Best of the Betes Blogs: February 2014

It's my first time to host Best of the Betes Blogs!

February was quite a month for our community - with 2 awareness and advocacy initiatives at full throttle: Spare a Rose and Diabetes Art Day. A lot of wonderful posts surfaced this month and I am happy to point you to some great ones.

Best Use of Humor
Moira of Despite Diabetes: "Those questions we all get..."
I can't wait to use some of these suggestions in her handy guide for answering ignorant questions.

Best Vlog
George of Ninjabetic: "Back to D Future"
What would you tell Dr. Banting about living with Diabetes in 2014? How do you think he'd respond?

Best Recipe
Katy of Bigfoot Child Have Diabetes: "Waffle Factory Tour"
Katy and I are both going through the pangs of learning how to provide GF foods for our kids. And she is baking in bulk. This waffle recipe is low carb and tasty, too? Sign me up!

Best Use of Photography
Stephanie of robotPANCREASattack discovered a cool piece of street art that she had to share with us.

Best Advocacy
Yours Truly of Sweetly Voiced: "Snickers"
Well, this is awkward. If I didn't really REALLY believe in this post against bullying people with diabetes, I would never choose my own post for an award, but several people nominated it, so I'm just kowtowing to the fans today, okay?

Best Non-D Related Post
Heather of Unexpected Blues: "...Why I'll Never Be a Successful Writer"
Heather may feel like she's insulating herself from us with her gorgeous poetic imagery, but I always feel she lays herself bare with it and I adore her for it. Her metaphor of drowning in this post is one of the most beautiful things I've read in a long time.

Best Post by a Type 1
Meredith of With a Side of Insulin: "The Truth About Diabetes"
Meredith speaks to the fundamental truth about what it's like to live with an invisible and awfully temperamental illness.

Best Post by a LADA/ Type 1.5/ Not otherwise specified
Katy (again) of Bigfoot Child Have Diabetes: "Auto-Correct"
Katy gets a nod in two categories this month, which shouldn't ordinarily happen, but this is no ordinary situation. I really related to how she describes low blood sugar and my heart went out to her that it's from a perspective that a mom of a PWD doesn't ordinarily experience it.

Best Post by a Type 2
R.C. at The Fat Side of the Tracks: "What Do You See?"
A plea to HCPs to see the person and the effort...and not just the numbers.

Best Post by a Type Awesome
Wendy of Candy Hearts: "2014 Animas National Sales Meeting: I Was There for 15 Minutes"
I love a good comeback kid story. And if this opportunity helped Wendy find her words again, it was 15 minutes of awesome.

Best Story of a D-Mistake
Victoria of Victoria Cumbow: "Miss Manners got it right."
It wasn't Victoria's mistake, but she highlights where the Diabetes Online Community may have misstepped by not remembering our own manners when faced with outrage over an etiquette column.

Best Motivational Post
C of C's Life With D: "Why?"
Our CDEs devote countless hours of education and preparation to spend their careers helping people with diabetes succeed...but they can't get no respect. C asks us to think about the double standard we impose.

Best Diabetes Art
Reva of Type ONEderful: "Diabetes Art Day 2014"
This was certainly a tough category this month now that Diabetes Art Day has moved into February. Reva's 3-frame depiction of low blood sugar left me just sort of staring at the screen with my mouth open. Yes. Yes, exactly.

Best Comment
Linda made a comment to Katy that summed up what all Parents of PWD deserve to hear.

THANK YOU to all of those who made nominations and to all of those who were nominated this month. We couldn't do this without your participation and your passion for writing and sharing others' great writing.

