Diabetes Mine - the all things diabetes blog

Wisdom of the Winners, and More

Harking back to the last contest hosted here, Seven Words of Wisdom for Living with Diabetes, today a nice photo montage of our wise and wonderful winners -- and their coveted prizes.

-- Terry Keelan sporting attitude, and his new DBMine shirt

(Pay attention. Lick your fingers. Move forward.)

-- Brian Boone's wrist looking cool with his new leather med-ID from StickyJewelry

(Check your glucose. Check again. Check again.)

-- A very happy Karen Doering, with her niece.

(Every day is different, not exact science.)

And Karen's prized prizes: a colorful new "Spring Squared" diabetes carry bag from StickMeDesigns (I have this one, too!) and lovely beaded med-ID bracelet from StickyJewelry.

-- Karin Bowman, with her bag and bracelet in use. Note how she's got her OmniPod PDM neatly in the bag. Hooray for a good fit!

(Be diligent. Be educated. You're not alone.)

Thank you to everyone for playing!

btw, another cool contest along these lines has come and gone recently at the NY Times: What Kids Need to Know, which asked for great examples parental advice, either dispensed or received -- i.e. what was the best practical advice your parents gave you?  Actually, the call for submissions included this wording: "If you were diagnosed with a terminal illness, what wisdom would you want to leave with your kids?"  Yikes... but I just had to share some of my fave entries:

Do not let your bottom grow into the shape of your chair.

Always go outside when the sun is out.

Respect the nap.

Your parents are actually pretty cool people, no matter how many times you’re embarrassed by them.

Do not sell any of your old rock concert T-shirts on eBay until you are over 40.

And many, many more.  Enjoy.

Speaking of contests, please tell at least two friends about the DiabetesMine™ Design Challenge, open for YouTube entries till the end of the month.  We've got at least one cool video and a handful of new group members over there already.  I have just learned today that DexCom Inc. is kicking in another $200 in prize money, so get designing, People!

What Money Can't Buy

Last week's Spring Break is over. Whew... Although as parents we felt our wallets rupturing, a good time was had by all -- especially in those moments we weren't paying for. 

Snacks for the road: $17.54

Extra gluten-free road-fare for you-know-who: $13.00

Pre-departure tank-up: $63.00 (no kidding)

Movie rentals for the backseat-installed DVD player: $34.00

Sound of hubby's and my own voices as we actually chatted in perfect peace: Priceless

            ****

Tram tour of the Benziger Winery: $45.00

Small bribes to keep children happy while we enjoyed wine tasting: $9.00

Supplies for picnic on lush winery grounds: $41.00

Being asked above the happy din of wine-sloshing picnickers, "MOM, HOW DO YOU SAY 'DIABETIC' IN GERMAN?!": Priceless

            ****

Adjoining rooms in ecologically correct family hotel: ca. $300.00

Dinner for five at pretentious California-Italian restaurant with wine-barrel decor: ca. $160.00

Less pretentious desserts from hotel hallway vending-machine: $2.50

Making a human chain and jumping in the frigid swimming pool together at 8am: Priceless

            ****

Admission to Calistoga's Old Faithful Geyser Park - $22.00

Pellets to feed ornery goats and llamas - $6.00 (in quarters)

Lunch for five at local taqueria: $37.47

Loads of smiles, and an average blood glucose of 90 mg/dL four days in a row: PRICELESS

Studies Show Correlation Between Storks, Babies, Diabetes

San Francisco, April 1, 2008 -- Two new studies out of Croatia show strong evidence that residents of areas high in stork and baby populations also show high incidence of diabetes, and patients living in the affected areas also experience high blood sugar more often -- despite drug treatments -- than their counterparts elsewhere in the world.

The studies also showed that the following lifestyle elements either cause or exacerbate diabetes: watching TV, eating dairy products, consuming caffeine and all carbonated beverages, proximity to "dirty electrical power," and having large breasts.

On the other hand, strong {correlational} evidence also exists to show that the following help prevent diabetes: dairy foods, caffeine and decaf coffee, and eating peanut butter. 

Furthermore, a high-protein diet is good for the heart, but bad for the kidneys -- unless you're a rat.

And high sugar drinks have nothing to do with obesity, according to the Corn Refiners Association (!)

But don't opt for diet cola, because that's tied to Metabolic Syndrome.  Then again, co-called "Syndrome X" may be nothing but a myth anyway.

Note that grains and starches are actually good for diabetes.  But just in case more research shows they're not after all, you can always ask your doctor for a starch blocker.

Just like earlier studies on diabetes and chocolate, the new Croatian studies were conducted on 15 (yes, fifteen!) hand-selected patients, who do not actually have diabetes.  Correlations were used to extrapolate cause and effect.

