I won't lie. I had a hard time yesterday, after reading what was being hinted at. That four letter word that many of us don't even like to whisper. Because so many of us were told "5 to 10 years." and for many of us, it's been decades more than this.
The first thing I did this morning when my alarm clock went off was pick up my smart phone and opened facebook. I knew the "announcement" would be there. I knew that it would already be spreading like wildfire. And it was there. And I watched it. And the ENTIRE time I watched it, I felt robbed. I felt disappointment (and relief, but I'll talk about that feeling later, in another post).
Ninety percent of what was in that video announcement from the Diabetes Research Institute was information I'd heard before. The ten percent that wasn't something I'd read or heard before was simply an expounding on information that I already KNEW was being worked toward.
And nothing in it was actual proof that there had been any major breakthrough. Just information that they are working toward something that they feel is a good step forward. And then they asked for money.
It went from emotional robbery to a whole different kind of robbery.
I understand that the Diabetes Research Institute needs funding. I get that. I'm proud to say that I support several different fund raising programs that DRI gets money from and I've even donated money directly to DRI in the past. I am GLAD to help raise money to find a cure. And to advance technology and treatment in the mean time.
A fundraising announcement to help fund a different (or in this case, more advanced) line of research is NOT a major announcement. It's not a breakthrough. There's no need for an embargo until a specific date or time.There just isn't.
I want to have hope that a cure will happen. But after 27 years of living with diabetes, I really don't know that it will happen in my life. I hope it does. But I am not sure that it will. And I've accepted my reality. It's all I've ever known.
And while I'm terribly proud that they are continuing to research and making positive steps forward, I just felt like this morning's "announcement" might has well have been them telling me that mice have been cured. It's something I already knew.
