Customer Reviews

Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the best books I've ever read! A must read for anyone who has or knows someone who has diabetes. I would also encourage all physicians to read this book. My 22 year old daughter, who has Type I, started reading this book one evening and stayed up until 2:00 a.m to finish it. Absolutely loved it!

There are a million books out there on "living" with diabetes -- what to eat, what NOT to eat, how to plan out a basal scheme, MDI vs. pump, etc. What no one is able to tell you is how to LIVE with diabetes -- the day-to-day toll of testing, counting, and "checking in" with yourself to see if you feel low or high or just right. No one mentions that you have to double your purse size to carry a tester and glucose tabs.

This was the first book I read -- before Pumping Insulin, or Think Like a Pancreas (I was diagnosed at 27, rather than as a child, so my care was literally in my own hands). I found the history of diabetes absolutely fascinating, if rather depressing. Hirch's assertion that one of the worst things about diabetes is the shame and secrecy involved really touched me and made me rethink many of my own behaviors. In fact, the general ignorance of the country is based on this shame and secrecy! (If you don't think the country is ignorant of diabetes, just wait til you hear the question "Is that the good diabetes or the bad one?")

This was a very poingant story, and the only reason it's 4 stars and not 5 is that some of the purely informational places drag a bit -- but they are still very interesting.

Great book. The author covers much ground--hitting on the emotional, financial, psychological, and political impact of this half-cured disease. He also offers up a terrific summary of the history of diabetes. And bonus--unlike many of the authors who've penned a book on diabetes, this guy can write. In fact, it's one of the best written books on diabetes that I've read.

James Hirsch has been surrounded by diabetes his entire life. He was diagnosed with Type 1 at age 11, his older brother is a leading diabetologist, and as he was researching this book, his 3-year-old son was diagnosed with Type 1 as well. It would be very easy to expect him to write a passionate portrayal of life with diabetes. But Mr. Hirsch is also a well known and respected journalist for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and as such he is able to combine his own life experience with well documented and researched thoughts and information about the state of diabetes in our society.

Mr. Hirsch's personal journey was a comfort as I read his book on the plane flying to join my newly diagnosed son in the hospital. At the time I knew very little about diabetes and held all the typical fears associated with knowing your child is suffering from a lifelong and potentially debilitating disease. Mr. Hirsch's ability to convey his own emotions associated with tending to his son as well as his ability to place the disease within the larger aspects of his own successful life (it just becomes another aspect of you), helped to calm my fears and set me down a path with a set of principles that I too hope will help my child excel.

Along with his inside story however was Mr. Hirsch's excellent detailing of the history and research behind the disease. I had no idea how brutal this disease was just a half century ago and had no idea the endurance exhibited by my previous generation. In detailing the history, Mr. Hirsch also provides a very straightforward explanation of the causes and management of diabetes. By the time I had landed I was well armed to question the doctors that were looking after my son.

The final few chapters of Cheating Destiny start to take on more of Mr. Hirsch's own views and personality as they explore the current research and politics surrounding the disease. Science and academia are rife with political behavior and I commend the fact that Mr. Hirsch did not shy away from stating his own views of the issues. Not everyone will agree with those views, but I feel it's always better to have the viewpoints of the author be explicit so you're sure where they are coming from.

For a parent of a child with diabetes or anyone who wants to learn more about it, this is a book that will enable you to get emotionally drawn in while at the same time gaining a true understanding of the magnitude and manageability of this disease.

[...]

My child was diagnosed with Type 1 (autoimmune) diabetes at the age of 3 1/2. It hasn't been quite 2 years yet....but it has been the roughest 2 years of our family's life.

I checked this book out from the library first. As soon as I started it, I knew I had to get my own copy, and might order extra copies for family and friends.

This book covers so much--what it's like to have diabetes, what it's like to have a child with diabetes (heart-wrenching), the history of diabetes and its treatment (pretty fascinating--I knew nothing about this!), some medical, pharmaceutical, research, and political aspects...it really hits so many things.

One of the things I like best about it is that you don't actually have to read the entire book cover-to-cover, or in order. You can choose a chapter that addresses a particular facet of the disease, and learn so much about it. I am still reading sections, (sometimes for the 2nd or 3rd time).

I also like that this book offers a lot of empathy, and helps the reader who is affected by this disease (either personally or through a family member) to strive for a positive attitude. And for those who aren't personally/immediately affected by it, it really pins down what it's like--the sadness, the anger, the fears, the frustrations, the exhaustion of it all.

If you only ever read one book about diabetes, this should be it.

This was a great read with scientific information, the history with real people illustrated, personal aspects that a diabetic or family member would be well served by reading. Mr. Hirsch explains a very complex auto-immune disease in manner I have never read so clearly. I have been a type 1 IDDM for 44 years and say it is the best book on dibetes I have ever read.Have purchased many copies as gifts for friends and others with diabetes.Cheating Destiny: Living With Diabetes, America's Biggest Epidemic

I really enjoyed this book, and learned a lot about the history of diabetes as well as more on the current goings-on in the behind the scenes diabetes world. After I recovered from the shock of the beginning's irony (his son's diagnosis), the author had me hooked as only a parent watching her children for signs of diabetes can be hooked... Thank you for this intense and well-balanced book. We can always have hope...

This was the first book I read after my daughter's Type 1 diagnosis on her tenth birthday. I'll never regret it! This is a wonderfully straightforward introduction and history of this chronic, incurable, lifelong disease.

I was able to view Type 1 through the eyes of the author who has it, and then live his pain as he discovers his young son has it. As I grieved for my ten year old and the lifelong work she will have to do to keep herself alive, every single day, I found it to be exactly the same painful grief he was expressing, without holding back on any single thought that crossed his mind, every parent's mind in this situation.

We follow through with him as he nearly, accidentally kills himself and his son while driving and having a diabetic low. We then read along as he goes on the insulin pump to try and keep his glucose levels more accurate. He rants about the aggravation of trying the glucose monitor until he gets it right. All these things became reality for life with my daughter soon after reading the book and switching from shots to a pump.

I found the history of Type 1 and the introduction of insulin stories to be very informative and shocking as well! I'll never forget how the first insulin was made, how starvation was the only remedy until the introduction of injectable insulin, and how only a fortunate few could get their hands on this life saving medicine in the beginning.

This book covered everything for me and I still find it my favorite book about Type 1, two years after diagnosis. There is no sugar-coating like some of the books I've read, this is Type 1 in it's reality and I really appreciate that!

I have just started the book and I find it very interesting and helpful. I was drawn into it immediately. I have found it hard to get into diabetes books but this one is so different.