Allison ~ The Blood Sugar Whisperer

Joanne ~ Death of a Pancreas

Briley ~ inDpendence

Sara ~ Moments of Wonderful

Shannon ~ Neurotic City

Meri ~ Our Diabetic Life

Rachel ~ Probably Rachel

Scott ~ Rolling in the D

Kerri ~ Six Until Me

Alecia ~ SurfaceFine

Laddie ~ Test Guess and Go

Sue ~ Test Guess and Go

Kim ~ Texting My Pancreas

James ~ T1DMe

Jacquie ~ Typical Type 1

Bennet ~ Your Diabetes May Vary

If your name is above and you want to add the Best of the Betes Blog logo to your blog, change all "[ and ]" to "< and >" in this html code:

[div align="center"][a href="http://www.bestofthebetesblogs.com" target="_blank"][img src="http://momentsofwonderful.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bbblogo-final-e1309479808835.png"][/a][/div]

Snickers

I like a good joke. I can even take a good joke about myself. And I know that I've laughed at inappropriate jokes. I know most of us have. But we need to talk about what's at the root of some types of our humor.

Even comedians have started to admit that there are realms of humor that should be handled differently. Not off limits, per se, but with the subject of the punchline in mind. Patton Oswalt wrote last summer about his complete 180° in understanding why he was wrong about rape jokes. Not that rape had some pristine status of "off limits" in terms of topics that absolutely could not be joked about, but this quote of his stuck with me:

In fact, every viewpoint I’ve read on this, especially from feminists, is simply asking to kick upward, to think twice about who is the target of the punchline, and make sure it isn’t the victim.

Today, for your consideration, Internet, I bring you: The Diabetes Joke.

Many of us have seen this meme. Something along the lines of a math word problem involving candy bars or cupcakes or some other decadent dessert. The question states that Bob/John eats a certain number of a certain number, so what does he have now?

Diabetes. Bob has diabetes.

It's hilarious because... Well, because we as a culture are okay with fat shaming, for one. And only fat people get diabetes. They bring it on themselves so they deserve to suffer the butt of the joke. HA. If they'd just shown a little willpower and resisted that kind of food over the course of their lives, they wouldn't have diabetes. It's okay to laugh at their lack of willpower! Laugh with me!

Whether the joke is about someone losing a foot, eating so much / drinking a soda so large that it's diabetes-on-a-plate / diabetes-in-a-cup, or feeling stuffed after a meal and giving yourself diabetes, we get it. You're equating indulgence with an extreme consequence. And it's a little absurd, so it gets a chuckle.

And whom does that hurt? Can't we just take a joke?

Just like a rape joke, a joke about an illness - any illness - places someone struggling with a life-altering, soul-crushing, debilitating experience as the punchline of a joke. I have struggled with diabetes every day for the last twenty-three years. I've been comatose. My parents nearly lost me at diagnosis. I've had hypoglycemia and not known where I was. I've been afraid I wouldn't wake up to be there the next morning for my two children. And I've campaigned for children in the developing world for whom a diagnosis of diabetes is a death sentence.

So diabetes, in general, is not incredibly funny to me.

That being said, there are still plenty of ways I can laugh about diabetes and the situations we struggle with. I follow the work of several talented diabetic comedians. I enjoy the comics my DOC friends publish in the Sunday Funnies. I share hilarious videos. Do you know where I have to draw a line though?

The line where it's funny because we deserve this struggle.

Now, this is where you'll argue, likely, that it's different because of course the OP is talking about type "TWO" diabetes. Not the kind I have.

Stop gaslighting me. Stop telling me that it's just a joke and I'm overreacting. You didn't mean my illness. You meant the other guy's illness. The fat guy's illness.

That's like telling a family fighting cancer that "It was a joke about cervical cancer, not childhood cancer. Jeez, grow a thicker skin, people."

First of all, Type 2 diabetes is not any easier than what I have, so the punchline victim is someone who is fighting an equally hard battle. In some ways, their challenges are even greater than mine. But you know what? Whatever version of a disease a person has, it's a struggle for that person who is sick. The person in the center ring. The person who is afraid, who is bombarded by media blaming them for having given themselves this disease. The person whose well-meaning GP and Dr-Oz-loving-Readers-Digest-reading family probably tells them that it can be "reversed" if they just start toeing the line, shaming them if and when they fail.

