Category Archives: Work and Diabetes

“But I’ve got to have health care”

June 3, 2019 – 10:11 am

There’s been a lot going on at work lately. The company I work for is in the process of getting rid of some positions, and some people I’ve worked with are going to be leaving over the coming months.

The hard part about this is that we all knew there would be a headcount reduction, but because of the way it was done, we spent about three months between having the headcount reduction known, and finding out whether we were affected. I’m not making a judgement call on that, but I think you can understand when I say it created some stress in the office and at home this Spring.

I’m happy to say that I’m still employed.

I’m also learning some new things at work, which I really like. A lot of people think if you don’t keep learning, you’ll become irrelevant after a while. In truth, I just think that doing the same thing and never doing anything new is boring. So I’m glad to keep learning for that reason above any other.

Through all of this, remarkably, my blood sugar has been good. My most recent A1c was stellar, in fact.

The reason for this is because I am employed with benefits and don’t have to worry about how to pay for health care. There may be no more significant reason for my success than that. Being enrolled in my employer’s health care plan has been a critical part of living well with diabetes.

I am an increasingly rare breed in America. Someone who is employed full time, with good benefits (including a health insurance plan), and enough compensation to pay for my out of pocket medical and prescription costs.

In the past few months, I spent a lot of time planning and calculating about how to survive if this wasn’t the case anymore. What kind of job could I land? How much money do I really have to make? If it came down to it, how much less could I take if I could just get a job with health care benefits?

I fear that this is exactly what some of my colleagues are going through at this very moment.

How did we get here? How did we, collectively, as a nation, allow ourselves to have our hopes and dreams for a better future be reduced to “but I’ve got to have health care”?

Not all of the people being let go at work are in the United States. All of our people losing their jobs except the ones here in the USA live in countries with some sort of national insurance that will protect them and provide basic care. To be sure, they pay taxes for this privilege, but they also won’t have to worry about needing to go to the emergency room after they finish their employment with our company.

We all know what needs to be done here. We know who is standing in the way of making that happen. We can do something about it. If we truly believe in health care as a human right, we need to confirm that with votes. It won’t be quick, but I can guarantee the effort will be worth it.

By StephenS | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

What 20 years has taught me.

February 16, 2018 – 10:11 am

I’m one of the lucky people in America these days. I’ve been lucky enough to last a couple of decades working for the same company.

Tomorrow will officially mark exactly twenty years since I started working there, and as you might expect, diabetes has intersected a lot of the past two decades. Consider the following:

– I was 35 years old when I started working there

– I had been living with Type 1 Diabetes for 7 years when I started

– I didn’t start wearing an insulin pump until I had been there 12 years

– I didn’t start wearing a CGM full time until I had been there 19 years

Those little nuggets are just for starters. I’m on my fourth insulin product since I began working at my current job. I’ve tried three different CGMs now (four if you count two different versions of Dexcom), and worn at least four insulin pumps, including those worn in clinical trials.

There have been a lot of changes in my diabetes in 20 years, and a lot of change in me. I’ve got less hair, and more weight. I wear more devices, but I haven’t managed my diabetes any better than I’m doing right now.

This milestone is a little different than my 15 year anniversary at work. I’m in a new, much bigger department, so not everyone knows me yet. But in a way, that’s good. I’m beginning to like new challenges, and I’m finding that adapting quickly is one of the surest ways to sticking around after all this time.

We’ve had our ups and downs over the years. Things haven’t always been good, for my job or my diabetes. If you’re lucky, these things usually iron themselves out over time, or you don’t wind up spending a lot of time in your job. Or living well with diabetes.

My job needed to be more empathetic to the minute-by-minute unpredictability of diabetes. I needed to let go of the idea that my job was my identity. I think we both did pretty well.

Where do we go from here? I don’t know yet. I certainly hope I won’t have another 20 years in the workforce. But like I do in this job, I want to keep learning and growing. At work or in real life, my goals aren’t to climb the ladder. Instead, I’d be satisfied if I can just be better.

By StephenS | Also posted in Milestones | Tagged , | Comments (3)

Same diabetes, new audience.

June 19, 2017 – 9:18 am

Many of you know that my job has seen a few changes lately. After over 19 years as part of my company’s Human Resources department, I am now in Technology.

