As I mentioned in my last entry my niece was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of four. There have been times in the last 12 years that she has been diabetic that we try to explain to her what damage she is causing to her body by not taking care of her diabetes better. There was a time when she told me that she did not have to worry about how she was going to be when she was older because by that time God would come back for Judgment day and she will go to heaven where there is no diabetes.
I understand that religious beliefs are very strong but a person cannot live today like there will be no tomorrow. Do you know what I mean? She wanted to eat chocolates, soda and basically everything that she wanted to because she could just take extra insulin to make up for it and besides who cares because by the time there was damage the world would be over.
We have tried explaining what the negative effects of not taking care of her body would be but she was set in her ways. We explained that if she ever wanted to have children she needed to take care of herself now. That did not make much sense to a nine year old girl when I tried explaining that to her. She still thinks she can eat whatever she wants and that there will be no long term effects on her body. How do you get through to someone who is a teenager now?
We have told her about neuropathy, kidney damage (like her uncle has developed), difficulty conceiving, difficulty carrying a baby to terms and not having a baby with birth defects all because she does not want to eat right and treat her diabetes like it is important. Whenever I talk to her about it the conversation ends with her crying thinking I am doubting her religion and just being plain old mean.