DBlog Week - My Other Half

Our topic today is The Other Half of Diabetes. We think a lot about the physical component of diabetes, but the mental component is just as significant. How does diabetes affect you or your loved one mentally or emotionally? How have you learned to deal with the mental aspect of the condition? Any tips, positive phrases, mantras, or ideas to share on getting out of a diabetes funk? (If you are a caregiver to a person with diabetes, write about yourself or your loved one or both!)

Given that today's prompt is talking about the other half of Diabetes, I asked my actual other half John to write this. He deals with this just as much as I do after all :)

When I first started dating Emma, her diabetes was obviously a big topic in conversation. But I soon found out how high and low sugars affect her both physically and emotionally, and how it affected me. The worst part was feeling so useless when I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know the difference between a hypo and a hyper.....

I made it my main priority to learn as much as I can so I could help, but there was nothing but improvisation when dealing with the emotional side of it. When Emma broke down one evening after a bad day with her blood sugars, I had nothing! She was sitting on the kitchen floor, crying her eyes out and I could just make out the words "I don't want this anymore...." I sat next to her and hoped I could find the right words. The sadness I felt, not just because she was upset, but the fact she was right, this is a life long condition and I can't do anything to fix it or sort it.

I told her how much I love her, I wasn't going to leave her and that I will love her diabetes too, if that's what it takes. I'm on the emotional diabetes roller coaster for good!

Now with her pump, which I know nearly as much as her about, it's very much a team effort. When her bloods are good, I celebrate with her with a little "yippie" or "hooray". And when not so good, we try work it out together whats gone wrong and what we can do to avoid it in the future. There's no magic technique to how to cope with the emotional side, but if you are in it together, you share the emotions good and bad. That makes it a little easier to know what to say, when to say it and how to say it.....or sometimes what not to say! Patience always helps too, things are sometimes said when things aren't going so well in any relationship. Just let it go, straighten it out when both your heads are clear later. A fuzzy head from hypos, hypers or just tiredness never make you think clearly! 



You can find more The Other Half of Diabetes posts over here.

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