Your Body Is a Temple Living With Type 2 Diabetes -

I'm writing this series amidst what feels like the final phases of the world-wide pandemic. There are a small portion of our lives, seemingly coming back to a 'new' normal.

This is the second article of about three or four weeks I will share with readers during this month, November, National Diabetes Month. It is posted to share with readers, three reasons: First, the sufferings from Type 2 Diabetes, the story of my Mother; secondly, this series shares what mother taught us prior to her illness so you can understand her impact; and thirdly, I want you all to understand how Type 2 Diabetes overwhelmed her, concluding with how her family learned steps to control and even rid our bodies of this devastating disease.

After learning about how Type 2 Diabetes is caused, and found proven research to show how to control it, now I can help others. Though I'm not a trained physician, I have worked with medical doctors who specialize in endocrinology. The information I share in my column and on my radio show is proven via research, and is verifiable.

First point is, Mother Grant suffered for 12 years with Type 2 Diabetes, and with major complications as a result of her having had this disease. Christmas Day in the year 2000 was that fateful day mother died! This Christmas is the 21st Anniversary. My family skipped Christmas for nearly ten years. However now, my coping switched to angelic Christmas tree ornaments. This Christmas, my family will gather at my home for the first time in 20 years to celebrate together.

Secondly, Mother taught us well! My sisters and I lived together, worked together in business; and now we were going through this battle for life with our mother. Throughout our lives, we had been blessed, becoming successful business women, doing exactly what mother encouraged us to do; success in the mass media, publicizing several major events such as; coordinating a major festival; we worked for two Presidential Inaugural Committees; we worked for two D.C. Mayors and three D.C. City Council members; and I was appointed as project director to erect the national monument called Spirit of Freedom at the African American Civil War Memorial located in Washington, D.C.

Now that mother was gone, I went back to Trinity University to get my master's degree in the field of communications. When writing my master's theses, this story was born. My Master's Thesis topic; "How I expected this Type Diabetes campaign to become national" and it has!

Lastly, please understand how this disease can cause devastation to your body if you do not follow the rules. Mother lost both of her legs to amputations, had kidney failure, high blood pressure and several strokes. At the young age of 61, Mother had her first major stroke that caused paralysis. She ended up in Howard University Hospital, and that's when they discovered she had Type 2 Diabetes.

After learning how to publicize an issue on a massive scale, there was no way I could see the devastation caused in the life of my Mother by Type 2 Diabetes, fully understand this disease, and do nothing to share this with others.

We didn't understand! Could we have done something differently? We didn't know how an improved diet with extremely limited amounts of sugar with major reductions in eating carbohydrates and getting regular physical exercise could have made a difference in her life. Now that I've learned from her doctor; from research; the National Institute of Health; from Johns Hopkins and American Diabetes Association and others, I must share this good news with you!

For those of you who refuse to follow the rules, Type 2 Diabetes can be associated with serious complications such as losing toes, a foot, legs, eyes, organs and more. Plus, research shows it brings on premature death, as in the case of my Mom. On the other hand, people with Type 2 Diabetes can turn this thing around; by taking measures to reduce the likelihood of having these complications.