Diabetes from Both Sides of the Exam Table
By Rachel A. Gifford, RN, MN, CDE,
When people ask what pushed me to write A Gift in Wolf’s Clothing: Life with Diabetes, I often reply, “It might have been the wine.” Okay, that isn’t necessarily true. It was probably the whiskey.
My greatest hope for this book is that it will change your life for the better. We all get huffed-and-puffed by a wolf or two in our lives, and though I don’t know why that is, I notice that it is. I’ve learned some amazing things from my wolf, diabetes. If I had learned these things in an easier way, that would have been fine with me, but that’s not how it happened. Would I give up diabetes? Sure, in a heartbeat. Would I give up what I’ve learned from it? Not on your life—or mine.
The first time I thought of writing a book about diabetes came after I had become a nurse and Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE), and counseled my nine-thousandth patient on how to live with this wretched disease. I have lived with diabetes since my twelfth birthday, and in my family, both my older sister and mother also lived with the disease. It seems to permeate every cell of my life, and I don’t mean that in a particularly good way.
What inspires you to write, other than the whiskey?
As I walked into my office, feeling the frustration of the patients I had seen that morning, I realized I wanted to help diabetics find and use their voices. Living with diabetes is hard. Sometimes the healthcare system (of which I am a part)—in our heroism to coerce the diabetic person into becoming a small, automated robot excelling in diabetes care—makes it more difficult than it has to be. There is so little control we have over living with diabetes. All the control goes into keeping the disease itself from running amok, and then dealing with the consequences when it invariably does. Try as you might, a person simply cannot regulate blood sugar as well as a pancreas. I first envisioned my book title as Learning How to Think Like a Pancreas.
Living with diabetes from both sides of the exam table has repeatedly caused me to share in the misery and the triumph. My career has consisted of implementing diabetes research and education in both academics and the pharmaceutical industry for more than three decades. I have published in scientific medical journals, as well as the Saturday Evening Post so maybe I was the one to write a voice-finding book. It was worth a try.
How did you get started?
I’m a people person, so my first step on the journey was to speak to a woman I knew who was a writer. That led to a writing class, writing groups, and I was off and running. In seven short years, I had a book, but no cover. I did all the literary things of writing a book proposal, sending it off to agents, getting rejection letters. I also got a few phone calls from agents, and that’s when I learned that submitting my book to an agent or publisher took me out of the loop on expediency. As long as it had taken me to write the thing, I certainly didn’t want to add another two years before it got published. I’m not a young woman.
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That ultimately led me to AuthorHouse. I loved being able to talk about my book with a real live person at AuthorHouse. My author services representative was well-trained and empowered in her job, so she could be truly helpful. Not only that, she got excited about my book, and the ideas we shared in getting publicity. Although AuthorHouse provides book cover services, I was able to use my own artist for the book cover. Inserting that customization caused a few glitches, and initially knocked my book off timeline. Once we addressed the timeline issue, A Gift in Wolf’s Clothing hit the presses, and we made our deadline. |
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What has it meant for you to see your work published?
There is a big difference between dreaming of writing a book and actually looking at your book, that heretofore has been a shuffle of loose papers covered with editing marks. A book with a real cover, terrific art, and lovely colors; fully published and sitting on the shelves of Barnes and Noble with an ISBN tag, and my own copyright inside the cover; that is what it’s all about.
What are you working on now?
In 2000, I started DM Strategies, Inc., a company providing diabetes education seminars to both healthcare professionals and the public. We conduct programs across the United States, and A Gift in Wolf’s Clothing has become the text for our curriculum. I also present lectures in universities across the nation for students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and other allied health fields, with A Gift in Wolf’s Clothing as required reading. These lectures present a bird’s-eye view of what it is to live with a chronic disease from both sides of the exam table.
In April 2008, I will begin as the “Resident CDE Blogger” for DiabetesSisters.com, a marvelous Web site providing the opportunity for women with diabetes to discuss our issues in dealing with the disease, from pregnancy to family issues to menopause. It provides an exchange of information dealing with diabetes that is helpful to both sexes, and the discussions on pregnancy and menopause will make any man grateful for the simplicity of his hormones!
Any closing thoughts for folks on a journey similar to yours?
For fellow writers, I share the wisdom of the great prophet Nike: “Just do it.” For all of us who have diabetes, may we find our voices and use them to heal ourselves, change the healthcare system, and rock the world.