Type 2 Diabetes is a life-threatening, serious, progressive metabolic illness. It can't be "reversed." It can be well-controlled to the point that symptoms lessen - and if you want to call that a cure, that's your prerogative - but you can also be recovered from addiction for years, too, and easily slip back into the danger zone. Type 2 puts wear and tear on your body and, though you might mitigate some damage, you won't "beat" it. No matter what that checkout line tabloid headline promises you.

We even hear this diabetes victim shaming from people with my version of the disease who make sure you understand that, in our case, you see, we're blameless. My child didn't give themselves diabetes. Implying, of course, that there is a type of diabetes you can bring upon yourself.

It's a fat person's disease, so you believe. Nevermind that only roughly half of people with Type 2 are obese and those who do carry extra weight actually seem to have protection from the killer instincts of type 2. Less likely to die than the 20% of normal- or under-weight counterparts with the same disease (it's called the obesity paradox). (If you haven't watched surgeon Peter Attia's TED talk about this, go now. You'll probably cry. I'll wait.) But Type 2 is not really my specific area of expertise, so I'll move on to a related point:

We are totally cool shaming fat people. They are still a very safe target for our societal scorn and derision. They're our comic sidekicks - the jolly fatty - and we all know they (all of them, right?) uncomfortably joke about their own weight, so surely it's fair game for us, too. "Hey, I have fat friends and they think it's funny when I joke about it." That's like "I have a black friend, so I couldn't possibly say something racist."

And we're doing fat people a favor when we "motivate" them to conform to our definition of healthy, right? Because you can tell how healthy a person is just by their weight or their diet? This wonderful post on xojane titled "What's Wrong with Fat Shaming?" reminds us that "shame is not a catalyst for change; it is a paralytic." If I have type 2 diabetes and/or struggle with obesity, your joke about me eating candy bars and getting a disease doesn't motivate anything in me but self-hatred.

So maybe I just can't take a joke. Maybe I actually know people who have died from diabetes. Who have suffered at its hands. Whose family believed it their own fault. They deserved to die.

We do it to other diseases, too. The shame diseases. Lung cancer. AIDS. When you say you lost your Nana to lung cancer, people say "Oh, did she smoke?" Yes, she did. So she must have deserved to die. She must have been less deserving of our compassion, our pity. My grief must be dampened by that. That blame. Whew. That feels better. I'd hate to think she didn't kick herself enough in her final month of struggle.

Maybe your stepdad doesn't "take care" of his diabetes (that he lets you see). Maybe he doesn't tell you how scared he really is. Maybe your mother had a plate of strawberry shortcake for dinner and then again for breakfast. Maybe there's a lot she doesn't understand about her disease because access to proper behavioral education isn't available to her. Maybe she is also scared and frustrated. Maybe she's exhausted by this damned disease.

And maybe diabetes is frightening and headed for you, too (1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with it), so if you make light of it, if you joke about food comas and candy-bar-induced disease, it feels less scary.

But the joke's on you. And you may find someday that it's not actually all that funny.

Heartsick

The first time I learned about the efforts of the International Diabetes Federation's Life for a Child program, I watched one of their videos where they described what it is like for a child with type 1 diabetes in the developing world.

I cried as I listened to them talk about families being forced to choose between the cost of feeding their 4 non-diabetic children for a month or buying a bottle of insulin for child number 5. Child number 5 does not come out on the winning end.

In many parts of the world, news of a diagnosis like that which my parents received when I was 10 years old also comes with preparation for an inevitable and tragic loss. Most children with type 1 die within the year.

We can change that.

The Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign asks that you buy one less rose this Valentine's Day.

You know, 8 years ago today, my husband met me for our second date with a bouquet of small dried out purple flowers and baby's breath filler. He handed it to me sheepishly and apologized that it was the best the supermarket on the way had to offer. Flowers have never been his strong suit.

