The Corner Booth

The time recently came to order new pump supplies. It turns out this was actually my first time re-ordering Minimed supplies, since switching back to the company on the hinges of Cozmo's discontinuation earlier this year. I returned to my initial pump company, which I never had an issue with and regretted leaving for Deltec every single day until the time came to happily go back. My mom, who I inspired to start pump therapy after I'd started in mid-2001, always said I was a poster boy for Minimed. Anyhow, after being on Cozmo for about two years, I once again found myself getting used to the Paradigm supplies and online store options. My initial switch back brought an initial round of new sites and reserviors, and that's what I'd been on for a few months - in addition to some older "expired" sets that I'd still had leftover from 2007. I used those to hold off on getting new supplies, but finally decided to make the plunge. So, I went online and made the or...

I'm steaming mad after reading a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer.. Here it is . Basically, this 15-year-old kid is trying to take care of his diabetes and have the best results possible. Great. Good for him. Apparently, he has some issue with higher morning spikes in the morning post-breakfast and uses his gym class days (which fall on 2 of the 6 school days) to help keep them down. Great. Good job on that. However, on those NON-gym days, rather than ADJUSTING his own routine or schedules to accomodate reading class, he would rather skip those basic skills' courses and have his own gym class, since he's diabetic. His parents are battling the school district, which has bent over backwards to accomodate this kid but doesn't see the merit in singling him out and offering him his own gym class, while everyone else is in reading class. UPDATE FROM NOVEMBER 2009: School district caves and allows this nonsense . These whiners need to be schooled. It's called adju...

There's a great quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who wrote: "Progress, Man's distinctive mark alone. Not God's, Not the Beast's. God is, They are. Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be." In my continued push for better diabetic control, I take that quote and adapt it for the progressive any diabetic always seeks in their own care. A week ago, I visited my endo and she wasn't happy with my lack of testing and care. My A1C was higher than it should be, and we vowed to work together and get it under control. Today my first week's progress, and here's my progress report. During the past seven days, I've made a consistent effort to do my best in monitoring and controlling my diabetes, and I have a pump history and full handwritten sheet of test results to prove it - at least six a day (depending on work day or weekend, when morning wake times vary). While I've had a few tests higher than 250, the majority have been in normal range and the...

The inevitable happened today, and now I'm on the road to starting anew what should have been happening all along. With a morning visit to my trusted endo Dr. P, I went from being a 30-year-old in control to what felt like a 5-year old being punished and having to sit in a corner and take his medicine (no pun intended). My semi-regular visit to her office wasn't a pleasure for either of us, as the expected unhappiness about my diabetes care boiled to the surface. I knew it was coming, but even as the past week went by, it was as if I was stuck in an orbit and being sucked toward the inevitable. It began with the nurse-assistant lady, who did the basics such as measuring, weighing, blood pressure and initial blood testing. She observed that I'd lost a few pounds, likely a combined result of eating less in recent months but also lack of adequate D-care. No, this wasn't a goal of mine. She pricked my finger, and took a reading of 270 mh/dL - this was fasting , she aske...

Sometimes, you just need to say to heck with it..... And disregard teh better judgement of your quarter-century of diabetes management and meal planning. Instead, you turn to the Almighty O-R-E-O... In the absence of a good relaxing red wine in the house, I opted for some heavenly Cookies & Milk to feed the fix after a long day and week. A day that brought in hefty paychecks but saw most of them doled out in a single day to pay off bills, buy groceries, and put toward expenses. So, I caved at the midnight hour of Nov. 14 -a day in which we welcomed World Diabetes Day 2009. I then proceeded to stay up and watch the three-hours of DVR-ed Friday night shows - Smallvile, Stargate Universe, and Law & Order. The cost: 5.5 carbs (4 cookies, cup of milk), 5.5 units. And a little more needed sleep on a sunny Saturday. Well worth it.

