Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, and especially to our Type 3s – partners and spouses who live with our diabetes – and yet get none of the credit. 

I can only imagine it must be like sitting in the passenger seat of a car wanting to grab the wheel when you see your mate start driving into an embankment or veer off toward the shoulder – feeling powerless and helpless to course correct – and weighing when do you hover, anticipate, plead, get upset or just stand lovingly by. 

So today I’m saluting you, our loved ones who keep loving us with diabetes and who watch over and support us. 

I also want you to know there is a group function just for male Type 3s to come together and share their feelings and frustrations, perhaps see what we live with a little more clearly and learn how to lovingly help in our disease management. 

Diabetes Sisters’ annual “Weekend for Women” conference – May 3-May 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina – offers a parallel track at the conference for male Type 3s called “Partner’s Perspective Program.” It’s for partners, spouses and significant others of we women attending the conference.Brandy Barnes, founder of Diabetes Sisters’, and her very loving husband Chris, saw the need and how such a program would benefit both our men and ourselves. 

From the male viewpoint Chris says, “As partners of women with diabetes, we really do want to better understand their disease and how to best support them so that they can live full lives with diabetes for many years to come.  The success of last year’s program illustrated that this valuable program is filling a large void that has been overlooked for many years.”

The Partner’s Perspective Program kicks off on Friday night from 6-10pm with a fun, relaxing social event.  Saturday morning commences with Partners Perspective attendees walking through historic downtown Raleigh, NC in the Diabetes Awareness Walk to support their partners with diabetes publicly. 10am-5pm partners participate in separate education/breakout sessions  chock full of educational information about diabetes to help them better understand and support their partner. There will be lots of “how to” discussions from leading experts who understand the physical and mental challenges faced by women with diabetes. Then, partners join their loved ones for a celebratory lunch and watch their spouse/loved one be publicly recognized for the number of years she has lived with diabetes. Sunday, partners will join back together again for a fun social activity in downtown Raleigh, NC.  

“Weekend for Women” runs May 3-May 5 in Raleigh, North Carolina. I’ll be there, among many experts, leading a workshop on how to “Ignite Your Diabetes-Power.” Join us and make it an event you can go to with your partner and both go home and talk about. Register here. 

When I told my husband, now of 11 years, shortly before the wedding, “Maybe you want to think twice about this. You know life with a diabetic will be uncertain…” he didn’t miss a beat. “I’m with you and you’re with me,” he said, and he’s been saying it ever since.