Diabetes Blog Week- Day Two

Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let’s pretend to write our own. Tell us who you would write the petition to – a person, an organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) - get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change?

I looked at this and instantly knew who I would address. How I would address them is still a little sketchy, but everything has to start with an idea, right? So, it's not in a petition-like format, but maybe, one day it will be.

I would write the Navajo Nation. Type 2 diabetes is pandemic on the Reservation and it is affecting children who are still in elementary school. I think the Navajo Nation has made progress. In Window Rock, they have a Special Diabetes Project Fitness Center that is free for anyone who lives here (including year long volunteers- W00T!) which is a good start. Indian Health Services provides a majority of healthcare for Natives, but education is sometimes lacking.

When I came out here in August, I had to continuously explain my insulin pump and even what type 1 diabetes was. There were some people who didn't know that there were different types. I wasn't offended, just a little surprised that there was limited knowledge on something I thought was a pretty public disease. 

So, I would petition the Navajo Nation to create more educational resources for diabetes. I would ask the U.S. Government for more money for research for the Native American populations and for everyone else as well. I would petition the Navajo Nation to revise their laws and regulations that say because I am white, I cannot be treated at their hospitals. I would ride myself and others of being told that who you are, what you look like precludes you from certain treatment. 

In a word (or two): medical equality.