Welcome to diabetes stories. My intention for this web site is that it becomes a community where people can share their 'story' of living with diabetes and help guide and inform each other. By sharing our stories we teach through our experiences, what we've learned and how living with diabetes feels. My work is to help and inform others how to live well with diabetes – by improving medical competencies, building emotional resilience and using diabetes as a catalyst for a more fulfilling life.
I see living with diabetes as a stimulus to create greater purpose and meaning in life. We are all more in touch with the fragility of life, the preciousness of time, and, we can use diabetes as a catalyst to make our lives even more fulfilling and manifest what's truly important to us.
My philosophy and expertise in this work is twofold.
I have type 1 diabetes. I got it at 18 and have had it for 36 years. Four years ago I had a change of heart, and career. Click here if you'd like to know more about me.
I've made it my business to learn about the true substance of living with diabetes by interviewing more than 100 people who live with diabetes, those who have it and their loved ones, and experts in the field. These include endocrinologists, diabetes psychologists, certified diabetes educators, fitness coaches and frontiersmen and women in patient empowerment. I've also devoured books and articles about diabetes, change, coaching, neuroscience, happiness and our search for meaning. They give me new insight and pictures of how we can live with diabetes more successfully so that we're "thriving" rather than just "surviving." Click here, if you'd like to learn more about the research I'm conducting and the books I'm writing.
I learned something very early in my research interviewing people: we want to know what living with diabetes is like for others. Sharing our stories is the most fundamental way. I also learned something surprising. Stories poured out of people as if a release valve had been opened. When we finished talking they told me how helpful it had been to talk freely with an empathetic listener and to reflect on their early days with diabetes and the journey to where they are now. What I know now is that sharing our story is not just helpful for others, but also healing for ourselves and there are lessons to be learned for all.
As time and my research evolves, this web site will become interactive and be a place where you can find other people's stories and share your own. Please stay tuned. In the meantime, you can check my blog where I'll be posting industry news and developments, things I learn from others and my own blessings and harangues.