Do no harm

The Hippocratic Oath is known to be taken by physicians, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could take it as a population as a whole, an oath to one self, to other living beings and to the planet?

I believe everyone innately knows what "doing no harm" looks like. And it's astonishingly removed from where we find ourselves today. 

I despise being sick, and don't care for feeling like a cog in a machine at times with the doctor's appointments. Today I actually had one and I had lab work that I needed to get after the appointment at the lab the next door over. I handed the girl at the checkout counter my form, who reluctantly took it. I got my next appointment scheduled and she looked at me like "time for you to go now, bye bye." By her hand was what appeared to be a Dairy Queen blizzard or some equivalent thereof complete with chocolate swirl and a mountain of whipped cream. I can see you've found your calling here at the diabetes clinic. That's a good visual for all the folks coming in. "Oh, sorry, I think there's lab work on there for today," I said. "Lab work is before your next appointment," she barked at me. I felt like a homeless person at a soup kitchen. "One serving per guest and move forward with the line!" Nirvana's Something in the Way might as well have been playing in the background. "Oh, yes. Yes. Thank you. But I think that there was something there for today, too. A walk in for next door. The A1C wasn't ordered for this appointment yet." 

1 in 10 people are living with diabetes around the globe, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). By 2045, IDF projections show that 1 in 8 adults, approximately 783 million, will be living with diabetes. 643 million by 2030. I wonder: is it possible that this largely preventable disease will spiral into a horrific extinction moment for humanity?

As much as I don't particularly adore being terminally ill without insulin injections, I thrive around diabetics. If I had the money, I would absolutely open a wellness center for diabetics. I don't know if I would sleep, I would be so in my element. I get caught up talking to people in everyday social situations, like the dog park, about diabetes. It's increasingly common and it comes up more than you think. Usually after the conversation is over, I wish I could say something like, "Ok, well I'll see you tomorrow at 9am then and we'll get started." What I would enjoy about having a wellness center is that I would very much be a patient, too. My whole existence is centered on getting out of this predicament as best as possible. To quote Frost's A Servant to Servants: "He says the best way out is always through/And I can agree to that, or in so far/As that I can see no way out but through."