming months, like a Kung Fu vagabond Kwai Caine, I will travel about the “world of diabetes” and report to you what I see and whom I meet. And what I think about all of this I’ve found or about to discover. Part of this will address my own challenges and failures. But from what I learn along the way, will also serve to create a personal plan for dealing with my own chronic disease. And you’re invited!
With me, you’ll meet some of those people who’ve been champions and cheerleaders, mentors and heroes, naysayers and “nabobs of negativity” — and just ordinary folks on Franklin Avenue. On this journey, I’ll be taking pictures, little video clips and publish my own links and numbers, that’ll help you use your own computer, bookstores, and the library to drill down deeper into those areas that interest or concern you more.
I hope you’ll join me on this adventure. Let me know what you think or what you’ve found along your way that can help or pave the way for those to follow as they also cope with a dangerous disease of epidemic proportions in Indian Country. Maybe we’ll meet face-to-face and have a dialog somewhere along Franklin Avenue. About diabetes, our dreams and our journeys!{mosimage}{mosimage}{mosimage}{mosimage}
Robert Albee can be contacted through rralbee4045@gmail.com
