Showdown with Diabetes [Paperback]

Deb Butterfield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2000

In this personal account, Deb Butterfield writes about the world of diabetes from within that world, telling the story of living with this illness, through progressive debilitation, until she was finally freed of restrictions and needles by a pancreas transplant.

Butterfield goes on to give an overview of advances in treatment, helping those who suffer from the disease to know their options. For the families of people with diabetes and the medical professionals who care for them, this book also offers an insight into the life of a diabetic person. Photographs

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Calling for a fundamental shift in the way diabetes is viewed, Butterfield, founder and director of the Insulin-Free World Federation, combines the story of her own harrowing personal battle with a critical look at the limitations of standard approaches and a review of the latest advances. Diagnosed in 1970 when she was only 10, she began to experience secondary complications when she was in her early 20s, despite her best efforts at managing her diabetes. The progression was steady: retinopathy, then neuropathy, which led to major problems in walking, and then kidney disease. In 1993, with her condition worsening, she underwent a kidney-pancreas transplant in hopes that the new pancreas would produce insulin. Although the procedure has a high success rate, her body rejected the new organs. A year later, however, a retransplant was successful, and since then Butterfield has been living a virtually normal existence, taking only small daily doses of immunosuppressives. Her mission now, spelled out in part two, is to disseminate information about therapeutic options and about the research into transplanting insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells that may one day provide a cure for diabetes. With diabetes treatments accounting for one in four Medicare dollars, her message is one for policy makers as well as for diabetics. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Butterfield was diagnosed with diabetes at age 10; at age 34 she received a successful pancreas/kidney transplant, and was cured of the disease. Five years later, Butterfield takes only small daily oral doses of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection, and she is the director of the Insulin-Free World Foundation, devoted to finding cures for diabetes. Here she first chronicles her own struggle with the disease and then offers similarly affected readers a thorough, up-to-date guide to current research and future possibilities for their own cures. Butterfield makes crystal clear from the outset that the burden of having diabetes is ``grossly underestimated'' by medical professionals and the general public. Butterfield rejects out of hand the standard establishment line (see Touchette, below) that careful disease management leads to healthy living. Despite her adhering religiously to her treatment regimen, ``within a four-year period diabetes killed the nerves below my knees, caused bleeding in the back of my eyes, the amputation of part of a toe, a skin graft''and that was before the kidney failure and heart attack that finally led to her transplant operation. As Butterfield points out, the focus of diabetes research has been management; her mission is to refocus onto finding cures. This is a forceful, eloquent, engrossing, and ultimately convincing argument. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Thus edition (November 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393320839
• ISBN-13: 978-0393320831
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #955,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest and courageous account of the TRUE face of autoimmune diabetes, October 3, 1999

By 

never too late to redirect fate (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Showdown with Diabetes (Hardcover)

The truth about Type 1 autoimmune diabetes until now has been smothered in lies and false bravado. The governmental policies and research inititatives have for too long been focused on the management of diabetes. Deb Butterfield tells it like it is. Diabetes is a serious autoimmune disease (not a lifestyle disease) that needs to be CURED. Diabetics need to stop hiding and start speaking out otherwise they will be left behind again and again. We can't afford to let history repeat itself for the economic, emotional and physical toll of diabetes is overwhelming. Showdown with Diabetes is a must read for anyone who wants to know the truth about this grossly underestimated disease. This book makes it clear that we need to stop blaming the diabetic and start holding the disease itself, autoimmune diabetes, accountable for the progressive and unrelenting destruction of human life. Whether you're a parent of a child or yourself a diabetic, you can't afford to choose ignorance over knowledge or convenient platitudes over reality. I wish more people had the courage of Deb Buttefield to simply tell the truth. [...]

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book changed my life!, May 11, 2000

By 

Mark Shapiro (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Showdown with Diabetes (Hardcover)

Wow! I just finished reading Showdown with Diabetes. It is a beautifully researched work and is the first book (I have read many) that tells the truth about diabetes. This is a MUST read for everyone with diabetes. It is full of optimism and is truly an inspiration to all those who love someone with diabetes to get out and advocate for a cure. Thank you Ms. Butterfield!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Diabetes from the inside out, July 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Dawn Halverson,... (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Showdown with Diabetes (Hardcover)

Reading "Showdown With Diabetes" took me on a rollercoaster of self-examination about my own management of type I diabetes over the past 25 years. Deb's sharing of her experiences with this insidious disease will prompt significant reflection and realizations for diabetics and non-diabetics alike. If you are a diabetic, read it to ground yourself and share experiences with someone who has been there and back. If you are not a diabetic, read it to understand the impact of diabetes beyond insulin injections and finger sticks. But most of all, read it. And then commit yourself to supporting diabetes cure research.