I’m just returning from my honeymoon, but before I get back into the swing of blogging, I have a few more posts to share. One year ago today, I wrote about how I was let go from my job and terrified about what I was going to do next. I had no idea what I was going to do, but here I am, a year later, feeling incredibly blessed to be returning to a job I love. Today, I want to introduce you to Sarah, who is facing the same situation I was. Sarah and I met at the DiabetesSisters conference in April and we immediately bonded. She’s spunky, smart, but unfortunately, still unemployed despite being highly educated – she has three college degrees! What’s a girl gotta do? Sarah shares her own struggles and how she’s taking control of a situation that can feel very, very out of control.

When I hear about another person who has passed due to “complications of diabetes”, my heart goes out to them and their family. People living on the outside of the diabetes world place the blame back on the person, “Well they must not have taken good care of themselves!” when little do they know… There may have been other factors that contributed to the person’s passing. Granted, there are conditions that could be diabetes related, or they could be genetic, like heart disease. Then there are the socioeconomic conditions that play an even bigger role on the well-being of the diabetic. I should know, I’m recently unemployed.

Being unemployed is not glamorous. Many people go to work every day hating their jobs, wishing they were unemployed or retired, but that dream of freedom and stress-free living is just an illusion. I think there is more stress when you are unemployed compared to working a high-stress occupation, especially if you are living with diabetes. The average person, while unemployed, worries about paying for where they live, how they will provide food for their family, and of course, finding another job. The unemployed diabetic, aka Me, worries about how they will feed themselves, where they will live, finding a job, making sure the job has health insurance benefits, paying for test strips (usually around $1 per strip, times at least 4 to 8 per day…), paying for insulin, paying for pump supplies, and some of us use a continuous glucose monitor, which may seem like an unnecessary luxury to some, but for people with hypoglycemia awareness, it’s a lifesaving device.

But how are you going to pay for all of this? What about unemployment? Will the state medical (Medicaid/Medicare) cover everything? What do I pay for first… food or test strips? What about insulin? What about my phone, in case I need to call for help? What about a place to live? It’s this circle of thoughts that plague me most days and sometimes it gets so overwhelming that I try my best to ignore it while my days searching for a job live on.

Speaking of job searching, do you know anywhere that will hire a 25 year old college grad that has three Bachelor degrees (yes, three: Anthropology, Criminal Justice, and Peace and Conflict Studies… not tooting my own horn, more like advertising!)? Because I have not. I have applied everywhere from department stores to fast food restaurants to government agencies. Either I have “too much experience” or I don’t have enough. Frustrating? Very much so.

What’s a girl to do? Last month, I headed down to the local unemployment office to file for unemployment to see if I qualify to receive any type of assistance in helping me make ends meet. Difficult pill to swallow. Here I am… filing for unemployment, having three degrees and still can’t find a job. But I don’t know what is more difficult… filing for unemployment and feeling defeated, or struggling to manage my diabetes and still feeling slightly defeated… and scared. I’m used to living the life of luxury, you know, days where I had health insurance that covered 12-15 test strips per day (yes, per day!), the everyday use of the CGM, and the use of the Omnipod. But now I’m testing 2-3 times a day, eating as low carb as possible to try to not use as much insulin, using the GM as a back up to testing and basing my boluses off the of CGM, which is strictly taught not to do. I must admit, my not-so-sparkly-and-amazing-but-decent control has turned into ridiculously-horrible-I-feel-like-I-gave up control and I don’t like it. Now I see how deaths due to the complications of diabetes are possible and can sneak up on a person overnight. But how can I stop this from spiraling out of control even further when I have limited resources and don’t know if or when I’ll get a new shipment of supplies? I can’t just “do it”.

How about we start with a change in attitude!

Starting right now, right this moment as I sit up late and type this, I vow to myself and everyone in the diabetes community (yes, that means you!) that I’m not going to let this get me down. Life can be so much worse. From here on, I’m testing at least 4 times a day. I may not be able to test more than that due to trying to stretch my supply to go as far as possible, but 4 times minimum. I need to keep a log of these few tests- got to make the most of the little information. Oh yeah, no more bolusing off of the cgm- That’s like betting my life on a sickly horse at a race like the Kentucky Derby, also known as a really dumb choice. So that’s my promise to you and to myself. When diabetes is my #1 priority, I’ll feel better knowing I’m doing the best that I can and I’m being the healthiest I can with the limited resources that I have. And in the mean time, I’m looking into COBRA (depending on how much money unemployment provides) and researching prescription coverage for those under or uninsured, I will make ends meet… I will and I can!

Sarah, I speak from experience when I say: you can do it! And if anyone else is in a similar situation, you can do it too. To find out more about Sarah – or to offer her a job! – check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.