My name is Yvonne, and I have been living with Type 2 diabetes for over 20 years. Before diabetes, I used to love eating steaks and fatty foods. When I was diagnosed, I had to change my lifestyle. I stopped eating fast food, cut out sugar from my diet and started exercising more by doing daily walks. Instead of eating 3 large meals a day, I have several small meals throughout the day which maintains my blood glucose levels. In order to monitor my blood glucose, I have to prick my finger once a day. I also use Metformin medication to control my diabetes. It is frustrating at first when you can't eat what you want, but you get use to it and can have small amounts of sugar when your diabetes in under control. My only advice is to watch what you eat, especially how much you eat. A mediterranean diet has worked great for me and nuts make a great snack when you are hungry. Metformin and the changes in my diet and lifestyle has worked to control my diabetes and other than occasional light-headedness, I can happily lead a normal life.

"It was cancer." With these words, my doctor wiped out any hope I had for the future I had so carefully mapped out for myself. I felt as if I had died on the operating table, and woken up in someone else's life.

I remember talking to my Aunt Audrey after Hurricane Katrina hit, and listening to her shell-shocked voice, too surprised to even cry. "They told us we would only be gone a couple of days," she said. "I left all my jewelry in my bathroom drawer... Now the bathroom's not even there anymore." When she came back home, all that was left was half a wall near the place where her front porch used to be. That's what cancer did to me: it came in like Hurricane Katrina, leveling the dreams I had so carefully built, as easily if they were a house of cards. I was left looking at the rubble, wondering how I was supposed to rebuild, and where to even start.

After you have cried over the things that cancer takes away - time, money, freedom, beauty, health, strength, hope - if you are lucky, you recognize that the disease is playing for keeps. Cancer doesn't just maim and weaken people - it kills people. It kills people every day, and it doesn't care if it leaves behind a mother or a spouse or a daughter to cry in the wake of your departure. If and when you realize this, you will start to think about your future - the immediate future, full of chest ports and hair loss and nausea - is what overwhelms you. The distant future - life after cancer - seems too far away to even imagine. This is the point where you must decide: to be, or not to be?

Cancer is an easy way to check out. No one will blame you, They will blame the doctors, or the drugs, or the viciousness of the disease, but they will never, ever say, "He did not want to live enough." Sometimes, it is true. But sometimes, we cannot wrap our heads around a future worth looking forward to, because it gets lost in the horribleness of treatment, the frustration of healing and the despair of lost hope. This is the point at which you absolutely must imagine a life AFTER cancer. If you cannot wrap your head around the idea that there will be a time in your life when you have overcome your disease, and regained your health, you will never be able to beat it.

What helps you beat cancer is wanting your future more than it does, and 90% of your healing will depend on your ability to visualize, and then run towards, the light at the end of the tunnel. It is not easy, putting one foot in front of another. It is so much easier to sit down, to give up, to rest and tell yourself you do not have the strength to fight. What you must remember is you are fighting for your life, that it is a life worth fighting for, and that you cannot settle for less than a knockout. Come out swinging. Go twelve rounds. And kick cancer's ass, with every ounce of strength you have. Do this, and you CAN beat it.

- April Capil

(Diagnosed at 34 with Stage IIIA breast cancer; 6 months of AC and Taxol, interrupted by gallbladder surgery, bronchitis, and shingles. 5 weeks of post-chemo radiation therapy, interrupted by a post-op infection of M. fortudinum, treated with two months of antibiotics. Finished treatment one week shy of my 1-year diagnosis anniversary, and I am currently cancer-free. Blogs at http://teamapril.blogspot.com and http://www.youtube.com/aprilcapil

Arthritis Treatment

Email: razz100@shaw.ca
My name is Paul, I have had psoriatic arthritis for about 15 years. At first it was just swelling and pain in my finger, but over the years it spread to other joints in my body. When it spread to my knee joints due to a previous injury, the pain got so bad that I couldn't walk without a cane or crutches. I had cortisone shots into my joints, which did reduce the pain and swelling, but only temporarily. I tried other treatment options such as heavy anti-inflammatory drugs, ion wrist bands, acupuncture and other medications, but they didn't help. Two years ago, my doctor recommended Enbrel. After my first injection, the pain in all my joints were completely gone. Now I can go back to having a normal life with no joint pain. Please contact me if you or someone you know has Arthritis and would like to talk about it.