The Corner Booth

Tuesday marks my 32rd year. Thirty-two years since I entered this world on Feb. 1, 1979. But while birthdays are celebratory and this is just another one, I'll be looking to the stars to mark this anniversary and think about what lies ahead. There is always good and bad, and so it is when my birthday rolls around each year. Eight years ago, I was on a mission. A mission to buy an engagement ring. This was in the works for awhile at the time, and I woke up early to get myself ready for the monumental purchase. That Saturday in 2003 was when I bought the finger jewelry that would stay in my coat pocket for a little more than a month before the actual proposal came to be. That was a positive, but that day had more in store than I had planned. About 9 a.m. Eastern that day, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed upon re-entering the planet. All seven astronauts on board were killed. This national international tragedy changed the mood, and tempered my excitement ...

On a recent weekend night in the darkened confines of my own home, I watched the movie Buried . Those in the Diabetes Online Community may be aware that this 2010 movie is the brainchild of Chris Sparling, screen-writer extraordinaire and husband of Kerri over at Six Until Me . The movie was released in limited spots in September and October, and the one location in Central Indiana didn't present an opportunity for me to attend at that time. So, I've been eagerly anticipating the DVD release date and subsequent appearance on our home TV network's On Demand roster. That time finally arrived. As I couldn't convince or bribe my loving wife to watch with me, I turned off the lights and settled in for the solo movie-watching experience in my comfy green chair upstairs. Just by reading a synopsis of the movie, anyone knows that the premise is that a U.S. contract truck driver is kidnapped in Iraq and buried alive in a coffin. That's all I am going to say, as to not ...

Our nation's president gave the annual State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. Lots of politics, followed by many pundants analyzing what was said and what it all means. While I'm a politico newshound myself, I decided to deviate from those points and focus instead on the politics of my own D-Life. Photo source , thanks to a Google search. It's the State of the Diabetes Union, if you will. As the president spoke and then the reaction responses appeared on the TV, I was drinking a cup of tea in order to combat a common cold. Listening to Michele Bachmann speak as the Tea Party representative made me instantly regret this beverage choice. Listening to the political responses and reactions, it also made me ponder how difficult Diabetes Advocacy to new Congress members on Capitol Hill in March might actually be, when I disagree with so many of these people's stances ( more on that later ). But putting real politics aside, I turned to the Diabetes Online Commu...

This post is in response to a pair of diabetes-focused stories in the weekend edition of the Johnson County Daily Journal , which is my hometown newspaper here in Central Indiana and a county paper that I think surpasses the Indy Star on most levels. For disclosure, I'd worked  as a reporter at this paper more than five years ago and it's what brought us to Indiana in the first place. The editor I'm writing to is also my former boss, and likely as a result of that past employment this letter will never be published there. So I'm posting it here. Since the Journal locks down its content to only subscribers and I'm not a fan of that practice, I have opted to not post the two stories in their entirety to respect that policy. But I'm including enough to give everyone a feel for how the stories were written. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -    Dear Local Newspaper Editor: The Daily ...

You might say I'm a beer lover. By no means am I an expert, connoisseur, or stuck-up sipper of the hops and barley brews. Simply someone who enjoys and appreciates a good beer, particularly those of the micro-brewery genre. Though I very much enjoy a good domestic bottle or name-brand beer any day of the week, I also love to explore new tastes and beers, and find it fun to not only try new ones that haven’t crossed my palate before but also talk about beers with those who share in that enjoyment. A friend and I regularly talk, a mix of joking and seriousness, about starting our own microbrew someday. We’ve even come up with the brand name, and just have to put it all into play. With all of that said as background, I recently found myself in the mood for a good brew. Exploring all the options and deciding against a light pale domestic choice but also not wanting to venture into any exotic or adventurous territories at the time, I narrowed it down to a pair of contenders: a...

I've asked some friends in the Diabetes Online Community to help keep the corner booth discussion going from time to time. So, here's your first co-host: the wonderfully-fun and creative  Kim from Texting My Pancreas , who says she's honored to be guest-posting and promises "not to throw any wild parties" and will "try to remember to water the plants" in my absence. While I don't discourage any great #dprom-like parties and am happy to see my personal plant-killing practice will be on hold for a bit, I'm honored to have Kim on board! Please welcome her over here with a comment, too!  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Hi, Kim! (*Me waving) The small piece of laminated paper could have easily gotten lost in the sea of celebrity headlines and polypropylene-wrapped candy bars, but my eyes still found it. Beep! Beep! It wasn’t professionally designed, but for me, its message cou...

Fellow Diabetes Advocate and Huffington Post writer Riva Greenberg asked for some help with an article she wrote recently on the heels of Ricki Lake's statement on Good Morning America that "juvenile diabetes is preventable." She notes that the Huffington Post rejected it for the first time in 50 submissions. They agave no reason other than "it's not a fit for us." Riva thinks it's worth a read and continues the conversation that type 1 needs more visibility and that type 1 and 2 are confusing to the public. So I've posted her article here as a way to help spread  the word, as Riva wants. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - (Recently) on “Good Morning America” actress and former talk show host, Ricki Lake, said juvenile diabetes was preventable. She’s since apologized. “This was a mistake on my part and in no way was meant to offend anyone dealing with the very serious disease of juvenile diabetes.”  Photo Source: Access Hollywood .  Lake...

