Program for Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Offers Friendship
“Meeting at a hospital reminds you that you’re sick. Instead,
we meet at different restaurants and talk about our common experiences:
going to college, moving out, getting married. We’re people with
diabetes, we’re not diabetics.”
Johan had warned him.
At a “First Friday” event with the Herbert Family Program for
Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes, Daniel’s friend, Johan, cautioned
him to keep his insulin monitor out of the water. “It’s splash
proof, not waterproof,” Johan explained.
But Daniel jumped into a river stream while vacationing in Jamaica because,
well, it was Jamaica and Daniel is 23.
“I got over to the beach and I started hearing a beeping sound. I
looked at my pump, and it completely died. The first thing I thought of
was Johan,” Daniel says, laughing. “I was in the middle of
Jamaica, I didn’t have the proper supplies and I’m thinking,
‘Oh geez.’”
Daniel Diaz, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) at the age of
5, was able to call Hoag endocrinologist Daniel Nadeau, M.D. at the Mary
& Dick Allen Diabetes Center.
“He ended up helping me out and telling me what I needed to do. It
was amazing that I could call him. Really fortunate,” Daniel says.
“When I came back, I went to the next First Friday and told Johan
that he was right.”
“We were all laughing about it. It was cool to be in a setting where
we all understood the gravity of the situation but were able to laugh
about it, too.”
That’s the magic of the Herbert Family Program’s “First
Fridays.” The monthly social meetings brings together people ages
18 to 30 who have been diagnosed with T1D. Like Daniel, most participants
have had T1D since early childhood.
Evolving into adulthood is hard enough, but to manage those stresses along
with diabetes care requires extra consideration – and advice from
peers makes a huge difference.
“They gave me hard time, like, ‘How did you not know to be
more prepared?’” Daniel says. “If you’re explaining
it to a group of non-diabetics, they wouldn’t have got it. That’s
what I value,” he says. They’re a community of people who
understand what it is to live with diabetes. I didn’t have to explain
what the problem was and what it could have meant. They automatically
understood.”
Daniel especially appreciates that the group doesn’t meet in a hospital
setting. Rather than a “support-group feel,” Herbert program
members meet at restaurants, allowing for more organic socializing and
friendships as well as participate in other events like the JDRF Walk
“Meeting at a hospital reminds you that you’re sick. Instead,
we meet at different restaurants and talk about our common experiences:
going to college, moving out, getting married. We’re people with
diabetes, we’re not diabetics.”
“Free food and drinks? You don’t need to convince a college
kid to come for that. We also have other events throughout the year, like
an Angels game and a Christmas bowling party,” Daniel says. “Those
are always a lot of fun. It feels good to share our experiences and hang
out.”
The program benefits emerging adults who often find themselves thrust into
complicated situations for which childhood had not prepared them.
“When you’re a kid, there are so many activities and groups
for people with diabetes. After you turn 18, the resources are not the
same,” Daniel says. “There are greater challenges. You go
from your parents telling you what to eat and when to take your shots,
to having all that responsibility on yourself. Suddenly you can do anything
you want, eat anything you want. There is so much freedom, and it takes
a lot of learning to figure out how to deal with that.”
In the three years since he joined the group, Daniel has attended a few
weddings of group members and made lifelong friends.
“Everyone is so welcoming and so happy to have you there,”
he says. “I met so many awesome people. There will be a time when
I outgrow the group but I won’t outgrow the people that I met.”