Simon, Mila and Mike are just a few of the people with diabetes who are connecting online. They are not alone and neither should anyone living with diabetes or caring for people with diabetes be. Diabetes Advocates can help individuals connect with the support they need to live better lives with diabetes.

learn more at:diabetesadvocates.org

I’m fragile. I’m scared and I’m insecure. This is who I am and what diabetes has helped me accept. Misdiagnosed, I found myself ten days in the hospital with life threatening infections and severe DKA. All but blind and with limited mobility, I came face-to-face not only with insulin-dependent diabetes but the reality that those I had long counted as friends had abandoned me.abandoned me.

Diabetes has brought me both the best and worst moments of my now middle-aged existence. It has brought me to death’s door and through the valley of loss. It has crushed and created, it has built and destroyed, it has connected and broken. It is both a harsh schoolmaster and a loving mother. It has brought me to an online community.

I have not arrived but my journey has begun. Vision I have not arrived but my journey has begun. Vision and mobility improved, I am setting out on the road of life armed with experience and hope. I stumble. I fall. And I make a mess of the simplest things. I tear up and I break down, I carry more scars than souvenirs of success but now I carry them with pride. With flights booked to visit the friends I have made in the Diabetes Online Community, I join them as I shout, “You can do Online Community, I join them as I shout, “You can do this!”

I’m Mike. I was diagnosed decades ago when I was 5. It’s been tough sometimes - a lot of times, especially as a teenager or in my early 20’s. I just wanted to give up. I had a lot of burnout, and I wanted to be ”normal” - whatever that means - and I really wish I had been able to find somebody just to talk to, to realize that I was not alone. To just know that there were other people out there going through the same things that I people out there going through the same things that I was going through and struggling with. I knew that there were others, but I could never really find them.

I went on Google and I searched. Amazingly, I found a lot of other people out there who shared my experience. I read stories about living lives with diabetes. The discovery of these people has been life changing. I no longer feel alone. At times, I still feel I don’t want to do this. I have faced depression compounded by diabetes and I have found strength by tuning into friends’ stories online. I know I can pull by tuning into friends’ stories online. I know I can pull through.

Fundacion Dulce Guerrero

mila

Managing Editor, Diabetes Mine™

mikesimon

Author, Simon from the 70s

Who Are We?

What Do We Do?

We are a collective of individuals who offer expertise, resources, and support to people

touched by diabetes. We believe that connecting with others living with diabetes or caring for people with diabetes, and

providing everyday emotional and anecdotal support, goes hand-in-hand with

the support of healthcare providers.the support of healthcare providers.

We accelerate and amplify the efforts of champions dedicated to improving the lives of

people living with diabetes.

diabetesadvocates.org

hope warshawRD, CDE, Author, Diabetes Advocate

The Internet has given birth to blogs, bloggers and many social networking sites. These now include venues by and for people with diabetes. They’re multiplying and helping people with diabetes and their loved ones connect in supportive, nurturing spaces.

I’ve observed the heart-warming growth of the I’ve observed the heart-warming growth of the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) and the network of Diabetes Advocates, the relationships it’s nurtured and the positive support it’s given so many. These observations, coupled with knowing how very unrelenting and demanding diabetes is, has led me to regularly encourage PWDs (Persons led me to regularly encourage PWDs (Persons With Diabetes) I work with to connect with Diabetes Advocates to learn, share, get and give support.

I encourage other diabetes educators to become aware of these resources and recommend them to their patients. Diabetes educators should increase engagement with the DOC, because working together, we’re a powerful combination that will help patients succeed.

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