My story is much like yours. Being misdiagnosed for 10 years for something a $1 blood test could have found. I diagnosed myself and changed doctors till I found one that would test me for diabetes. 9 bouts of Pneumonia should have been enough reason to test, but...

I agree with you on herbal medicine. I've been studying and learning for 35 years now. There is a place for both herbs and prescription drugs. But knowing I have had 4 MAJOR reactions to medications, I try to work with a doctor to try herbs first.

Diet, exercise and weight are no guarantee to prevent illness. Genetics and the chemicals we breath plays a big part too. Everyone should do a little research on the number of athletes with either type 1 or 2 diabetes or the exercise guru's who have had heart attacks.

In my mind, saying herbs (or prescriptions)is the only way is akin to trying to say all "whatever color" people are ______. Everyone is different, there are no guarantees and we have ZERO idea of exactly what all the chemicals we have been eating most of our lives does to our bodies.

I am going through doing without the first diabetes medication that actually worked for me. Why? My insurance changed prescription drug companies at the new year. Suddenly I needed to be pre-certified for a drug I had been taking for months.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a new doctor, because my old doctor hasn't managed to complete the process for pre-certification in two months, lol.

I don't know what the answers are. I am not affiliated with any political party because I don't trust any of them. I will soon run out of money to keep paying for the $650 a month insurance that my husbands company had to provide me after he died. But I live in a Republican states that little offer ZERO help to people in my age group. I guess I will go live under a bridge somewhere if a miracle doesn't happen.

I wish you luck and urge you to hang in there. Miracles tend to come at the last moment.