This year though, he can save the stress of that supermarket stop. We've chosen to spare the whole dozen. For $60, we are providing the means for ONE child to have ONE year worth of insulin.

Insulin here costs a lot more than that, yes - $150ish a bottle, but because IDF can do a lot with a very little, they aren't asking a lot.

Our contribution is a start, but because there is more than one child out there in need, I'm asking you to search your hearts and take a glance at your bank account and consider whether you've got just a handful of hope to hand someone, too.

1 rose = $5 = 1 month of insulin for that child.

A dozen roses = $60 = 1 year.

Think of the parent who holds their sick, suffering child for the last time, knowing that a bottle of insulin would have saved his life. It makes me heartsick.

Valentine's Day is about LOVE. Not flowers. I choose love.

http://www.p4dc.com/spare-a-rose/

Impatient Voices

I want to tell you about what happened during the insurance payers' panel at the DiabetesMine Innovation Summit back in November. I've been meaning to write this up for some time now.

TL;DR version: some patients stood up and yelled at some insurance executives and then I had to share a plane ride home with one of them.
----------

We were asked to politely write any questions on a post-it. A post-it.

We listened as each of the five panelists representing insurance companies (payers) gave their perspective.

You've got to understand, they lamented, it's REALLY hard for your insurance company to figure out how to decide treatment coverage for large diverse patient populations and still be competitive.

Many of the patients in the room were shifting uncomfortably in our seats. At least everyone at my table was. We were having a hard time hearing how hard it is for the big insurers.

Corinna Cornejo, with whom I've worked on committees and shared countless phone calls - whom I have always found to be savvy, smart, diplomatic - leaned across the table.

"I kind of want to stand up and say 'I don't give a $h1t about your balance sheet'."

"You should," I mouthed off. "I'll stand up with you."

And then...she did.

The air seemed sucked out of the room for me. $h1t.

That was my cue. I jumped to my feet and started talking, my feet ever comfortable on rickety old soapboxes. I spoke about access. Asked where the payer stood when pharmacy benefit management companies (like Express Scripts International and CVS Caremark) change 780,000 patients' medications (via formulary exclusions) without consulting their doctors or the patients affected. Without letting them know how they can discuss it with their insurance provider or how they might advocate to continue their therapy. I asked why they couldn't take a patient-centered approach to explaining those changes to their customers. I spoke about how hard it was to find a phone number or a website or an appeal form when all we want as patients is the opportunity to discuss our needs, our therapy, or our medical history with the people high above us making decisions that affect our very lives.

"Where is the letter with every denial or change in service that tells me whom I can call at your company or how to file an appeal? Where is the patient access to YOU the insurance company? Patients in this room represent the top 1%, most activated, most engaged patients," I explained. "If I can't navigate this system to fight for what I need, how can the average patient?"

Apparently, no matter how fluorescent you make a post-it pad, the act of scribbling out my question with a sharpie on it is just not as satisfying as the opportunity to use my voice.

Though the Sweetly was noticeably absent.

Soon after, it was time to break for lunch.

A Mile in My Shoes

Sometimes the pieces fall in front of you in a way that shapes your path.

Being a sedentary adult had nothing to do with my diagnosis as a child with Type 1 Diabetes of course, but diabetes with the accompanying fears of hypoglycemia and the stress of managing glycemic control during exercise has everything to do with my being a sedentary adult.

The Diabetes Hands Foundation's community TuDiabetes.org helped me understand that I was not the only one struggling with my diabetes when I joined the social network in 2008 and has much to do with my two successful pregnancies and my outlook on diabetes today.

DHF's program Diabetes Advocates has allowed me to become a voice for patients and those touched by diabetes, and my blog Sweetly Voiced has allowed me to extend my reach and tell my story.

But something has been missing. I've still been afraid of exercise. I make a lot of excuses. I am afraid to do it alone, clueless as to how to accomplish being active while caring for two kids under the age of 4 at home alone all day, and always confused about how to manage the delicate balance of insulin and activity.