Aaaah, it feels good to be informed ;)

Seven Words of Wisdom for Diabetes: The Winners!

Seven words to start off this post: My, oh my, what a tough choice (!)

When I asked if anyone had Seven Words of Wisdom specific to diabetes, ala Michael Pollan and the New York Times, I'm not sure I knew quite what to expect.  Would you take it literally, offering instructions, or provide poetry?  Or conjur up sarcasm?  What I got was a little bit of everything.  Thank you!

You were all so wonderfully witty and profound. Many of you mentioned God, which shouldn't have surprised me, I suppose: we definitely owe a debt to Divine Intervention for just continuing to be alive with this once-deadly disease.

PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES !!! --

Three lucky winners will receive actual, bona fide prizes from our newfound sponsors, StickyJewelry and StickMeDesigns. 

From StickyJewelry, winners will receive a $50 gift certificate towards an unparalleled assortment of medical bracelets, pendants, and charms -- in stainless steel, sterling silver, or some very cool leather designs.  Or you can shop for anything you like off their web site (!)

From StickMeDesigns, they will each receive a gift code worth $37.99 including shipping & handling toward a fabulous "modern diabetic" supply bag of their choice.  The store will soon be fully stocked with some hot new styles, including the Stick Me Slim, and the No Handle models.  Yowza!

Two Honorable Mentions will also receive prizes direct from The Mine: their choice of a DiabetesMine.com Tshirt or a signed copy of our indispensable book, Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes.

WINNERS, WINNERS, WINNERS !!! --

So, without further ado, here are my personal favorites, otherwise known as THE WINNERS:

Be diligent. Be educated. You're not alone.

-- from Karin Bowman

Check your glucose. Check again. Check again.

-- from Brian (baboone)

Every day is different, not exact science.

-- from Karen Doering

 

Plus ... two Honorable Mentions:

Pay attention. Lick your fingers. Move forward.

-- from Terry Keelan 

Live as if you were not ill.

-- from Bearly (K)

Congratulations!  btw, it's definitely worth going back to read them all.  Enjoy.

And thank you all for playing!

Why Most Drugstore Diabetes Pubs Suck

When you go in to your local Walgreens, Rite-Aid, CVS or the like, do you find racks of those colorful but flimsy little throw-away diabetes magazines staring at you?  Do you ever pick them up and look through them?  Well I just can't help myself.  And often times, they make me really mad.

Last month, for example, I picked up a copy of something called Diabetes Health Monitor, which brags on the cover that it's "favorably reviewed" by the AADE.  I flipped through it and found some things that just seemed to be sending the wrong messages to PWDs.

First off, in a diet section called "Tasty Alternatives to Your Favorites" -- supposedly about cutting back on carbs -- one of three recipes featured was for "Cajun Chicken Over Fettuccine."  Carb count?  66 grams per serving.  Why on Earth would an article on low-carb eating promote fettuccine?

Likewise, in a section on "Valentine's Day Without the Sweets," the magazine recommends so-called "Blueberry bouquets."  The idea is to "gather some blueberries, and add some raspberries, strawberries, grapes and a few melon balls. Skewer them on slender wooden sticks... and 'plant' them in a cantaloupe" for a healthy bouquet.  Hello?!  Hasn't anyone over there got the memo about what a fruit-bomb like that does to your blood glucose if you have diabetes?  I know the audience for these pubs is primarily Type 2s, but even they would need a good two-hour walk to burn down this kind of fructose-induced BG spike, I'd imagine.   

Finally, even the cover story was pretty hard to swallow.  It featured an obviously overweight family practice physician in Wichita Falls, TX, who recently had an epiphany when he got diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes himself.  "I know the how and why of diabetes," he writes. "It's just that they applied to my patients, not me.  I've told hundreds how to watch their diet, keep their weight down, see their eye doctor frequently, and check their feet for infections.  Now that I'm the patient, I know how tough it is for them to follow those instructions. I like to eat... I never saw a cookie I didn't like."

I know I ought to be thankful for such true confessions.  But all this story did for me was remind me of how common this is: hundreds of doctors out there across the country preaching at diabetes patients to eat right, live right, and be extremely disciplined, while they're indulging away without a care in the world.  It just frustrates the heck out of me to think of how many physicians really haven't got a clue what their "instructions" mean for real people in real life. 

Needless to say, I now grimace and look the other way when I see those "free copy" diabetes pubs winking at me in the pharmacy.  Have any of you found anything valuable there, by chance?

