How Can a Comic Book Help Patients with Diabetes?

Trevor Torres, Student, Patient, “Diabetes Evangelist”

So, I wrote a comic book for newly diagnosed kids with diabetes that another art student on our team illustrated. And we are trying to distribute that to everyone in the health system in Michigan, USA, and across the world if we can once it’s all finished.

The comic book itself, it sort of details two different versions of a patient who is diagnosed with diabetes and [who is] going through the first few months of his life [with diabetes]. We take this metaphor of a superhero — of him turning into this diabetic superhero and the challenges he encounters along the way of fighting off the high blood sugar monsters and stuff. And it has two stories: one where he still encounters lots of challenges, but he tries to deal with it in an as positive of a manner as he can, and another one where it kind of becomes too much for him, and it breaks down a little bit for him.

And the point of that comic was to sort of demonstrate that as a person with diabetes, you are going to encounter a lot of challenges. It is hard to manage your blood sugar and to eat properly and all these things, but if you can approach it with a good attitude, and if the people around you can help you in that respect — whether it’s your team or your family — that can really go a long way toward improving your experience as someone with diabetes.