The other night, I wanted some hot cocoa. But spending money on some single cup at a coffee shop or finding some of those hot cocoa singles didn't seem appealing. So, the choice was made to grab some of the yummy Hershey's chocolate syrup from the local grocery store. ( Read: Wal-Mart, as we try to conserve money as much as possible .) On the store shelf, we saw various options - regular, lite, calcium added, sugar free. As well as the Wal-Mart brand of Sugar Free. There were also crazy flavors like Strawberry and Dark Chocolate and all kinds of others, but my focus was on simple non-fancy chocolate syrup. Being a carb-counting diabetic, my eyes went from the yummy pictures on the front of the squeeze bottles to the backsides where the nutrional information was listed. Those carb counts were as follows, for a 2 tablespoon serving: Regular: 24g Strawberry/Dark Choc: 23g With Calcium: 23g Lite: 11g Sugar Free: 5g Generic Brand SF: 4g Determined to have a combinati...

Though I try to refrain from doing this, the need to recycle an old seldom-read post is too great to pass up. A hectic week of work deadlines and time passing too quickly have combined to bring me to this hour, without a suitable D-Topic to write about anew. So, I give you one that originally ran in early 2007 in my early days of blogging here. With that, hope you enjoy this Blast from the Past! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A fellow D-blogger Ryan Bruner recently noted how we are often inspired at the oddest moments in life, and how we can realize someone's incredible nature at the most inopportune times. He shared a story about his wife. So here, I thought I'd take a moment to share one of mine. This story illustrates some aspects of my wife's personality that I find the most inspiring, life-changing, and all around refreshing in comparison to my own. Her creativity, inspiring ability to take care of others ( well, me of course ), a...

Getting stung by a bee isn't my idea of a good time. Actually, it terrifies the fructose out of me and I firmly believe that these stinging insects are, in fact, evil. The yellow and black stripes clearly mark the evil intent of these sinister insect aggressors, and I've written about this before .  But none of that really matters now, as I've resorted to getting stung on a regular basis, at least on a temporary trial run, and the stinger stays inside me 24-7 anywhere from three days to 2 weeks.  The bees, er... sensors that enjoy stinging me  Take a look, right over there ----> See, doesn't this really sorta look like a BEE WITH A STINGER???? One that plunges into your body, sinks below the skin, settles in underneath that subcutaneous layer, and then lounges there for as long as possible. Yes, as you may have guessed: I'm talking about a Minimed Continuous Glucose Monitor, of the Paradigm 523 Revel variety. A fellow Type 1 my mom knows up in Michig...

Yes, I'm a diabetes blogger. Yes, I wear an insulin pump - the kind with tubing. Yes, I'm one of those "old schoolers" (from the 90s)  who doesn't care for the laptop touchpads and instead prefers a real live mouse, via USB. Yes, this does periodically present a peril. The tangled-type, of course: Gotta love those Stewie sleepy pants sported on my day off! That's what happened on a recent weekend while trying to hash out some blogs with laptop on my lap and the mouse nearby. All turned out OK, after a little untangling. No sets pulled out. This time. That's just the way it is. Another moment in the Day in the Life of a Type 1 diabetic. Who happens to blog.

Rules have changed when it comes to insurance flex account coverage on Over The Counter medications. The new health care reform law requires a doctor's prescription for any OTC medicines that someone might want their flex spending account to pay for. Insulin is exempt and anything else you might normally have an Rx for isn't affected, just those on the shelf items such as cold medicine and aspirin. The IRS says this applies only to "medicine" or "drugs," and not those supplies such as band-aids, crutches, contact lens solution, or blood glucose test strips and kits. For me and many People With Diabetes, this specifically comes down to glucose tablets that are sold in the pharmacy aisles or endcaps. Since these are basically something you eat and can be dubbed a consumable "medicine" or "drug," the new Flex rule applies. To be clear: The new rules don't limit these over the counters and don't stop a person from paying for the...

Indiana motorists can now join the effort to Stop Diabetes and proclaim that message for all others on the roads to see. A new license plate is available in Indiana starting in 2011, recognizing the American Diabetes Association's Stop Diabetes movement and one of the 11 speciality non-profit recognition plates the state legislature created in the past year. Available to motorists for $40, the plate cost includes $25 that is a tax-deductible donation for the ADA. It doesn't replace the juvenile diabetes plate that's available in some but not all spots in Indiana, but is the only D-plate offered and recognized statewide. This new plate is the first of its kind in the country and other states hope to follow suit, according to the ADA's Indiana spokeswoman Joy Mahoney. Money raised from this plate will be used to fuel the ADA and Stop Diabetes movement here in Indiana, specifically for education and programming to serve people with diabetes, healthcare profes...