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Join us as we sit down with writer Robin D’Amato to discuss her book, Sugar-Free. Robin delves into the inspiring journey of Ginny Eastman, a girl whose passion for basketball begins at six years old despite her battle with juvenile diabetes. We’ll explore how Ginny overcomes physical and societal challenges, the importance of lifelong friendships, and the impact of historical changes on her life. Robin also shares insights into her writing process and the significance of music in her storytelling.

Robin D’Amato is a writer.

She discusses her book, Sugar-Free.

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast, and get CME for this episode by clicking on the CME link in the show notes. Today we welcome Robin D’Amato. She’s a writer and author of the book Sugar-Free, which we’ll talk about in today’s show. Robin, welcome.

Robin D’Amato: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

Kevin Pho: So we’ll talk about your book in a little bit. First off, just briefly share your story and journey.

Robin D’Amato: OK. I became a diabetic when I was about seven, which actually mirrors the character in the book. Her journey is different than my journey, but our ages are the same, and a lot of our experiences are the same. But I did cobble it together with some other people I knew, because everybody’s journey is different. I was a dancer when I was growing up, and type 1 diabetes did not make that easy, but I danced till I was 45 or 50, so I kept plugging at it. And now I write books.

Kevin Pho: All right. So this particular book is called Sugar-Free, and before talking about the book itself, tell us about the events that led you to write this book in the first place.

Robin D’Amato: It was interesting, because this is my third book, and I never wanted to write about diabetes. I kind of felt that it was a personal thing, that everybody’s experience was different, and many other reasons why I didn’t want to go into it. But then I thought of the title, and I thought the title would be perfect.

And I thought, OK, what would she do? I don’t want to make her a dancer. So basketball, women’s basketball is in right now, I’m going to go with women’s basketball. I’m a big fan.

Kevin Pho: So tell us, what’s this book about?

Robin D’Amato: It focuses on Ginny Eastman, who starts playing basketball at the ripe old age of six years old. Her older brother, who is an ex-Vietnam vet, so he’s older than she is, had given her a basketball and started teaching her to play, and she just went crazy with it, she just loved it. So it follows her journey.

Then, like a year later, she becomes diabetic, and it completely freaks her out, completely freaks out the whole family, actually. And the story is about her learning to deal with it, and the changes that go on in treatment, because we’re talking about 1966 when she’s diagnosed. But things are so much different now.

Kevin Pho: So tell us about some of the challenges that your main character went through in the book, in terms of not only the diagnosis, but navigating all the repercussions from the diagnosis at that young age.

Robin D’Amato: Well, part of the problem in 1967 was that there was no blood testing. I mean, unless you went to the doctor’s office, you couldn’t sit at home and check what your glucose was. And if you were doing a urine test, it could be four hours ago that the urine test is, or two hours ago, that the urine test is reading. And say it was negative. It could be 100, it could be 40. Your blood glucose could be dangerously low and you wouldn’t know it, because there’s a big difference between 100, which is perfect, and 40, which is not perfect.

When the blood sugar is high, of course, you get lethargic, you start peeing a lot, I mean all sorts of things start going on in the immediate sense. But then of course there’s the long term that you have to worry about.

So being a diabetic, especially a type 1 diabetic, is much harder than people would think, because it’s not just about low or high, you have to really aim for the middle. And that’s very difficult, especially if you’re trying to do anything physical, because insulin back then, you would work out and then your blood sugar would drop, and you may or may not have a warning.

Kevin Pho: How did your main character navigate her athletic aspirations with the diagnosis of diabetes?

Robin D’Amato: At first, not so great. There were incidents that happened to her early on. One was a major hypoglycemic moment. She started to learn her body, and started to treat, not taking advice from other people as much as really listening to what her body was telling her, which started helping. Because at first she had no idea what to do, she had no clue, and it was just surprising her all the time.

Kevin Pho: How about her interactions with some of the other characters, whether it’s her family and friends? And tell us about the influence those interpersonal interactions had on her.

Robin D’Amato: Well, she has two close friends in the book, Tilly and Renee. In the beginning they were both basically saying, well, don’t you have to do this, and aren’t you going to go blind? I mean, people don’t always know how to react to you when you tell them you’re diabetic, especially when you’re a kid, because if you think adults don’t understand it, kids really don’t understand it. So there was a lot of that in the beginning, until they started getting on board. The more Ginny gets on board with it, the more her friends get on board with it.

Her parents, however, her mother was completely overprotective, especially after she had her major hypoglycemic incident. It was following her around, telling everybody to watch out for her, which was not unlike what I experienced, but my mother wasn’t anywhere near as, I would say, insane as Ginny’s mother is about it. But the overprotective thing is understandable, but it does start making you insane after a while. You’re like, OK, stop following me around.

