A few weeks ago I received a rather odd book to review: “The Power of Apology in Medicine,” a short treatise on “the movement toward apology and full disclosure in medicine.”

It’s fascinating coming to Europe once a year. Every year. At the same time. There’s always interesting new stuff, most of it imported from the US, it seems. Here’s what’s new this year, as far as I can tell:

First off, I want to thank all of you who commented on my recent post about “Diabetes Trash.” I did not know about those nifty needle-cutters from BD; I’m learning so much from you all!

I just realized that that last post made everything sound pretty glum here in Germany, when in fact, we are having a wonderful time. The weather has been so pleasant that we’ve eaten every single meal for 10 days outside in my in-laws’ garden. That’s quite a big WOW for this climate.

First, the really ugly revelation: apparently my new diabetic self can no longer tolerate cocktails. Uggghhh. Yet another enjoyable consumable that’s off my list. I thought it was the jet lag, but apparently it was just the hard liquor that was making me sick after dinner every night. OK, so I’m sipping German Sekt very gingerly and squinting my eyes to make all those fantastic European baked goods look a little less appealing. *Sigh*

Periscope up! The more you look, the more you find — in this case implying that if you ever, ever felt alone with your diabetes, forget it! I can hardly believe how many hot programs and cool people I am starting to run into all centered around this disease.

Yet another new flavor of diabetes blog has arrived in the form of Lemonade Life, a new blog just launched by a 19-year-old college student to reach teens and young adults. Allison Blass is the host of Teen Talk, an online chat for teens with diabetes at DiabetesStation.com, and has been itching to branch out on her own, she tells me.

New diabetes blogs continue to pop up like weeds! Here are three new ones with a twist:

* MarathonSwimmer - from a 30-year-old Type 1 diabetic (for 17 years) who is training to swim the English Channel.

One. Long. Trip.

Well now, compared to years past, the 10-hour flight was almost relaxing. Everybody in my family but me slept for a while. No one screamed. Only one needed to use the paper sick bag. Twice. But recovered quickly. So pretty smooth, really!

There seems to be a lot of buzz about the fact that it’s not just about A1C’s anymore; rather, it’s about using the Standard Deviation to evaluate the success of your diabetes management. If you think about it, it’s common sense really: a simple average of your blood glucose over the past three months doesn’t tell you how far you’ve strayed from the ideal range. You may get an excellent “average” number that is nothing but a middle point between the highs and lows you’ve been experiencing.