From Despair
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 18, I was quickly thrown into the confusing world of insulin, syringes and insurance navigation. Not only that, I was weeks away from my freshman year of college, a challenging time in it of itself. Adding diabetes to that was a recipe for disaster.
My first few years with diabetes were tumultuous, and that’s putting it mildly. Years four and five with diabetes weren’t much better. By the time I was 25, I hadn’t seen an A1C in the single digits, and I was the perfect example of a “non-compliant” patient. I wound up in the hospital to be treated for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), and met an endocrinologist who helped me see diabetes in a different light. Rather than focus on complications, he asked me what kind of future I wanted. When I shared my dreams of career and marriage, he firmly said, “You can have it. But if you continue this diabetes path, you won’t have it. It’s time to make a decision.”
For the first time, someone helped me understand the goals I could attain, not the ones I would miss because of diabetes. It took one person to change my outlook on my entire life.
When I was discharged, I was a different person. I had learned to advocate for myself as a patient. And once I started, I couldn’t stop. Insulin pump. Continuous glucose monitor (CGM). Alternative therapies. Choosing doctors that allowed a partnership in my care.
Years later, in 2010, I learned about DiabetesSisters and attended one of their events. There, I learned the next step in advocacy—advocating for the health of all people with diabetes. I learned from so many women like me, those who walked my same journey, who shared my concerns, who dreamt the same dreams. And I realized my voice was that of other women as well.
I am now CEO of DiabetesSisters, an organization that educates and support women living with all kinds of diabetes. I went from despair to leadership and now see other women doing the same thing. Diabetes only makes us stronger and from now on, I’m moving forward, never again backward.
Read For the Tribe Itself by Sarah Vedomske.