That transition hasn’t been too difficult. I was really doing technology-related work anyway, and my daily duties haven’t changed much, though they’ve changed a little. The team I work with now has been very welcoming. It’s been about as smooth as I could have hoped.

But (and you knew there would be a But)… I’m working with a new group of people, on a new floor. And most of them don’t know that I live with diabetes. It took me years to get my HR colleagues comfortable with my diabetes. How am I going to transition my diabetes to a new environment?

Well, I have a few things going for me. First of all, I am not the same person who walked in the door of my company with barely seven years experience with Type 1 diabetes. Also, I know way, way more about diabetes, how to manage diabetes, and how to advocate for myself than I did back then.

And my company has changed too. We’re not the same white shirt, dark suit wearing uber conservatives that we were in 1998… though no one could ever accuse me of being a white shirt, dark suit wearing uber conservative, then or now. Today, as a whole, we’re much more accepting, much more caring.

It helps too that one of the people on my team, two desks down, wears exactly the same insulin pump that I do. We might be the only two pumpers in the entire building, maybe the entire company. So in the diabetes respect, I am in a much more advantageous position today.

But even if I weren’t… how would I deal with it? How do I express and educate others at work about diabetes? Pretty much the same way I do now.

By being open enough to do BG checks at my desk, and my new desk is in one of the most conspicuous places on our floor.

By checking my CGM in the middle of a meeting.

By sharing things like clinical trial participation and my volunteer work with DPAC and the Diabetes UnConference.

Sometimes, by shocking my co-workers, eating a cookie or two that someone brought in. Or by turning down a cookie or two and doubling down on water when my BG is high, and explaining that.

Now, it would be easy to say I do these things because I’m a diabetes advocate, and because I want to set a good example. Because I can hopefully help someone who encounters another person with diabetes understand. All those things are true.

But I also do these things because I just don’t have the patience anymore to bring people along slowly on my diabetes. They work with me, they should know about the diabetes. I’ve survived 26 years with this condition. I think I’ve earned the right not to keep it to myself until I’ve made them comfortable enough to handle it.

Work is hard sometimes. Diabetes can be hard all the time. I like to think that people are stronger than we sometimes give them credit for. My new co-workers are nice.

My only advice: don’t sell your co-workers short. They can handle your diabetes. And if they can’t? Better you know now. Don’t give yourself overtime trying to figure out how to ease them into the diagnosis you’re already living with.

By StephenS | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Sharing Diabetes in the Workspace

April 18, 2017 – 9:22 am

Every so often these days, I see someone post a question, either on Facebook or on Twitter, that goes something like this:

Has anyone had any experience sharing your diabetes with people at work? Do I have an obligation to tell my boss? My co-workers?

That’s a lot to ask all at one time. If you’re asking all of that at one time, you’re probably feeling a little stress over the implications of sharing your personal diabetes information with someone else. And that’s a perfect place to start.

This holds particularly true in the United States, but also in other countries: Before you share anything, know that legally, you are under no obligation whatsoever to share any of your personal medical information. With anyone. So the first question you really need to answer is: Do you feel comfortable giving up your legally protected right to medical privacy?

If the answer to that question is yes, and often it is, remember also that sharing that you’re living with diabetes does not mean you’re suddenly required to share everything about living with diabetes. It’s not all or nothing. You still control the flow of information. You can tell as much or as little as you see fit. Just remember you can’t un-tell it. Like adding spices to a recipe, you can always add more as you go, but you can’t take any away.

Those last two paragraphs are really important in my mind. Most employers aren’t likely to make your work life difficult due to your unfortunate diagnosis. That would be illegal. But there are a lot of gray areas too. Imagine telling your employer about your diabetes one week, and the next week, suffering a difficult episode of hypoglycemia. Now, your boss comes to you and says, “How can we keep this from happening in the future?”.

This has happened to me. And it was uncomfortable. And initially, I handled it poorly. Instead of blaming the diabetes, I blamed myself for the hypo, and that set the idea in my employer’s mind that I alone was responsible for making sure there were no more hypos at work. Ever. That’s about as likely as saying it’s never going to rain again.

It also set the idea in my employer’s mind that they could ask me about my diabetes, my personal issues with diabetes management, and pass judgement on them, whenever they wanted. It took a number of years to break them of this habit. If I had been open about the diabetes, and not so open about my management of my diabetes or how I felt about it, we both could have avoided some uncomfortable conversations.