DHF has another program though - the Big Blue Test - which has proven to me that just a FEW minutes of activity can lower my blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes is incredibly challenging, sure, but if I could take a little less insulin, I'd have fewer hypo excursions. And if I could make my body just a little more efficient, I could have fewer hyper excursions. Just a little.

And that has taught me a lot.

The final lace in my shoe is that, as an attendee of the DiabetesMine Patient Voices Innovation Summit, I received a complimentary Misfit Shine fitness tracker courtesy of Target. Point taken, universe.

For the next 5 weeks, I commit to walking 10 MILES a week. Though it will likely be a well-worn route to and from a local park with my little ones, it will be an emotional journey, a physical challenge as I avoid hypoglycemia (while pushing a double stroller) and as I learn what does and doesn't work in my planning, and it will be the very first time I've done something else - ask for your support. Yes, you.

As I walk these 50 miles, I'm asking my friends, family, and acquaintances to help me reach my goal of raising $1,000 for the Diabetes Hands Foundation. For every dollar I raise, that's another dollar that we at the Foundation can put toward reaching more people who used to be like I was, helping more people who are just like me, and amplifying the efforts of those who are committed to making the world a better place for people who are struggling.

Will you help me put some miles on these bad boys?

Strip Safely

If you or someone you love has diabetes, I want to shock you for a second.

If you don't have diabetes, I want to put this shock into perspective.

Blood sugar meters are all crap. See these numbers?

They're all essentially wrong. My plasma glucose was 104.

And they're mostly within FDA's acceptable variance range. The one on the far left was -22% off, but the other four performed within the +/-20% allowance.

Meter companies and the FDA worked together to set these (arguably loose) standards. And they're thankfully petitioning for tighter standards (+/-15%) in line with international recommendations. The PROBLEM is:

1) More than 25% of blood glucose meters already fail to meet current standards.

2) There is no post-market regulation of these meters or their strips. Once released into the wild, subject to weather or age or drug interactions or, I don't know, Tuesdays, there's no one checking to see if they continue to meet standards.

3) New Medicare laws will bring low-cost, low-quality meters and strips to millions of people with diabetes. Without a regulatory process in place, people will get hurt.

4) I take a different amount of insulin depending on that number. Not enough insulin can kill me. Too much insulin can kill me. I play Russian Roulette every time I take my dosage. In the above example, I was about to drive a car. On a highway. I had to make a decision about taking insulin for the 124 or eating a snack for the 82 before I got behind the wheel. It's the kind of decision I make 6-8 times per day and I'm usually basing it on that number.

So what can we do? Join me in writing to our lawmakers. Join us. Please. Below is my letter.

Just Breathe

Today's Prompt: Aspiration. “If I could do anything as a Health Activist...” Think big today! Money/ time/ physical limitations are no longer an issue. What is your biggest goal that is now possible? What’s your one, three, or five year plan for your Health Activism?

Aspiration.

It means "to breathe in."

As a singer and a voice instructor, I love breathing words. Inspiration (to breathe in), Expiration (to breathe out), Respiration (the cycle of breathing).

There's also Inhalation, Exhalation, Ventilation...but these are different. I like the words about spirit. From the Latin spiritus for breath. Spirit (n.) the vital principle or living force within human beings.

We all have a sense of our own spirit. Something inside us that keeps us breathing - in, out, tens of thousands of times each day.

the embodiment of Spirit in my life

License to Spill

Today's Prompt: Sharing Resources. Create a “care page” – a list of your best resources that someone who is newly diagnosed could go to when starting to advocate for themselves or a loved one. Remember to include sites that lead to successful self advocacy!

I could tell you all about advocacy resources…or I could tell you a funny story and still manage to throw in some truths about advocacy.

We all know what I'd rather do.

Being an advocate doesn't have to be anything grand. The first time you speak up for yourself or your loved one, you've joined the ranks of advocate.

