Jean

So on the plane ride back from Beijing I happened to sit beside this nice old lady from Vancouver. She's in her 70s or 80s for sure. She had help walking to her seat and then getting her insulin put into a bag of ice.

Seeing the insulin, I immediately steered our conversations towards health. I wanted to hear what someone who's been through it all had to say. So she has had Type 2 Diabetes for about 30 years and she was 40 when it happened. She used to do a lot of swimming and aquatics exercises. Also started a seniors club to exercise every day for an hour. About a year ago she got a foot infection and now she can hardly walk. She was on a cruise around asia and while her granddaughter and husband could go tour around, she was stuck in her cabin.

She started taking insulin last year because she couldn't keep her blood sugar down anymore. After starting to take insulin, she eats even more since the insulin controls her blood sugar for her and she doesn't have to watch what she eats. She talked about loving food - loving the medium rare beef and noodles and potatoes and bread. She said if she had the will power she would've gone vegetarian but she personally can't. She said on her cruise all she did was eat the buffets and sleep.

She's had cataracts growing in her eyes but they're not riped, so the doctors cant operate yet. She has all the symptoms I've read about for Type 2 Diabetes and frankly it scared the jeepers outta me.

I'm not judging since I know how hard it is to completely change your lifestyle. I'm not one to talk about self control. But I don't want to be blind or not be able to use my legs. I dont wanna be on drugs everyday and prick my finger everyday only to eat some more animals and carbs. My motivation against wasting away immobile, blind or or dying of a heartattack trumps any love for food. There's still so much of the world to see, so many new things to learn and people to meet.

She seems to have had a good life - a great husband, 4 kids and lots of grand kids. She said she wouldn't have lived any other way. She did recommend me to take a good look at her and keep trying to get back to my ideal weight and be vegetarian to save all the doctor visits, pills and pain that she's gone through.

Thanks Jean, you're my first in-flight friend that's really touched my life.