Around the Blogosphere – September 2012 Edition

Another month has come and gone, and with that we are changing seasons. This final month of summer-turned-autumn was a busy one for our Diabetes Online Community, and it brought out some truly amazing — and also heartbreaking — posts. Below, in no particular order, is our initial “Fall Collection”:

D-Alert Dogs are fascinating, and the stories of those fellow PWDs who have them are always interesting to read. We’ve been following Tarra, whose blog, My Crazy  Life With My Diabetic Service Dog, and this post gives us a hint of her life with a canine named Duchess.

D-Dad Tom Karlya wrote a poignant post called “Dead from Diabetes,” hitting on a tough topic and the blue candles we sadly see in our community.

This one sneaks in under the wire. While it was technically up on the last day of August, we think it’s worth mentioning: Who missed the announcement of Insulet’s new blog, Suite D? (We like the play-on words in the name!)

Diabetes isn’t always visible, and that often means people don’t understand what goes into managing our health. Kerri Sparling tackles that issue in “Twice,” where she writes about a dinner experience with friends that embodies the theme of September’s Invisible Illness Week.

Kim Vlasnik is not only what we describe as an Amazing Advocate; she’s also a talented artist who released this brilliant cartoon coining a new D-term, “Hipster With Diabetes (HWD).” Awesome, Kim!

We all know the horror of experiencing a low blood sugar and losing control of ourselves out in public. D-Mom Meri Schuhmacher writes about how one of her type 1 sons recently endured that experience for the first time. Read her account in Episode 1.

Regarding Meri and her family, we’re heartsick about the terrible news that Meri’s husband Ryan passed away Sept. 2. Please click that link to help support Meri and her four sons — three with type 1 diabetes!

Our friend D-blogger and advocate George Simmons wrote a beautiful poem over at his site, Ninjabetic, that captures our whole community’s feelings for the Schuhmacher family. Also click here to read a final post from Ryan himself. *Gulp*

Knowing where our money goes when we donate it to diabetes charities is important, and we were shocked like many others to read in the media this month how organizations like the American Diabetes Association apparently weren’t very concerned about this. We thank the Juvenile Diabetes Cure Alliance (JDCA) for blogging about this in “Be Sure To Read The Fine Print.”

Honestly, we don’t have enough diabetes spouses sharing their stories in the DOC. But in this post, D-wife Sandy Floyd shares how sometimes living with her type 1 husband makes her feel like a newly-diagnosed PWD herself.

The title of this post by Andria Houghton says it all: “If Winnie the Pooh had Diabetes.” Brilliant!

This is a great one, by Leighann Calentine over at The D-Mom Blog, in which she recants how her daughter handled the sales reps at a local D-Conference exhibit hall. Not an easy sell, those reps learned!

A highlight in our community each year is Diabetes Art Day created by Lee Ann Thill, and this year there’s an array of artistic awesomeness to check out!

Without a doubt, it’s pretty clear to anyone in the DOC that D-Dad Bennet Dunlap is a great guy and passionate advocate. Lately, we’ve been incredibly impressed by his FDA coverage appearing regularly over at his site Your Diabetes May Vary; we’ve started referring to him as “our community FDA guy.” Check out a trio of his September posts here, here, and here for just a sampling!

We share our favorites every month, but we want to include yours too. Please send along your D-post picks for the month of October to us via email. We look forward to hearing from you!