Now, co-workers… Co-workers are a different thing. Co-workers can run the gamut from being incredibly kind, to feeling jealousy over something they don’t understand that they might view as “special treatment”, to giving unconditional support, to viewing your diabetes as a weakness.

I can’t pick your co-workers for you. I wish I could. I’ve been working since I was 14 years old (lived with diabetes since I was 28), so I’ve probably experienced all of these people, often without even realizing how they felt. I can’t change how people will react to my diabetes.

What I suggest to people, which I’ve mentioned at times, is to find someone at work who will understand. One of those supportive people. Find that one person you can count on. That’s who will be able to help get you juice when you need it, or will carry a meeting or a conference call for a few minutes while your glucose and your brain function returns to a reasonable level.

Then, be sure to thank them. Leave a thank you card on their desk. Take them out to lunch. Let them know how much you appreciate what they’ve done for you, and make sure they know they can count on you when they need you too.

In the final analysis, there isn’t one simple answer on whether you share, or how much you share, about your diabetes at work.

I will tell you this, however: If you do share, remember that it’s a relationship. Treat it like a relationship. Everything won’t be perfect at first. That doesn’t mean the efforts to nurture and improve the relationship between you, your diabetes, and your job aren’t worth it.

Sharing your diabetes is not likely to be an overnight success. If you do decide to share, expect that making it a success will require patience. Whether you share or not, the decision is up to you. And whatever you decide, and whenever you decide it, is okay.

By StephenS | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Frustrated, but okay with it (sort of).

October 5, 2015 – 9:24 am

Do you ever experience a low where someone really goes out of their way to help you, when you don’t really need it, and it’s kind of annoying?

This wasn’t help during a low… this was, unfortunately, hindrance.

About three minutes earlier, I felt like I might be low, and tested out at 58 mg/dL. I started to eat some candy I keep in a jar on my desk at work. I suspended my pump, for what that was worth, and I was sitting quietly, not doing anything. Just concentrating on the one thing I needed to do in that moment, which was eat the candy (or, as some might call it, Stephen-eat-the-cheeseburger), and nothing else. Then someone came by, and noticed I was low. Before I knew it, I heard “Come with me… do you have something in your desk?… Here, I got your juice… drink it. NO, DRINK IT… NOW”.

My co-workers have come a long way in their understanding of diabetes, and especially their understanding of the dangers of hypoglycemia. But a few days ago, I came to the realization that there is a big difference between basic knowledge of highs and lows, and knowing about the nuances of diabetes.

I was definitely low in this instance. No doubt about that. But I was already treating, and as we all know, ingesting something now does not mean my BGs will come up at the very moment that fast-acting carbs are ingested. It takes fifteen minutes or so. Nothing I can do about that.

But it’s very hard for people who don’t live with diabetes to just sit there and wait, or even understand what it means to sit there and wait those fifteen precarious minutes. Especially when they’re worrying about you.

I have to tell you… it warms my heart to know that the people I work with are so eager to help when I hit a bad low. By the same token, it takes more than just literally shoving a juice box in my face and expecting me to be okay. The truth is, I would have been okay eventually, even if I was the only one there.

The thing is, it’s easy for me to be frustrated, because my low wouldn’t have been so difficult had I been left to my own devices. I was sitting in a chair at my desk, eating candy. My pump was off. I knew it was going to take a bit, but I knew I would eventually be okay. I didn’t need the extra grabbing and juice shoving and holding the juice so all I had to do was drink it. I also could have done without the “It’s because he’s stressed… the stress is making him low” comments.

But… how can I be unhappy about the level of concern and effort put into this moment? In reality, I cannot expect someone who doesn’t live with diabetes to know the difference between what 74 mg/dL feels like, and what 44 mg/dL feels like. And they really wanted to help me. How can I complain about that?

In the end, for all of the frustration, it’s just another brief episode in life with diabetes. I need to go through the mental checklist, examine the moment, and see if there’s anything I could have done better. To not do that would be folly. If it turns out it was just one of those crazy lows that happens from time to time despite our best efforts at diabetes management, then I just have to let it go. And thank everyone who tried to help me.

And be happy that there are people who want to help when I need it, even if I don’t need it all the time.
 

By StephenS | Also posted in Lows | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)
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