Diabetes Ignored: Krystin's Life - Paperback

by Krystin Engstrand (Author), Gary Engstrand (Compiled by)

Diabetes Ignored: Krystin's Life details Krystin's struggle, in her own words, with her failure at diabetes management written over the course of her life. The book draws on her diaries, email and text messages, blogs, and Facebook posts, from high school through college, her travels, and her work. It tells her stories of frequent visits to the hospital, her organ transplants, and the pain and medical problems that accumulate as she gets older, including gastroparesis, esophageal stents, cataract surgery, and opioid addiction. Her narrative is heart-wrenching, heart-warming, uplifting, and depressing. The book also illuminates her parents' struggle with Krystin's diabetes from the time she was diagnosed at age 4 until she died at age 32. Krystin's humor shows up but so does the distinction between her public persona (such as on Facebook) and her private anguish both at the medical issues as well as her inability to deal with her disease.