One of medicine's most remarkable therapeutic triumphs was the
discovery of insulin in 1921. The drug produced astonishing
results, rescuing children and adults from the deadly grip of
diabetes. But as Chris Feudtner demonstrates, the subsequent
transformation of the disease from a fatal condition into a chronic
illness is a story of success tinged with irony, a revealing saga
that illuminates the complex human consequences of medical
intervention.
Bittersweet chronicles this history of diabetes through the
compelling perspectives of people who lived with this disease.
Drawing on a remarkable body of letters exchanged between patients
or their parents and Dr. Elliot P. Joslin and the staff of
physicians at his famed Boston clinic, Feudtner examines the
experience of living with diabetes across the twentieth century,
highlighting changes in treatment and their profound effects on
patients' lives. Although focused on juvenile-onset, or Type 1,
diabetes, the themes explored in
Bittersweet have
implications for our understanding of adult-onset, or Type 2,
diabetes, as well as a host of other diseases that, thanks to drugs
or medical advances, are being transformed from acute to chronic
conditions. Indeed, the tale of diabetes in the post-insulin era
provides an ideal opportunity for exploring the larger questions of
how medicine changes our lives.