It’s officially National Diabetes Awareness Month as of today, Nov. 1 — so get out your blue and start celebrating/advocating!! We’re excited to kick off the month by hosting Best of the ‘Betes Blogs awards for the previous month, October. We were wowed to receive nearly 40 nominations!
But before we get to the awards, we wanted to mention a couple of serious items important to all members of our Diabetes Online Community:
Brian Keith Doss
We lost a valued member of our community on Oct. 9; we mourn the loss of fellow type 1 Brian Doss, 42, in Arkansas. Many people in the D-Community knew Brian as a caring advocate not only on his own behalf, but also for his daughter Megan who’s also living with type 1. We’d often hear stories of how Brian was putting his time and energy into the JDRF Northwest Arkansas chapter as well as the family camp there, and the Doss family were very passionate volunteers through the outreach program in which they’d regularly meet with newly-diagnosed children with diabetes (CWDs). Brian was the sole income for his family and now his wife and two kids will need all the help they can get, so a help fund for them has been created online. Please help, if at all possible!
Image: Reuters
No one needs reminding of the chaos created by Hurricane Sandy on the eastern seaboard of the United States recently. We’ve been watching the impact and following fellow PWDs who were in the storm’s path. We breathed continuous sighs of relief as periodic updates appeared on Twitter, Facebook, by text and email.
In these types of natural disaster situations, we not only have everyone’s safety and well-being in mind, but especially our peers who face the D-specific challenges of needing to have life-sustaining supplies available at all times. Remember, the storm may have passed now, but many folks will be navigating the aftermath for quite a while… so if you can, please make any charitable donations through the American Red Cross (remembering to follow their instructions, as not all donations are necessary/able to be accepted).
Please also note that in light of Sandy, the JDRF has extended its Children Congress application deadline from Nov. 1 to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14.
And now, on with the BBB awards…
(Note that we’re skipping our own monthly D-blogosphere roundup for October in favor of the BBB.)
Best Use of Humor
Watch out for things that rhyme with “low”!
Best Vlog
We love us some breaking news (and the new haircut, Ginger)
Best Recipe
No way! Spaghetti that carb-counters can actually eat.
Best Use of Photography
Wow, those D-supplies do stack up!
Best Advocacy
On police and first responders being able to recognize low blood sugars (!)
Best Story of a D Meet-up
Darn! How we would’ve loved to have been there with a great group from all over the globe!
Best non-D Related Post
Battle cry: “Extroverts, Unite!” We’re all in this together.
Best Post by a Type 1
“When people knock the wind out of your sails… it really says more about them than about you.”
Best Post by a Type 2
Wow — an absolute must-read for anyone with either type of diabetes (and clinicians!!).
Best Post by a Type Awesome
Even after the loss of her beloved partner, super D-mom Meri exhibits crackling wit.
Best Post by a LADA/ Type 1.5/ Other
Struggles and challenges in telling “others” about life with diabetes.
Best story of a D-mistake
When a glucose meter smashes to the ground and breaks, the tough get going, so to speak.
Best Motivational Post
Just look at the impact social media can have on blood sugars and A1Cs!
Best Diabetes Art (Category Just Added)
Test strips, immortalized.
Congrats! And thanks to all who nominated posts this month and who were nominated by others:
Alecia at SurfaceFine.com
Alexis at The Chronicles of D-Boy and Ribbon
Alison at Shoot Up or Put Up
Bennet at YourDiabetesMayVary
Briley at inDpendence
Chris, with no blog = no problem
Dolores at Rantings of a T1 Mom
Jeff at JeffMatherPhotography.com
Joanne at Death of a Pancreas
JVBC at Who Said Sugar Is Sweet?
Kate at Sweet Success
Katy at BigFootChildHaveDiabetes.com
Kim at TextingMyPancreas
Marie at Joy Benchmarks
Mike, here at DiabetesMine
Penny at A Sweet Grace
Reyna at Beta Buddies
Sara at Moments of Wonderful
Scott Benner at Ardens Day
Scott E at Rollin’ in the D
Scott Strange at Strangely Diabetic
Shannon at Neurotic City
Victoria at VictoriaCumbow.com
Wil Dubois at Life After Dx
High five to the winners! Be sure to grab the BBB button above and proudly display it on your blog.
You can do so by copying and pasting the code below, but be sure to replace all [ ] with < > :
[div align="center"][a href="http://victoriacumbow.com/2012/04/05/the-best-of-the-best/" target="_blank"][img src="http://momentsofwonderful.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bbblogo-final-e1309479808835.png" alt="" /][/a][/div]
[div align="center"][/div]
[...] To view some of the other FANTASTIC blog posts, please visit Diabetes Mine. [...]
Thank you so much to whoever nominated me! It’s an honor
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Oh my goodness! Thank you to who ever nominated me! How cool !! xx
I love how connected these diabetes communities/blogs seem to be! So much support!
I want to spread the word about these new generic test strips “GenStrip” that are going to be released soon. They are an affordable alternative to name brand strips that work with meters already available on the market. https://www.facebook.com/PharmaTechSolutions