Here's a great topic borrowed from Scott Strumello's blog . Worth a personalized version on my virtual Corner Booth, I think. Please let me introduce, Riley and Shadow. The pets who live in the Hoskins Household and, aside from their playful pet demeanors, are also keenly aware that part of their duties include being alert to diabetic issues. On his blog today, a repost from one a couple years ago, Scott writes about how dogs can be trained to detect low blood sugars and diabetic disasters, and while cats aren't always trained as much or the same way, some (such as Kerri's cats and Phyllis ) do have that diabetic-sense about them. Sadly, Shadow doesn't appear to have that sense and doesn't care too much about anything diabetes-related. Though she sometimes does like to play with pump tubing, if dangled in front of her. Riley's a different story, though. She certaintly doesn't like the smell of insulin, as she's gotten a nose-full during a recent pum...

Our eyes met in an instant, and a disasterous cycle of events was set into motion. The dog leaped from her spot on the green lounge chair where she'd be sitting. I'd just arrived home from work and was ready to go change into more comfortable non-work clothes. She was in pounce mode, her backend sticking up and her eyes fixed on me standing at the top of the stairs. "Riley!" I said happily, greeting my 4-year-old black lab. She responded by sprinting toward me, eager to offer a similiar welcome-home greeting. As she rounded the couch that stood in between us, it was already obvious her front paws were leaving the carpeted floor and she was leaping toward me. I braced myself, non-chalantly gearing up to catch her as she jumped up to say hello. Her front paws hit just above the right-side of my waistline, just at the spot where my pump was currently connected to my body. Her paws hit the very site, and as gravity pulled her back down, I could feel the infusion site ripp...

Today is apparently a diabetes holiday, of sorts. It's been dubbed D-Blog Day, a time when we're supposed to blog about our own stories, awareness, support, and diabetes in general. For those os us who regularly write these blogs, the day almost seems moot - we probably would have done this regardless. But, in leading up to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14 and attempting to comply for the sake of artificial days on our calendars, here's that blog. My wife made the observation over the weekend about my diabetes. She noted that I haven't been taking care of myself as well as possible. That's true, I haven't. She inquired about how many blood tests I'd done during the past two days... As it turns out, not many. For someone who never gets a break from this, the weekend was actually a pseudo-break from thinking about it 24/7. I am 30 years old, and in my 25 years of being a Type 1, I've had my share of those "lazy" times, against the better judgement o...

We often hear from people in the D-community about praying for a cure. We have hope that someday, God will provide men with the science and resources they need to discover a cure. But here's a story out of Wisconsin that takes that prayer to a different level. Parents who basically refused to take take their 11-year-old daughter in for diabetes care, and instead prayed that she would be healed without any medical help. Last month, they received six months in jail for letting her die and not seeking medical care. As it turns out, a story about his case aired on the D-Life show a few hours after I'd written this blog. Here's the video page , which also mentions another case about a California teenager who died from undiagnosed diabetes after his father and family declined to get medical care because of their faith. This reminds me of the Schmidt case out of Franklin, Ind. that I covered a few years ago, when reporting for a daily county newspaper there. Here's one story ...

As it's been a tough deadline week with little time to post, I've decided to use this great post from the archives of Six Until Me, entitled An Open Letter to My Pancreas . I echo these thoughts to my non-working insulin organ. Enjoy.

... That November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. Here's some words from the ADA about it, particularly a push for people to join the national movement to Stop Diabetes (I realize great movement names are somewhat limited, but it's as if there wasn't already a push for that???) Anyhow, this month is apparently a time to "shine a spotlight on a serious disease that leads to potentially life-threatening complications such as..." You know, just once - I'd like to read something that says diabetes is a disease that "can be managed correctly and lead to healthy-productive lives even though there will always be a possibility for complications." You know, the optimism that really goes hand-in-hand with efforts to "Stop Diabetes" or "Find a Cure." But, of course, optimism then wouldn't solidify the need as to "why" we need to find a cure or stop diabetes for those of us not living with it. Oh well. We can hope. Ways ...