what to do when your partner has diabetes

She’s even begun the process of making a nonprofit organization to help kids who are underinsured get the best life possible.

It also really jabs me in the side when I think about how many other kids are going through this and whether you have to be rich to live a decent life with type 1 diabetes.īrittany, the mother of my three children and my loving wife these days, started a blog for others with type 1 diabetes to know they aren’t alone. I still look back at those times in my life as a lesson, and nowadays I often find myself thinking how absolutely bananas it was. Now we were well insured with continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps, and paid-for medical care. I had to do more to help with this disease, so I enlisted in the U.S. So here we were, a bit more financially established, and this bastard disease was still rearing its head. The other end of the phone was an unfamiliar voice, telling me that Brittany had been leaving the gym when she blacked out from a low and backed my car into the woods. One morning, around 5 a.m., I received a call. Although Brittany was no longer rationing supplies, the constant battle with diabetes was still around. Still uninsured, however, Brittany and I would spend large chunks of our paycheck to afford the basics of diabetes: two types of insulin, blood sugar meter, test strips, and syringes. I no longer had to scrounge for furniture. So when we moved into the trailer, our jobs were better paying and our rent was lowered. So needless to say, our two minimum wage jobs weren’t cutting it.ĭuring our time in the apartment complex, Brittany had received an education in medical assisting, and I began an apprenticeship as a carpet installer for my father. Not only did we need to make sure there was food on the table and the rent was paid, but we also now had to make sure we had enough insulin and testing supplies for the month. So that’s where my life really became difficult. Really, the only issue they don’t tell you is that “manageable life” has a large price tag.

With proper management and supplies, you can have a normal life. “Her disease is manageable,” I can remember the endocrinologist telling us. And it added so many complications for both of us that the two years we spent living together uninsured and kind of thrown from the nest are the most vivid memories of my life. That’s when the reality of type 1 diabetes kicked me in the face. We dated for about four months, and then we moved in together. That “with diet and exercise you stop taking insulin for diabetes.” So meeting Brittany, I didn’t think that this was such a bad disease. We met in 2009, when the only idea of diabetes I had was what I’d seen on television.

What to do when your partner has diabetes