Coaching: build a diabetes plan your whole family can be part of

Diabetes involves everybody you travel and play with, live with, and eat with. I have had type 1 since 1990 and there have been quite a few Better Together Diabetes learning experiences in my life. I left my backpack of diabetes essentials on a Boston to New York bus vacation trip and tracked it down with my kids. I keep a set of SweetTarts within easy reach of most of the places I hang out. I also learned how to break the ice and make the unique diabetes connections to people across settings, whether that was conversation about a sensor potentially beeping at a funeral, talking to colleagues about diabetes at a new job, or working through sports and athletics both as a coach and as an athlete. All of life comes served up with diabetes. Together this collection of millions of learning moments will help me shape a coaching plan for you and your Better Together Diabetes team.

Lived experience, brought into your family's plan

Your family sets the goals. Here is what I bring to them.

Student, athlete, partner, dad, and coach

Type 1 influences life as a coach, a teacher, and a dad. I’ve supported other kids on trips and mentored high school and college students with diabetes. I have completed athletic events with high and low blood sugars while calculating insulin injections, and of course I’m always thinking of my family first and how I can help them be connected and more at ease with my diabetes.

A plan the whole house runs

At home, the design of diabetes moves from the refrigerator to where the SweetTarts are and what's in the cabinets. My family knows where the glucagon and the nasal spray are, and also what to ask and how to step in during a low: simply placing out five or ten SweetTarts, asking "Is this a five or a ten SweetTart? Here you go," and putting them in front of me if I need them, instead of asking "What's your number?" during a low, when you might not be quite yourself.

Healing with diabetes along for the ride

I wrote Diabetes Fit and Injury Recovery from my own Achilles recovery, along with my experiences of frozen shoulder recovery and other injuries: understanding how glucose, rest, food, and rebuilding muscle come together while the body is healing and dealing with diabetes.

Trips to Norway, desert living at Burning Man, scuba life in the Caribbean, exploring national parks, and city life

Vacations guarantee the unexpected will come up: unplanned extra days in Helsinki, long train rides, jungle hikes that go off the path, walking with a cane on crooked cobblestone streets, or exploring coral reefs underwater. How do you deal with the uncertainty of diabetes on vacation so everyone has fun and is relaxed? There are so many possibilities. That obviously starts with the logistics, but we also need to bring everybody together for a plan so everyone can travel well.

Guides and apps made for families

I wrote the Better Together Guides and created the BTD apps and interactives to bring playfulness and artwork to glucose readings. As a credentialed researcher and scientist, I build from the science and research notes combined with the practical experience of diabetes, to bring apps, icebreakers, and storytellers that help everyone understand diabetes Better Together and leave with a better plan going forward.