The Seven Words of Wisdom Contest for Diabetes

Hey All, Michelle actually jumped on my original idea, which was to host an official contest for the best Seven Words of Wisdom for Living with Diabetes.  See my start at the end of this morning's post.

You may or may not be familiar with Michael Pollan's book "In Defense of Food" and his famous 7-word manifesto: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Tons of people have jumped on this idea, and the New York Times even hosted a popular do-it-yourself "Seven Words" contest back in January.  Some winners I loved were:

Drink water. Eat your veggies. Love Mom.

Smile often. Laugh out loud. Share joy.

Make promises. Don't break them. Find loopholes.

What have you all got for living with diabetes?  I am prepared to pass out prizes, including those coveted DiabetesMine T-shirts and Know Your Numbers books.

                                 ** UPDATE 3/19/08 **

I'm keeping the contest open till the end of the week.  Then I'm going to print out all the entries and throw darts at them to select the winners.  Just kidding.  Still, winners shall be selected.  Thank you in advance for your wit & wisdom, All.

                                   ******** ********

Your Chronic Condition -- In Comics :)

My friends at HealthCentral Network understand the value of a smile when it comes to living with compromised health.

Thus, they're creating a new series of personal health stories in comic strip format.  And they've done mine to kick off the diabetes series!  Based on the recent Newsweek article about me...

Check this out:

(Click on the image to be re-routed to the full comic version over at HealthCentral)

Gee, I look younger in comics :)

Anyway, would you like to see your own story in "the funnies"? 

HealthCentral is accepting submissions on stories about diagnosis, or some kind of struggle, or a triumph -- anything having to do with your or your family member's or friend's diabetes (or other condition - here's an example of one for breast cancer). They'll be showcasing a new comic every month.  It's an ongoing process, so submit yours any time by emailing the HC team HERE.  I'll be on the lookout for you all!

More Cool D-Opps

Looking for ways to put your diabetes to good use?  {Grin}  Today's update: two surveys and a casting call.

* A company called M2 Medical here in Silicon Valley is developing "next generation insulin pump technology."  To inform their R&D, they want to hear from all us pumpers on our current likes and dislikes, priorities and preferences.  Good for them!

So if you'd like to weigh in on what's coming to market next , take their marketing survey at THIS LINK.

All I can say is they know their stuff, as witnessed by the nice pump-comparison chart below that's part of the survey (click to enlarge).  I for one am always glad to be asked my opinion on something so integral to my life.

* And what about telling the presidential candidates what we think?  Close Concerns has got that covered, with a new PATIENT SURVEY open to everyone.  This one is "basically an electronic petition" calling on the candidates to air details of their plans for various aspects of healthcare.  Results will be written up in the next issue of the diaTribe newsletter -- where we can also expect the long-awaited summary of our pro-diabetes-technology survey, Kelly tells me.

* If you live in Northern California, forget American Idol.  You can be on TV with your diabetes!  No need to sing.  The San Francisco-based media firm Beau Bonneau Casting is seeking people with with Type 1 and especially Type 2 diabetes to star in a national diabetes commercial.

I don't usually post classifieds here, but I thought this looked fun.  I mean, how often do you get disease-centered casting calls like this?  Where they're actually looking for healthy diabetics, btw?  From the flier:

- Ages 10-15 or 35-65, males and females, all ethnicities

- Must test daily with a glucose monitor and inject insulin daily

- Especially looking for people relatively new to insulin injections

- Pump users good too!

- Healthy, positive, articulate and expressive people who are dealing with their condition in a pro-active way.

- This is a national commercial with residuals for a well-known diabetes glucose monitor.

- A great opportunity to help put a positive face on living with diabetes. (Also great money)

- For more info, see contact details HERE.

If any of you happen to make it, you just remember who got you rolling on the path to stardom, OK?!

Your Moment of Zen

Monday Madness this week... well, you just have to view it.  OK, so this guy looks a little too much like the Oompa-Loompa in the latest Willy Wonka flick, but his message ain't bad.  Yeah, although he kinda lost me when he got to the "fiber" portion of the program. 

I, too, need a lot of posting.

Thank you very much. Take care.

[Editor's Note: I haven't forgotten that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  As they say: Make it a day ON, not a day off.  All the best.]

2007, Abbreviated

Taking a cue from Allison via Kerri, I've gone and dug up the opening lines from one significant post in each month of 2007.  What a neat way to look back on the closing year!

January: Down on Big Pharma?  You are not alone.

February: Lots of press recently about Merck's brand spankin' new Type 2 diabetes drug, Januvia.

March: Some very sad news today, I'm afraid.

April: Big news this week, Folks.  Apple Inc. has sold its 100-Millionth iPod.

