I have been blogging about diabetes – my experience living with diabetes and helping others live well with diabetes – for over 2 and 1/2 years. During that time I have struggled with figuring out where I fit in.
Before I started blogging I read several blog posts, and made some observations. I discovered that the Diabetes Online Community, while a wonderful place of support and camaraderie, was also a place for venting and complaining. And the topic of those complaints was very often health care professionals. This discovery plagued me because I’m one of those health care professionals! And because I also live with diabetes, I can relate to “both sides” and desperately want to help close the gap that seems to divide us.
I attended the live DSMA meet-up in August, where the topic of “bridging the gap between people with diabetes and health care professionals” was discussed. It was an interesting experience for me, but I didn’t speak up.
So here’s what I would have (maybe should have) said that night: People with diabetes and health care professionals both need to take a moment to recognize the work that the other is doing; our knowledge, experience and expertise; the passion that we both have for this disease; how hard it is to live with/work with diabetes; how busy we all are living our lives/doing our jobs; and that ultimately we all want healthy outcomes. Then we need to build trusting relationships and communicate openly. If one patient/provider relationship isn’t working, we need to seek another. We need to own our disease, and acknowledge that it’s the person’s disease to own.
People with diabetes and their health care providers can work together for successful relationships, which can lead to improved diabetes management and improved health outcomes. So that we can get on with living our lives!!
This post is my September entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetescaf.org/2013/09/september-dsma-blog-carnival-3/