Love is in the air! Some of the best things that have come as a result of the diabetes community are the relationships, from friendships to romance to everything in between. And some of those relationships have gone on to become families; united by the pancreas, joined at the heart. Here’s a love story from Rebecca (Reba) Redmond about the incredible support of her now-husband.
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My now-husband and I met over 17 years ago. In a field. At a party.
We got to chatting and really hit off, but before things really took flight I felt oddly obligated to tell him I had type 1 diabetes.
And his response took me by surprise.
First, he told me that his beloved step-father (after whom our son is named) had type 1 diabetes. Then he started asking me questions, “What was your last A1C? How do you manage it? Do you test a lot? Do you see an endo regularly? What’s your range like?”
I didn’t know what to do. I was caught completely off-guard. He knew everything, he had already seen all of the good and (unfortunately) bad diabetes can throw at a person. And he was ready to dive right in with me.
Since that discussion, there have been many more and several hurdles. He has taken each one in stride, researching and attending most of my appointments (whenever I’ve asked). And when we discovered I was pregnant back in 2009, he made sure that both myself and our baby were in the best care. They deemed it a high-risk pregnancy and we had appointments weekly for the entire 38(ish) weeks.
He never missed a single one.
As I struggled with my needle phobia and neared complete burn out, he helped me find someone to talk to, and he (along with our son) encouraged me to switch from MDI to pump therapy after nearly two decades of injections.
He has even switched jobs on more than once in hopes of finding benefits that would make the Diabetes thing a little easier. And now he has. For the first time in my 21 years of T1D we have coverage. We no longer have any savings (because he insisted we use it to pay for a CGM) but now we breathe a little easier…
That guy has never once complained about my T1D or all the work that goes in to being a stand in organ. He is my greatest champion, always encouraging me to use my voice (and familial connection to Banting) to help others, and the fastest juice box-grabber I’ve ever known. And the running joke in our “blue” circle of friends is that I got the partner/spouse that came pre-trained!
I love him. He’s the best 5.5er there ever was.
