The girls have been out of summer camp and freewheeling, awaiting the start of school for 2 weeks now. Mom’s list of entertainments and distractions is severly waning… Seemed like a good time for a little diabetes-inspired Enlightenment:

Glucose testing –
How I procastinate.
What? I’m not eating yet.

A short note today: a reader writes to me with a heads-up on a Wired Today story explaining how the European Union is moving ahead on “tissue engineering” that will use stem cells to reproduce skin, bone and cartilage for treatment of various conditions, including diabetic wounds.

This may be the most trite thing I’ve ever written about having diabetes, but sometimes this disease makes me feel bionic. You know, half-person/half-machine, so that I am actually Superhuman — except in the face of the Evil Antidote to my extraordinary energy.

Let me explain.

Seeing as I just hit my 6-month Blogiversary and 100th post (!), I decided it was time for a little freshening up here. So I’ve switched some things around, hopefully making it easier to search my site, i.e. the Google search window at left, under “Must-Reads.”

It’s a veritable avalanche! At least two more new diabetes blogs have appeared on the scene, not to mention the seemingly endless sites and resources I keep finding as I dig ever deeper. (Soon you may have to send out the rescue dogs, ’cause I gotta get some other work done here But for now, here’s what’s new and/or interesting:

Have you heard about the new gene discovered that’s implicated in the cause of Type 2 diabetes?

Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center used lab mice to show that alterations in a gene called ARNT (aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator) — which is crucial for normal embryo development, and also controls other genes — correlates closely with incidence of Type 2 diabetes.

Part of me has always regretted not getting a tattoo during the years we lived in Amsterdam (which part of me I need not share). But I definitely tingled when I recently ran into this post: “I have a friend who had ‘diabetes mellitus’ tattooed on one arm and a syringe tattooed on the other when he was a teenager. Looks kind of cool. He didn’t have any problems with having it done, but if you are considering it I’d sure check with my doctor and make sure a very reputable artist did the work and used clean needles! I’d be a little leary of it myself.”

The annual meeting of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) starts today in Washington, DC. This event promises to bring together about 5,000 experts and educators for both an expo and a series of courses on the latest and greatest in D-care. This year’s theme is “Monumental Opportunities,” an obvious reference to the capital city venue, and also an allusion to just how BIG diabetes has become.

Saw my endocrinologist yesterday for the first time in at least 5 months. Our visits have suddenly taken on a new cadence since he’s learned about my D-writing and my excursions into the mysterious world of professional diabetes care. He now talks to me like… well, if not a peer, then at least an accomplished observer worthy of his utmost qualified attention. (He even asked if I could fix him up with some contacts at diabetes technology companies looking for clinical study sites!) Ah, how the world turns… chalk one up for me.

I’ve just been notified that my second column is up at dLife.com! (meaning they liked me well enough to take the arrangement into month No. 2, whew!) This one’s all about self-disclosure: how we feel about revealing our diabetes to friends and strangers, and that ever-present need to educate those not in the know about this disease. Note that Violet and Tekakwitha have some great personal stories on this one — illustrating how we’re each dealing with the jitters, frustration, and downright exasperation of self-disclosure in our own special ways