(Peace to you all)
I now get what folks are trying to say (I probably should’a had a V8!) - it’s “just like” this:
Jimmie is a Type-II diabetic. From time to time he attends a Diabetes Control group for support and information. Phil, another Type-II diabetic, also attends the group. Both men have been prescribed several medications for their condition, primarily in pill form. Jimmie is currently on Avandia, but he has been prescribed and taken Glyburide (which caused him to experience severe hyperglycemia which landed him in the emergency room a couple times), Glucophage-Metphormin (which didn’t really help him gain control of his glucose levels at all), and Actos (which he refused due to the side effect of “severe liver toxicity”). He is concerned because he believes he is now experiencing one of the primary “side effects” of Avandia, “severe chest pain” (he is aware not only of the side effects of these medications, but their chemical composition as well because Jimmie is not a complete dummy and so he “looks things up”).
Having experienced some of the same things that Jimmie is, Phil just recently started taking insulin; this is unknown to pretty much everyone, however, including his doctor, because Phil got it from his uncle, Ted, who is also a Type-II diabetic. Not that Phil is hiding anything – he just considers it a personal matter and what folks don’t know won’t hurt them.
One night, Jimmie and Phil were talking on the phone about their frustration with diabetes: the control it takes on their lives, how they have to eat pretty much the same things at pretty much the same times… how they have to stick pins in their fingers… 4-6 times day… which hurts like hell… the other various “nerve” pain and associated numbness… the loss of feeling in digits and extremities… the internal pain… the fact that NO ONE UNDERSTANDS… AND THINKS THEY SHOULD “JUST GET IT UNDER CONTROL.” And now Phil is concerned that his eyesight is fading. They HATE this disease and can’t wait for “someone” to find a cure! Yes, this diabetes is some pretty crappy stuff!
Jimmie makes the comment that he is concerned because he has been experiencing chest pains and it was recently announced on the news that Avandia caused heart attacks! As a result, Phil confesses to Jim that he, too, was concerned about the medicines he had been taking, that some didn’t even work, and that after getting frustrated and fed up, he got some leftover insulin and a couple syringes from Uncle Ted and has been using that. “I’m not cured,” Phil told Jim, “And my blood sugar’s not completely under control – I haven’t learned how to adjust it just right, yet. But more often than not I FEEL better!”
“Really?” said Jimmie. “Do you think it’ll work for me?”
“Well,” Phil told him, “Why don’t you come on over and find out?”
Not being a total idiot, Jimmie decides he’d better look up insulin and check out its side effects, too. The information he finds tells him that insulin pretty much has NO side effects, save the risks of hyperglycemia, diabetic coma, and death. He thinks, “Well, as long as I take it as prescribed, I should be okay,” and high-tails it over to Phil’s. Once there, Phil gives him the “dose” he (Phil) takes (which is the dose prescribed for Uncle Ted). Not only does Jimmie not go into a coma, he actually does feel better!
Voila! There you go – I totally get it: under these circumstances (i.e., no one died), it’s perfectly okay for Jimmie to take Uncle Ted’s insulin to help him with his (Jim’s) diabetes!! DUH, Shelby!
Dear ones, I am not judging Mincan or anyone. He can and will do whatever he wishes. He asked “What do you think?” Given what I know about situations like this, I told him what I thought. To is own “master,” however, he will stand… or fall. If he stands, I will REJOICE with him (as I would with the person who has their ADHD under control… however that occurs, including using their own meds). If he falls, I won’t “dance”… rather, I will mourn with him if that is appropriate. Either way, my love will not fail.
IMHO, however, it WOULD be a “failure” of that love if I, knowing what the end result potentially and more likely than not will be in a situation like this, sit silently by and say nothing… or, even worse, cheer him on to a path that could result in self-destruction. That there is opposition is irrelevant – there usually is when someone speaks truth.
With that said, I am going to remove myself from this discussion. I said what I had to say. And please note that what I said was on my own, without guidance from holy spirit, as this is a thread that my Lord would not have entwined himself in (for obvious reasons, including the fact that he has WAY more “common sense” than I do).
I bid you all peace.
A slave of Christ,
SA, who wonders just how many here have actually attended an Al-Anon or NA meeting, and heard the family/loved ones point of view (true, Skall, Mincan is the child now… but perhaps one day...)