Kevin Pho: So I wanted to get to that, in terms of your own experiences. How much of your own experiences is reflected in the book through Ginny’s character?

Robin D’Amato: The main highlights of my experiences are in the book. The hypoglycemic reaction that had me black out, definitely. Actually, there’s a point, I don’t want to give too much away, but there’s a point in the book where she breaks her leg, and it was not dissimilar to how I broke mine, although I wasn’t playing basketball at the time.

Definitely the lows, that at first she could, like me. At first I could feel when there was going to be a low, but the older I got, the harder it was to tell, so I would be surprised all the time. I’d be in the middle of a turn, or I’d be jumping across the floor, and I’d be shaking, and it would just come on with no warning. So that kind of stuff was definitely parallel to me.

Kevin Pho: Do you have a sense of what teenagers with type 1 diabetes are going through today? Your book and your experiences certainly were decades ago. Do you feel like a lot of those same issues that you wrote about in your book, and the issues that you experienced as a teenager, are they still there today?

Robin D’Amato: I would say not as much. I don’t personally know a teenager who is diabetic, but since I wrote the book I’ve spoken to a couple of parents who said that they are having a hard time, and that they would welcome letting their teenager read my book. Because I think part of the problem is, you feel like you’re this strange person, then you’re all alone, and you can’t explain yourself to anybody. And I think especially as a teenager, that was really the case with me, and I can’t imagine other teenagers not feeling that even today.

Kevin Pho: I mean, the main audience that you want to read your book, and the main messages you want them to come away with?

Robin D’Amato: I think the main audience would probably be anybody that had to deal with a physical condition that would interrupt their dreams. I think that’s a pretty common factor.

But it was really written to be a good story. I really wanted it to be a broader audience than just that. But I think the theme is definitely that, no matter, if you follow your dream and work on it you can succeed in some way. Maybe not the way you picture, but in some way.

Kevin Pho: And what are some of the main lessons or messages that you want them to come away with after reading it?

Robin D’Amato: If you have a dream, you need to figure out how to do it, no matter what your obstacles are, because everyone’s going to have obstacles of some kind, whether it’s physical, economic, or prejudice, or whatever it is.

And in Ginny’s case, she was dealing with not only the physical problems, but she was a female basketball player in the 60s. There just wasn’t anywhere to go. And then you look at it now, and women’s basketball is outdoing the men’s basketball.

But I do think it is mainly that. The character is actually probably much more focused than I was. I let a lot of things get to me, and I have the character overcome that pretty much earlier than I did.

Kevin Pho: So because this book had a little bit of an autobiographical component to it, had some of your experiences reflected in the main character, did it make this book easier or harder to write in contrast with some of your other books?

Robin D’Amato: I think this was easier to write, because I did disconnect myself from the main character. My second book was highly autobiographical and I found that really hard to write. Whereas this one, some of the episodes and the scenes are definitely taken out of my life, but the overall concept of Ginny is her own person, and that disconnect really let me stand away and watch her and see where she goes, which I found a lot easier to write.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Robin D’Amato. She’s a writer, and we’re talking about her book Sugar-Free. So Robin, what do you have planned in terms of the future, in terms of your writing endeavors?

Robin D’Amato: I don’t have an idea yet for the next book. I have a lot of half-finished books that I’m going to revisit and see if I can do anything with. Sometimes that’s actually happened with my last book. I had put it aside and then I came back to it.

The first book was Somebody’s Watching You, and the second book was Don’t Poke the Bear. But Don’t Poke the Bear was actually written first, and then I put it aside and came back to it. So I think that is what I’m going to be doing again, going back to things I’ve started and coming back to them and see what I can make of them, unless something hits me on the head again, in which case I’ll jump on that.

Kevin Pho: Now, did you get a response from the diabetes community after your book published?

Robin D’Amato: Yes, not as big as I would have liked yet, but it’s still early. It was published on May 14th, so it’s not quite out in the world yet that much. But people that have read it are really enjoying it. I’m getting a lot of feedback of people saying that they’re learning a lot, that they want to give it to a friend because such and such a friend has a child or a relative, or is themselves diabetic, and they were happy to read it.

I am looking forward to seeing what the diabetic community says. I actually gave a copy to my doctor. I haven’t spoken to him yet. The last time I saw him he hadn’t read it yet. So let’s see what he has to say.

Kevin Pho: And my final question, Robin, tell us some of your take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Robin D’Amato: I think it’s hard when you have a goal and a dream, and you spend a lot of time telling yourself, or hearing other people tell you, that you can’t do it for X and Y reason. And I think the take-home message is, if you really feel that you want to do that, that you should go ahead and make it happen.

Kevin Pho: The book is called Sugar-Free. Robin, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and insight. Thanks again for coming on the show.

Robin D’Amato: Thank you so much, I appreciate it.