"How Sweet It Is" Chronicles a Life with Type 1 Diabetes
“How Sweet It Is” is Liz McEachern’s one-woman show about living life with type 1 diabetes. It's part of the Toronto Fringe Festival, and is running until July 15th at St. Vladimir's Theatre in Toronto, Canada.
Liz wrote the play herself. It chronicles her life and her life choices (some of them not so good for diabetes), her lifelong passion for chocolate, and her ultimate journey through the land of diabetes management.
She plays all the parts herself. The cast of characters include:
- her dad who is a type 2 diabetic, who believes that doctors will kill him and that pie is a diet food
- her very, very proper British endocrinologist who says her A1C is fine, but by the way, her biological clock is ticking away
- her diabetes educator, who is a combination of Doris Day and Nurse Ratchett, who tells her she must never, ever succumb to the siren song of chocolate
- and a relaxation therapist who must have fallen right out of the 60's (and a bad acid trip) who gives her a little jingle bell and tells her she's a princess.
But the most poignant part of the show is when she learns that her eyes have been damaged from several years of uncontrolled blood sugar and she must undergo multiple operations. Her renegade eye doctor turns out to be a hero but although she's left with a perfect right eye, the vision in her left eye will never be normal, despite his best efforts.
She ends the play with the diabetes educator telling her that despite what she learned as a child, the rules have changed and now... CHOCOLATE IS ALLOWED!
Her reaction to this momentous news is a very merry celebratory chocolate dance. The audience was rolling in the aisles as she danced with a giant chocolate bar and welcomed it into her life, mentally, physically and spiritually.
Liz's play is funny, brave and touching, sometimes sad and very, very real. It's not a play about diabetes. It's a play about Liz, and how she's come to terms with the hand that life has dealt her.
Photo by Kevin Thom
Comments
Why isn’t there more information on 1.5 Diabetic or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults. I belive I have this based on what I have read on limited basis. Can you elaborate on this subject for the Diabetic Community.
Absolutely, Gerald. Thanks for the suggestion.
I think it’s important to have information about this too. I do have an article on Polyglandular Autoimmune Disorder here on the site. But, I’ll be sure to add info on type 1.5 and LADA.
Thanks for commenting,
Deb
Liz is brilliant!
Yes, she is.