Diplomatic Note to Hyperglycemia

Hyperglycemia: From hyper-, "above" and glycemia, "blood glucose level." Feminine/medicine: Excess of sugar in the blood.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

May this serve as a means of contacting you, Mrs. Hyperglycemia, and expressing my displeasure, discontent, and disagreement with your belligerent and stealthy intrusion into my life.

It will soon be 40 years since we first met. What a misguided, disturbing encounter. Our mutual introduction was long and complicated, about six months of strange symptoms. I didn't know you were seeking a role in my life; what was certain was that my energy, my weight, and my spirits were dissolving with constant persistence during those long weeks.

While I accept that you are much less scandalous than your annoying sister, Hypoglycemia, know that I consider you to be just as treacherous. You creep, reptile-like, very silently, inside of me. Your goal is to cause harm and discomfort, little by little, even if that takes a few minutes or several years. You like to use seemingly harmless means – how much sugar can a bit of cereal have? – to sneak through the digestive system and into our bloodstream. Once enthroned there, you travel through my organs, wreaking havoc, some quickly remediable, others not so much.

You break all protocols because you are, in fact, the closest daughter to your irritating mother, diabetes; you have inherited the worst of her. Your very existence defines this treacherous disease. Know that not only are neither she nor you welcome, but that our defenses as diabetics will remain in place. We will seek to expand our arsenal and make it more effective, because knowledge and technology are on our side. We also have trusted allies who support us in this seemingly endless conflict that you have decided to unilaterally initiate. They include the people who love us, the doctors and specialists who advise us, other diabetics, and sometimes even complete strangers. Additional reinforcements constantly enter our lives, with more and better resources; your final defeat will eventually arrive.

You must know that I am well aware of your tricks, deceptions, and betrayals. You present yourself in public pretending to be harmless, "a minor nuisance" that doesn’t really want to hurt anyone. You manage to entangle thousands of diabetics into believing that "if you don't feel so bad, surely nothing is wrong." Insidiousness is one of your favorite tactics. Until the consequences are irreversible, you deploy your powerful and efficient weapons – full of ignorance, lies, disdain, fear, and indiscipline – to lure your enemy into your sweet web.

Even after we were well acquainted, you didn't hesitate to make my life difficult during my first years with diabetes. I remember that despair – sometimes even tears, I admit it – of seeing you who up in those lab results, declaring victory and boasting even after I had done everything the doctors had advised. They were bitter defeats. The drain on my energy with your relentless attacks was such that I doubted I'd be able to even get up from my chair, let alone go outside or do any activity. The cold, the dryness in my mouth, and the apathy were so great that I didn't care about finishing high school. What I wanted was to feel well, everything else was secondary; to leave behind that skeletal body that resulted from your unjust war against me. Yours was a masterful battle strategy, consistent and full of resounding victories.

But they wouldn't last. Gathering the troops, training them, equipping them, and deploying them to defend myself against you, insipid Hyperglycemia, would take me about 12 months. They were forced marches that required acceptance, education, recruitment, insulin, and exercise: but health, energy, body weight, and the will to fight you and win the battle returned. It has been this way for decades. I will concede that sometimes you once again enjoy momentary victories, but they do not last long, as your tricks are now quickly identified, circumscribed, and eliminated. I must acknowledge, however, that you have not yet been defeated.

Let this text serve to inform you, very formally, that this is exactly how the truce we agreed to will continue. I conclude this communication, and in doing so, I make it clear that you are very far from definitive victory. That will never come because I have, for many years, had the weapons, intelligence, personnel, and reinforcements necessary to control you and mark red lines against you. I will continue this uneasy relationship with you and your undesirable sister but please understand that we are neither allies nor friends. We are on opposite ends of a battlefield that I will continue to fight to conquer it day after day.

Until victory, always!

 Carlos