Because Everybody Else Is Talking About These 2 Things

I'm a little late to the party, I guess. But everybody seems to be talking about 2 things: MTV's True Life: I have diabetes, and Paula Deen.

I watched the episode online. It was hard to watch. It was hard to see someone dealing with diabetes and pregnancy, someone who in all likelihood was misdiagnosed as a Type 2, and then got lectured because she couldn't keep the sugars down with diet and pills, and eventually got told she was a Type 1. All at 19. Holy cow. Did they not run a GAD test? Just because you're over 18 does not mean you can't be a Type 1.

It was hard to see someone trying to be a normal college student. It was hard to watch him look at a 277 and say "not bad", even though it was infinitely better than the 405 he had. It was hard because if there is one thing I am truly grateful for, it's that I did not have this in college. Even though I am not a drinker, I think managing this and college at the same time would have been a nightmare of epic proportions.

I bet they had to search far and wide for someone who has a hard time with the expense of this disease. I mean, everybody else can handle it so easily. And to see her working 24 hours a day and with an A1c running at 8.9%, I could just feel how exhausted she was.

It was a good episode. It showed things how they are,the friends being curious and helpful,the exhaustion and the frustration, the doctor's visits and comments, to the disease being forefront and trying to dictate everything.

And switching gears completely: Paula Deen. People are railing on her that her food caused her diabetes. 'She's a poster child for how "not to eat."'

Sometimes I think diabetes, especially Type 2, is a lot like hair. Let me explain. There is such a thing as frizzy hair. There's a large genetic component to said hair. There are products and lifestyle changes that can help prevent it, but for many people, eventually the hair will frizz out. Once the hair is frizzy, there are ways that can calm it down, essentially making it look fine, and 'reducing the symptoms' of frizzy hair, but deep down, the hair wants to spazz out. And for some people, those products never really work all that well, and who knows what will cause a flare? Humidity is just one thing that will wreak havoc, after all.

Judgie folks will see these people, and blame them completely for the frizz. After all, don't they know it's ALL THEIR FAULT? They've never heard of conditioner???? They shouldn't have used that round brush when they were kids. Poor losers, bringing it on themselves, tsk. tsk. Look at that frizz. Often, the judgies saying stuff like this have no idea what it's like to look in the mirror day after day trying to tame the frizz. They very likely did the same things to their hair that the frizzy people did. They're lucky, and they pride themselves on their good luck.

Paula, your hair got frizzy. I don't blame you for the frizz. I hope you find a way to calm it down, whether that be a new product, or washing less often, or massaging your scalp, or very likely a combination of all of it. You go, you deal with your hair your own way. Hair is different for everyone, and don't let anyone tell you differently.