May: I just got off the phone with Mr. Universe himself, Doug Burns.

June: It saddens and upsets me to have to write this.

July: My Inbox continues to overflow with questions about the tube-free OmniPod insulin delivery system.

August: You could say we've spurred a national debate here...

September: So this whole low-carb thing about diabetes is driving me crazy.

October: I had the most absurdly frustrating phone briefing yesterday...

November: In light of recent events, as an adult with Type 1 diabetes, I'm feeling more disconnected than ever before.

December: There are so many new and colorfully wrapped health/patient (aka Health 2.0) web sites popping up all over the Net that I'm feeling positively showered.

Man, 2007 was a whirlwind year around here, mostly in a good way.  Here's hoping 2008 will bring more of the same (with a little smatter of that essential 5-letter dirty word, of course :)

Opportunity Knocks

Knock-knock... Who's there?  YOU.  You-Who?

Exactly.  Yoo-hoo, PWDs (people with diabetes) and all readers of this blog.  If you can forgive this corny opening, please read today's call for your involvement on several fronts:

1) Want to be a media star? Or at least quoted in a story on "the lack of coordination in health care, especially for diabetics" in the AARP and More magazines?  Journalist and author Shannon Brownlee is working on a story about how our system fails to care for the whole patient, and how the medical left hand often doesn't talk to the right.  She's looking for PWDs ages 50-70 to with personal stories to share, i.e. the myth of the "health care team" for treating diabetes, and how you may have suffered for it.  btw, Brownlee is author of the new book "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer."  Find her contact info HERE. 

2) Interested in trying a CGM (continuous glucose monitor)?  DexCom, makers of the DexCom Seven wireless system, is calling all patients who have not yet tried a CGM -- or even an insulin pump -- to fill out a marketing survey HERE. They're looking for opinions from people who have "not yet decided that these technologies are right for them," ostensibly to understand what makes us patient-types decide to take the plunge (possibly in connection with their new partnership with OmniPod developers - ?)  The survey apparently takes about 20 minutes, and for your time, a donation will be made in your name to either the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) or the American Diabetes Association (ADA). 

3) DiabetesMine.com has proudly been nominated for "Best Medical Weblog" and "Best Patient Blog" on the web over at Medgadget's famed 2007 Medical Blog Awards. Please take a moment to look over all the cool candidates, and if so inclined, cast your vote for this particular hard-workin' PWD.  Polls are open until Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008 at midnight (PST). A million thanks!

4) The door is always open to share your stories here.  DiabetesMine's Holy  @#$! Amazing Stories category features just that -- any kind of eyebrow-lifting tale you wish to share about diagnosis, or life thereafter, living with the Big D.  Meanwhile, the Diabetic Partner Follies is the place for partners and loved ones of PWDs to do the same.  Please send all inquiries and submissions to me HERE. Images welcome, too, of course.

5) Be well!

You Know You're Diabetic When...

A little Monday Madness, postponed this week to start your back-to-work New Year off with a smile.

How do you know you're diabetic?  When...

Any restaurant bragging about it's amazing "pasta & pizza" is your definition of a Torture Chamber.

A really great day for you is defined as "90-120" -- which means nothing to most people you know.

Your "personal mission statement" is... um, "90-120."  Ditto on the 2nd statement above.

Unexplained electronic beeps make you start frisking yourself, and/or your pockets or purse -- and you're the only one in the room NOT searching for your cell phone.

Just hearing the word "dessert" makes your blood sugar rise.

You keep a calculator in right next to the napkins in your kitchen.

Eating a piece of fruit has become a MAJOR EVENT in your life.

Any word that starts with "glu" makes you wince.

You find teeny tiny blood stains on lots of your shirts, and near jacket pockets -- despite the fact that you use the "lick method" a lot.

You constantly have the feeling that your life is a science experiment, and it's NOT just your imagination.

Did you know, btw, that there was a Facebook Group on this exact topic?  Yup, that group has over 1,000 members.  (OK, there are hundreds of diabetes groups on Facebook, but this, IMHO, is the funniest one.)  Do excuse the obscenity, but I just couldn't resist posting this little graphical gem from member Amber Munoz:

A few of my faves from their list (You Know You're Diabetic When...)

You say that you feel "high" in public and then wonder why people around you give you weird looks.

You have a debate about the best and worse glucose tab flavors, and take it seriously.

You think regular soda tastes completely disgusting.

You are abnormally good at multiplying by 15. Thank you, carb counting.

Sort of bittersweet, isn't it, knowing that thousands of other people "get" these?   What would you say is the biggest telltale sign that someone's part of the PWD Club?