| Needles
Book review by Lisa |
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Have you ever wanted someone to take a view of your world from where you stand? To live, feel and experience life as an insulin dependent diabetic just for one day? For one moment? To experience the emotions, the fears, the ups, the downs, the frustrations? and not just to scratch the surface by reading a few medical texts. Well,
now you can, just by passing them a copy of "Needles", a very
powerful and 'bare bone' A portrayal of how not only she, but her family and friends dealt with her illness. Feelings such as love, hate, grief, support, strength, despair, friendship, courage, hope and happiness are all very prominent emotions throughout the book. It is a story that pulls back the curtains and exposes real life issues that face people with IDDM. "Needles" gives an insight into what it is like to actually live with diabetes; not from a medical specialist's perspective, but from the 'true' specialist - the diabetic person. A journey along a path called Diabetes, a journey where fear and uncertainty is fought at times with strength and sheer determination, and at other times with thoughtlessness and the decision to free fall. A journey where life is played like a radio, where you don't get to decide what 'song' is played next, but where you have the ability to turn up or turn down the volume. It made me laugh; rekindling memories of myself and my brothers as children living with diabetes ie. using my needles as darts or water pistols, and showing the kids at school in awe. But it also made me cry; reminding me of a few of diabetic friends who already have quite severe diabetic complications, and of my own fate in relation to complications. A book which put into words many of my own thoughts and feelings, fears, uncertainties and dreams. My partner, best friend and soul mate, Jayson, actually bought this book for me as a gift and has also read it. I believe it has definitely given Jayson a sharper focus not only on the physical but also emotional highs and lows you can experience when living with IDDM. To finally find a book that comes from the core, the heart, a book anyone who is diabetic,, has a relative, friend or partner who is diabetic, is involved in the medical field or simply someone who lives with a chronic illness should be encouraged to read. I promise that this will be a book they will want to read again and again and again. |
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journey
through the life of an IDD woman diagnosed when she was only 9. Through
this memoir, the author Andi Dominick unmasks how she coped and lived
with IDDM as a child, and where her life has taken her to present.