> A cure for cancer is often held up as the holy grail of medicine, but even cancer patients don’t have to be perfect every day just to keep living.
Wow. There is no need to dismiss the plight of cancer patients in relation to that of diabetes patients.
As a diabetic, if you go through the (granted, horrible) grind, you can be fairly certain you'll live for quite some time.
If you are a cancer patient, even if you are currently in remission or even 'cured', you don't know if the cancer will come back. And if it will respond to the same treatment and if not if there is an alternative. Your survival timeline basically becomes one giant question mark.
I don't think there was any dismissal of the awful seriousness of cancer. In my experience, those who 'know' T1D (via themselves or close family) tend to be _extremely_ empathetic to the impact of most other health conditions, too.
What I read in that comment about "being perfect every day" -- and what I notice about having T1D compared to the awful experiences of family w/ cancer -- is the distinction b/w experiencing suffering caused by some terrible external force (cancer) vs experiencing suffering that can be interpreted as caused by yourself. Or suffering for which it's always easy to partially judge yourself.
The reason this post (notice even the 'defensiveness' in its title) resonates so much w/ those w/ T1D is because this condition presents one with non-stop, 24/7 complicated problems to solve w/ serious consequences...and yet, any time something goes wrong, it still feels like it's kinda your fault. Like you made a mistake.
That is a non-stop mental grind that is unique to T1D and a small set of diseases. The uniqueness certainly does not make cancer less awful.
Not that it's a competition, but T1D can and does just come out of left field and fuck you over. Not only for annoyingly prosaic things like forgetting a Snickers in the car and passing out alone and never waking up, but also sudden cardiac death is an order of magnitude higher.
I had cancer, it was shit, and yes, there's always a chance its not done with me, but at least the cause of death won't be "finally forgot a snack".
Wow. There is no need to dismiss the plight of cancer patients in relation to that of diabetes patients.
As a diabetic, if you go through the (granted, horrible) grind, you can be fairly certain you'll live for quite some time.
If you are a cancer patient, even if you are currently in remission or even 'cured', you don't know if the cancer will come back. And if it will respond to the same treatment and if not if there is an alternative. Your survival timeline basically becomes one giant question mark.
https://xkcd.com/931/