Rachel A. Gifford, RN, MN, CDE
Rachel Gifford, nationally renowned diabetes educator and speaker, shares her story of living with diabetes from both sides of the exam table. A Gift in Wolf’s Clothing begins when she diagnoses herself with her older sister’s diabetes urine testing kit, and her initial reaction of, “Death makes more sense than trying to live with this disease.” Over time she arrives at the conclusion that if she cannot kill herself to escape diabetes, she’ll have to learn how to live with it! Living with diabetes takes her into a career of helping people with diabetes to hopefully, have an easier time of it than she did. This is a story of adventurous learning, that will bring you to tears, make you laugh out loud, and help you find your own spirit of tenacity in dealing with the “Wolves” life may have brought your way.
“Reading A Gift in Wolf’s Clothing has made me a better doctor..." Charles Reasner M.D, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio
Rachel Gifford has amassed the world’s largest body of data and knowledge in the care of her own diabetes. However, no one else entered the competition.
Ms. Gifford is a registered nurse with a masters degree, and a certified diabetes educator. As past associate editor for Diabetes Forecast, the lay publication for the American Diabetes Association, Rachel’s personal, amusing and informative articles have been published in Saturday Evening Post and Diabetes Forecast. She also is published in scientific peer-reviewed journals (more serious stuff).
As Directing Consultant of DM Strategies, Inc., Ms. Gifford has set her personal and corporate mission as: Changing the way diabetes is treated. DM Strategies, Inc. provides diabetes education strategies to pharmaceutical companies and nonprofit diabetes organizations. Rachel has lived successfully with diabetes since the age of twelve, and has focused on diabetes throughout her career. Her older sister also has type1diabetes, and her mother has type 2 diabetes.
Ms. Gifford spent ten years in Academics, where she won numerous awards and citations for research and education, which she hangs over the cracks in her office wall. In 1991 she transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry, continuing diabetes research. From 1996 to 2000, Rachel managed the Diabetes Professional Education team for Aventis Pharmaceuticals, a global pharmaceutical company. She left Aventis in 2000, to incorporate DM Strategies.
Rachel would like to be on Oprah, so if you have an Oprah contact, please stop reading this immediately, and let her know who it is.
Dedication
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.
Chapter 8
I awoke realizing it was President’s Day. At home my classmates were out of school, but school at the hospital would happen. I made up my mind - today was my own personal holiday. After all, did I not share a birthday with Abraham Lincoln? I did indeed.
Activity in the ward did not allow for more sleep. Nurses zoomed in and out, breakfast trays slapped onto tables, roommates stumbled out of bed and turned on lights. I lay quietly, studying the activity…a veritable anthill.
Veritable is a good strong word. It leaves no doubt to the reality of a thing, no room for question. It literally stresses the aptness of a metaphor. In fact, that is part of the definition, so I am being redundant. It’s good to have personal holidays so you can think about things like this.
“Hey, Rachel, you better get up, or you’ll be late for school!” It was Patricia.
“I’m not going to school, it’s a holiday.”
“There are no holidays here. You can’t not go.”