For a person with diabetes, maybe it's when you asked your well-meaning relative to stop policing your dinner plate. Maybe it was when you stood up to your boss because he told you to get back to work when you were taking a minute to check your blood glucose and treat a low. Maybe it was when you told that rep with the insurance company that you absolutely needed more test strips than 4 per day and that she should honor your physician's orders.

It starts small. But it starts. It has to.

As I've said before in a post on resources for workplace rights, I like to think of myself as an advocate for the next person you'll meet with diabetes. If I conduct myself responsibly and prove that diabetes doesn't stop me, you'll think twice before you size someone up on the basis of their diabetes. You'll be more understanding to your employee with a child with diabetes. You'll consider dating that guy with diabetes.

But...sometimes it's easier to slide back down that patient activation scale and just take care of your own.

Case in point, the DMV.

My Favorite Six Year Old

I don't blog much about my nonprofit board work for either of the groups on which I serve as a director. The primary reason is that I care so deeply about the people and causes they represent that I don't want the potentially stupid things I might say to reflect on the organizations I cherish.

But today I wanted to post about the Diabetes Hands Foundation.

We are a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to connect, engage, and empower people touched by diabetes so that no one touched by diabetes has to feel alone. Our communities - TuDiabetes, EsTuDiabetes, & Diabetes Advocates and our program Big Blue Test seek to bring PWD and their families the kind of engagement and support that did not exist when I was diagnosed.

My husband and I discovered TuDiabetes five years ago, just after they celebrated their first year online and just as we were embarking on our first year of marriage. I owe TuDiabetes everything.

The answers, the empathy, the feeling that I was NO LONGER ALONE...I could "come out" about how challenging life with diabetes was. And my friends' suggestions there made my days less challenging.

The Future, Some Math, and the Reality

Today’s Prompt: The future of online activism. Our favorite social media sites are constantly undergoing renovations to become quicker to navigate, easier to interact with, all encompassing, mobile, and everywhere. Imagine the same thing about your community – how will they evolve, improve, and grow?

I didn't get involved in the Diabetes Online Community in order to spread awareness. I NEVER imagined I'd become the advocate that I am. I just wanted to share my story - tips, tricks, funny anecdotes, annoyances.

The first time I tried to start a "diabetes blog" (in 2008), I didn't have anything to say and nobody stopped by to read me not saying it. Then I started Sweetly Voiced in September of 2010 and found that I suddenly had my angle. I knew what I wanted to say.

But I still don't blog that much.

Which is why these month-long challenges intrigue me so. I wonder what I'd have the impulse or the courage to say about my life if I just sat down to write more often. Then, when the month is over, I feel a mixture of both loss and relief.

The focus of my post today is on the future of this online advocacy I've been unwittingly absorbed into.

Last night, during our hour-long weekly Twitter chat called DSMA (Diabetes Social Media Advocacy), the topic was Diabetes Awareness. We talked about what we're doing that works, what isn't effective, if the message is loud enough, clear enough, unified enough.

Two things struck me.

1. Whether or not we risk saturating our communities, our friends, and our families with this non-stop talk of diabetes - whether just in November or year-round.

2. And the fact that we were celebrating that we had over 100 people participating in the discussion.

We in the D-community often compare our message, funding, unity, etc to that of the cancer survivors community. When you think breast cancer, you think pink. You think ribbons. You think walks through the city centers. You also sometimes think about too much marketing and message saturation.

I don't give money to the Susan G. Komen walk for the same reasons I don't give money to the ADA walk. If most of the money (70% or more) goes to the overhead of organizing and marketing a walk, then the money isn't going anywhere constructive. If an organization gives most of its money to research or to making life better for patients, they are far more likely to get my dollar.

If you know or love someone who is a breast cancer survivor though, you just want that message out there. You want people thinking pink, getting regular mammograms, understanding the heartache and trial that living through it entails.

Diabetes is like that. I KNOW I have saturated my friends and family and colleagues and students with dtalk, dtalk, dtalk. They think we must live and breathe this stuff.

