“I didn’t want to be defined by my disease, and I didn’t want to be seen as frail, but having type 1 isolates you and it’s important that everyone knows what to do if you have a severely low blood pressure.” So they can help with sugar,” said Mr. Boudreaux, 35, who lives in Monterey, Calif., and works for the non-profit group Beyond Type 1.
Ms. Hepner, along with her husband, Mr. Mossman, has spent much of her life contracting the disease. He recalled his confusion early in their relationship when he awoke to find her unconnected and sweaty, the result of hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. The more cinematographer Mr. Mossman learned about the disease, the more he pressured him to make the film.
For years, Ms. Hepner stood her ground, worried about drawing unwanted attention to her health. “It’s a competitive world and I didn’t want people to think, ‘Oh, she’s not thinking straight because her blood sugar is high,'” she said.
But over time, with the ubiquity of pink-ribbon breast cancer awareness campaigns and highly publicized efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer’s, Ms. Hepner realized that her filmmaking skills could change public perceptions of type 1, a disease that is almost invisible. That’s partly because many people who do it don’t feel sick.
She hopes to change other misconceptions, including the notion that diabetes is a relatively insignificant and “manageable” disease, made popular by Big Pharma’s feel-good drug television commercials that include playing tennis and basketball and playing basketball. Self-assured patients who conduct hot air are shown. balloons
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)