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Friday, January 1, 2010

Happier After Type 1 Diabetes Diagnosis

One issue of Diabetes Forecast, the leading magazine for diabetes for sixty years, features Elizabeth Perkins. She is an actress diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 44 years old. She tells the American Diabetes Association in an interview that she's been happier since her diagnosis.

In the magazine, she discusses her treatment routine, and how her condition has influenced her career in Hollywood. She is an actress who has received many nominations for the Series Weeds. It was while the first season was being filmed in 2005 when she was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

At first she was totally beleaguered. She was testing her blood sugar and injecting herself in her trailer while shooting that first episode of Weeds. She was so afraid and alone then and didn't tell anybody she had diabetes. It took her 18 months to get over being overwhelmed. Now she can proudly admit she's diabetic and in control of her condition.

Elizabeth Perkins already knew about eating health and exercising regularly because she had to look fit at the filming. But she made herself learn more. She learned to follow what her body needs, to rest when her body tells her to where before she didn't do that.

To cope and adjust to her condition, she learned to monitor her blood sugar level, how to draw syringes and injecting herself without anyone around her knowing what she was doing. She just admitted to herself that no one else will be able to save her except herself.

The experience of learning to cope with diabetes has actually helped her develop the Weeds character. She said she is now a happier person than before the diagnosis. She has a better understanding of the world around her.

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