May 2014 Sister Spotlight Harmeet Chhabra

May 2014 Sister Spotlight Harmeet Chhabra

As a child, I didn’t understand why I was getting daily insulin shots. I "strongly" believed the youngest child in every family had to take these injections for being the youngest in the family!! Much later I realized that was not the case and I was the only one in my neighborhood taking insulin shots on a daily basis. It made me feel. "different". Made me realize I am not like the child standing to my right or left. I'm different because I have to take daily insulin shots, test my sugars, eat my meals on time, can't have ice-cream on a daily basis, being treated for my lows and highs - basically live a life different from the norm.

Life in the United States is very different from when I was living in India. In my experience, there was not much awareness about the disease in India, even in a large city. No one understood why I was taking insulin injections or why I had to test my sugar multiple times during the day; they thought simply not eating white sugar would cure the disease.

 Some also thought they would get the disease by standing/sitting next to me. I was excluded from social activities. In my twenties, my so called "best friend" did not let me see her new born baby because she thought her baby would get the disease if I held her. One could not get a job if they revealed they had diabetes. At the time there were no laws to protect diabetics from being fired on medical grounds. In my first job, as a high school mathematics teacher, I had to hide the fact I was a diabetic from my employer. Unfortunately, my status was revealed when I had to go on a five-day camping trip with my students during the middle of a hot Indian summer. In my second job, again as a teacher, I was told to leave the moment I disclosed I was a diabetic. 

In the United States, there is more awareness and laws to protect you; people are more educated about the disease and if not, they try to learn about it. I feel more at ease talking about my medical problems in the United States as opposed to the 20 years in India where I had to hide it as if I had committed a crime.

Support from others is essential but to a certain extent. You still need to be strong, independent and self-sufficient, whether you like it or not. Sometimes I felt family support was well-initiated but did not result in the best outcome for me, and at times I felt I did not get enough.

However, in India, I never got any support from society. I remember while growing up, I was an avid basketball player but the school principal never allowed me to play any sport because they did not want to deal with the possibility of me having a hypoglycemic reaction. So I was forced to sit on the bench and watch my classmates enjoy various sports and physical activities.

As much as I appreciate the high quality of the healthcare system in the US, I believe organizations such as JDRF, ADA and DiabetesSisters offer more practical solutions and support to diabetics. I believe someone who is diabetic can offer more real life solutions and support to other diabetics. After all, only a wearer knows where the shoe pinches.

Harmeet was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 1 year, 9 months. She has been living with diabetes for over 40 years. She learned about DiabetesSisters through an online search and felt a personal connection to the vision and mission of the organization.