Life with diabetes grants you automatic membership to the Unwanted Roommate Club.  Membership entails being randomly assigned, against your will, the most annoying, uncaring, hurtful, spiteful, unpredictable, and dangerous creature.  This creature will share your space for the rest of your life.  This includes your bedroom, your dinner table, your cubicle at work, your shoes, your medicine cabinet, your fridge, your car, your class, your relationships, and your every thought.  Not only is this roommate your constant companion, but to live, you must care for your unwanted guest’s every need.  But no one knows exactly how to do it (sigh).

Membership

Your invitation to this club is always a surprise.  It comes when you least expect it and there is no ability to decline the offer.  It comes and you are in.  Like it or not.  The rules of the club are variable and ever-changing, so you rarely feel that you are doing it right.  The club’s many members struggle too, yet you may never know who they are.  Members wear no badges, adorning clothes or telling logo.  They all just share the slow torture of an invisible, unescapable, hurtful roommate.  The irony of membership in this million-member club is that so many feel alone.

Silver Lining

Membership in the Unwanted Roommate Club does have one unexpected benefit.  Simply, it is the other members.  These others  “know”, “get it”, and have walked through the same pain.  Yet, most often we pass on the street, never realizing we share such an intimate story.  On the occasion when we see someone with a glucose tester, pump, CGM or pen there is an unseen connection.  “Ah-ha!  You are like me!  I know part of your world!  You know part of mine”.  For a moment our spirits lift as we recognize this other human who knows.  If bravery prevails we might reach out and introduce ourselves.  We share our roommate’s habits and rules, the struggles and successes,  and often tell the story of when our roommate showed up.

That is the story that binds us.  The day our lives changed and something new and permanent showed up.  There is a comfort knowing others have this roommate too.  We are in this club together.

Peace,

Patricia

Are you feeling alone?  Group coaching may be a great way to find other members of the “club”, learn a few new tips and support each other.

Message me for more information.