“Balancing Diabetes” by @SixUntilMe

I’m going to do something really rare: I’m going to endorse a book I’ve barely started reading. It’s Balancing Diabetes: Conversations about finding happiness and living well, by the famous diabetes blogger Kerri Sparling, aka @SixUntilMe. (She was six until she was diagnosed and became the “me” she is today.)

This endorsement is rare because I’ve always said I can’t endorse something I haven’t consumed. (Did you know that most book blurbs are written by people who haven’t read the book?) But this situation is out of the ordinary:

• Last week at the SuperPatients event in Providence, I witnessed what a powerful speaker Kerri is. She owned that room for her 20 minutes – like a good TED Talk. And she wasn’t just a capable speaker – she created the world of living with diabetes. As much as I’d heard about diabetes through the years, I had never gotten the world of living with it. To create that in minutes takes extraordinary skill.

• She signed my copy of her book, and last weekend I started reading it. Bingo, in the first pages it was clear that this is the same voice. (I should have known, because her blog is just as direct and powerful, but so often books come out different. This one works.)

So I’m endorsing. Buy it if you want to understand life with diabetes, or if you want a great read about how different a patient’s point of view is, compared to what we read about the disease per se.

I also love that Kerri has woven this disease into her life, and though she doesn’t love the disease, she loves her life. That’s important, because the book is about balancing, about having a life you love.

See, that’s patient centered care: looking at care from the patient’s perspective, separate from what the lab tests say.

p.s. I first learned of Kerri years ago when she blogged about her pregnancy. Why’s that remarkable? Because when she was diagnosed as a child she was told she shouldn’t have children. Well, as fans of her Facebook page know, today she has one of the most remarkable, amazing four year olds in the world. The child’s nickname is Birdie… check the cover.