The week before Thanksgiving, I knew something was wrong, I was going to the bathroom a lot and drinking a lot. I knew that diabetes ran in my family(my grandfather and my sister had and they both died from it). I went to the doctor's and my blood sugar was 463. I spent the whole day there so they could get it down. They told me that I had to lose weight(I was 220 lbs) and changed the way I ate. No more McDonald's, Rally's, KFC, or Great Steak and Potato. They put me on a diet. What took an hour to shop now took over 2 hours cause my wife and I had to read labels. And it changed the way my wife cooked cause she cooked with sugar in most of the meals. She hasd to prepare two sets of meals, one for the family and one for me. But with the grace of God and friends and family, I got my levels down to under 200 and by January of 1994, I lost 30 lbs and haven't to this day, gained it back. I had already was exercising but I had to do more. So I walk after eating my lunch for 30 mins. On days it was too cold to walk, I walk up and down the three floors of my building. I surprised the doctors on the weight gain and the way I got my sugar down. They were so surprised that they had wished all their diabetic patients were as good as controlling the disease as I did. But as I have heard other people say, diabetes doesn't control me, I control diabetes. I am well aware of the side effects and the bad part of these are that I am experiencing some of them, especially the high blood pressure and the fact that it takes forever for the simplest or the most hardest injury to heal. But each day, I pray that there be a cure and that others pray along with those who suffer from this disease.

Richard Cook
Washington Courthouse,, OH