Well, newsflash. WE DO. One of my D-friends brought up last night that we deal with this every minute of every day 365 days a year and that it's not asking too much to have others listen. It's not that we want any of YOU to suffer what we endure. But it's nice to think we've educated you about what our days are like. How, in people who are really living healthily with diabetes, it can potentially affect every decision we make throughout the day.

But that's the weird thing. People often think that if you're talking about it a lot, you must be one of the "bad" ones. One of my best friends is a PPD survivor and laments this same conundrum. If you're talking about what you go through, it must be because you have it worse than others. It couldn't possibly be because you're empowered by the knowledge you've gained and want to make it better for the people who aren't talking about it.

Which brings me to point #2. Over 100 people participated in DSMA last night. 100 of us chatting back and forth (which is incredibly fast-paced and hard to follow). And new people join us every week!

TuDiabetes.org has 21,688 members (as I type this post) and we'll approve at least 10 new members in the next 24 hours (and sadly decline 3 times that number in spammers and marketers!).

But over 26 MILLION Americans have diabetes. 7 MILLION of them are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Over 8 PERCENT of the population in the US lives with this condition everyday. You or your loved ones will face this.

And unless you're on our side of the fence, and sometimes even when you are, there's a lot you don't know about living with it. There's so much misinformation and snake oil and so much your doctors and nurses will tell you that is inaccurate.

One of my relative's general practitioners told her that it's normal for non-diabetic's blood sugars to go up over 200 after a meal. (Oh My God). There are doctors threatening diet/med-controlled type 2s with "going on insulin" as if it's their fault.

We ALL are on insulin. You and I both need it. We just get it in different ways. You cannot (and I repeat CANNOT) live without insulin. Either your body produces it or you inject it. And if you're a type 2, it's highly likely that at some future point, your body may no longer be able to produce the amount you need due to insulin resistance.

And your blood sugar shouldn't ever go over 140 (where cell damage begins to occur). It should rest around a comfortable 90 most of the time. You and me both, actually. It's just not possible for me 24 hours a day. I'm lucky to be in range 50% of any given day. Never in my life have I had 24 hours of in-range numbers. Not a single day. And yet, my A1c (which is like an average) is a full percentage point lower than the ADA recommended level for healthy people with diabetes. I'm one of the ones doing it particularly WELL.

So, anyway, back to my point. If less than 1 per 1,000 of Americans with diabetes are part of the social network where I volunteer and less than 1 per 200,000 of Americans with diabetes are chatting with me on DSMA, are we reaching enough people through social media? Do people have enough information? Enough support?

I feel a little less bad about saturating you with this message now.

Until every health care professional in this country is better educated about a condition that will affect 8% of their patient base...

Until every insurance company has stopped placing restrictive limits on how often a person may test their blood sugar or on whether they may purchase a device/meter/pump/continuous monitor their doctor feels they need...

Until people with misconceptions about their own diabetes stop saying things to me like "Oh, 300s won't hurt you. I stay up over 300 and I feel fine." (said to me by the man who installed my wood flooring 2 years ago)...

Until people stop believing that insulin is a cure for Type 1, that you can outgrow it because it's referred to as "juvenile," that "all you have to do" is test your blood sugar and take your medications, that it goes away if you change your lifestyle, that Type 2 can be cured or reversed, that Type 2 happens because you're obese...

I will continue to raise my sweet voice along with the 1 in 200,000 committed enough to tell it like it is.

Click here to read more about the Blue Circle Campaign.

In the meantime, if you feel you just can't take any more dtalk, ask me about something else over a cup of coffee and I'll enjoy the breather, too.

But know that in the back of my mind, I still have to be thinking about my blood sugar and how much insulin to take for that coffee and how many tablespoons of creamer I had to eyeball as I poured it and whether I feel shaky because of the caffeine or if I feel a low coming on and whether the tape around my insulin pump is starting to peel and whether or not this is going to push me higher by dinnertime and...and...and...


This post was written as part of NHBPM - 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J.