After my hospitalization, my family doctor sent me off to camp: diabetes boot camp.
I didn’t want to go at first. Partly this was because the post-stroke fatigue still gripped me, and the aftereffects of being in the ICU were still reverberating. I was doing well to shower everyday and dress myself. I didn’t think I was up to learning new things on top of everything else I was going through.
But being a careless patient was what landed me in that ICU bed in the first place, so I went, prepared to be bored. Oh, was I wrong.
My first stop was at the dietitian/diabetic educator one floor down from my doctor’s office. She was great, gently interviewing me about my hospitalization and providing me with tissues when I started crying again. She walked me through a basic meal plan and gave me a list of suggested foods for meals and snacks. She made me feel like I could get a handle on my diabetes outside the structure of the hospital.
I thought this one-on-one consultation was going to be the best part of camp. I’ve never really been a fan of group stuff, so what could a short series of group sessions give me that I didn’t already have?
Wrong again!
What the group sessions gave me was a sense of community. I wasn’t alone. There were other type 2 diabetics who struggled with changing their approach to meals, with remembering snack time, with facing the prospect of the long-term effects of diabetes. I was part of a group I’d never wanted to join–that none of us had wanted to join–but that was okay, because we all were in the group now, and we all wanted each other to succeed.
I still have my diabetes boot camp book. I don’t need to consult it as often as I used to, but I take comfort in knowing where it is. When you’re diagnosed with a chronic illness that you have to manage for the rest of your life, you have to grab to whatever lifeboat, whatever parachute, whatever safety net is available.
I’m glad my doctor pushed me to attend. I’m glad I didn’t push back.
Rachel
I'm a writer, a knitter/spinner/weaver, a young stroke survivor, and a type 2 diabetic.
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