The Corner Booth

You can always count on a little self-created chaos to make traveling more interesting. I'm that guy, as it came to the recent travels to the Roche Social Media Summit in San Diego. Now, I was lucky enough not to run into some of the roadblocks that others faced in getting out to the West Coast from their respective locations. But in my case, every issue was a self-created moment of confusion or chaos. All were D-related, to some extent. Flying out of Indianapolis, I'd made an executive decision to simply wear my pump in my pocket and proceed through security without declaring myself. I tossed my laptop bag and D-supply bags into the bins, along iwth my shoes and laptop, and proceeded through the metal detector without any hassle. No full-body scan or pat down or anything from TSA. Smooth sailing, or so it seemed. A fellow flier ahead of me in line had an identical laptop bag. He had way too many carry-on items and was moving up and down the conveyor belt security line....

A huge Thank You is the only way to begin. That's what this is: Just a beginning. The first of many and so much. Being a part of the third annual Roche Social Media Summit is an incredible honor. A humbling experience and an empowering opportunity to be a part of something so much bigger than one person or even such a small group. More than three dozen D-bloggers and online "story-tellers" came together to talk about the power of social media use in the diabetes community. The event at June 22-24 was at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, right across from the Convention Center where the 71st annual American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions kicked off at week's end. Thank you, Roche, for all of this. For building bridges. Nurturing relationships. Listening to us. Keeping it real. Strengthening and caring about our community, not just about your products and bottom-line. For being honest. Not to mention cool, dynamic, engaging, and thought-provoki...

The third Roche Social Media Summit is here, this time out in San Diego. I'm honored to again be a part of an incredible group from the Diabetes Online Community and talk about things that are important for this little world of ours, and way beyond. And, of course, just some awesome fun in what's pretty much a huge D-Meetup with people from all across the country at Roche's expense . So, in my stead, I bring in my friend Simon from Australia, who does some amazing writing over at Diabetes Daily. I invite you to read what he's penned here, then visit him over at DD for a chance to read some majestic writing that is sure to capture your heart and soul. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Sitting in my living room and contemplating this post my mind starts to wander.. I think of the past. I think of endless medical appointments, the pain, the confusion and the acute loneliness. Isolation. My first im...

The Soup Nazi is a classic character from Seinfeld. If you aren't familiar, here's a recap: You must follow a script very closely when entering his Hot Soup-serving establishment. The customer is always wrong, and you must pay extra for anything. Oh, and there's no backtalk. No saying a single word out of order - or that means he'll glare at you and shout, "No Soup for you!" As seen here . Recently, we encountered that same scenario on the Life Insurance front - when exploring whether we could get a bowl of life insurance soup, so to speak. Now, I have life insurance - a policy that's been around since my baby days, thanks to my dad and grandfather who've been longtime policy holders and made sure their children had one in place just in case. This has been in my name since I was born, before my diagnosis - even if I wasn't aware of it until some point in the past decade. As far as I know, my diabetes has never been an issue or brought up in ...

We went out for breakfast one morning recently. As with many places, this particular breakfast establishment had a trio of sugar substitutes sitting on the table along with that white packet of plain old sweet sugar. A pink one. Another blue. A third one yellow. One Sweet N' Low. Another Equal. And one splendidly Splenda. Only one contained these words: "Suitable for people with diabetes." Now, I have no clue as to whether the others are or are not just as "suitable" for People With Diabetes. I'm not even really sure What The Fructose ( see what I did there...!?!?! ) that even means. But I examined them all, and the Splenda was the only one that said it. So I swiped it and took it home. I'm not one to even use sugar substitutes - or anything for that matter - in my coffee or beverages. I just thought it was funny. And worth writing about. Having no opinion about the science or safety or validity of any of the three, and putting my endorsement ...

Tuesday is Flag Day. And I almost forgot about it... But I didn't. So, this is the chance to show off an awesome skin cover for my Minimed insulin pump. Cool cover created by Medtronic's SkinIt . Here's another view... All in the palm of your hand.  And another... With stove and egg timer in background...   And so it is. This is one of many options that existed for a pump skin cover, but weighing all the options and realizing this skin would pretty much be visible to everyone - even strangers - most of the time (since I wear my pump on my belt), the patriotic design is what I went with. So, my trusty Mimimed 722 (a.k.a. The Don of Rage Bolusing) gets to show off the patriotism online, just as is now done each and every day as it hovers on my belt-line. Being all " U.S.A., U.S.A ." and such. There you have it. Happy Flag Day. And upcoming Fourth of July, in like four weeks.

Uh huh. That's right. Up is Down. Right is Left. And cupcakes just aren't yummy. The world is upside down. My equilibrium is totally off, and I feel as though I'm running in circles trying to find an unknown destination without a map. Now, it's not particularly connected to diabetes - most of the craziness is everything else in life. But a consequence of the storm damage is that my D-Management is completely off as well. It's not really that my diabetes has been cooperating, it's more to the tune that I have not been cooperating with my diabetes and have been totally slacking. With all the storms swirling in life, I've just not been up to doing what needs to be done. Depression begets depression, and it's just not something I've been really dealing with all that lately. It's really not all that impressive when I routinely see 400 and 500s at night before bed, and just nonchalantly correct before turning in. I was pondering this recently, ...

We haven't been to church in a long time. To the point that we probably have an inactive membership now, or they've forgotten who we are. But I've continued my biblical readings and have tried to keep up on reading our church sermons online. Most recently, one stood out to me and hit my heart. It illustrates how I feel generally, and in terms of my D-Care at this point in time. Maybe this is God speaking to me. The sermon is about one of our senior pastors getting ready to retire and move on to the next phase of his life, and it talks about the Four Stages of Work. Stage One is Unconscious Incompetence. Put simply, it means that you don’t know what you don’t know. As a worker it means coming into a new environment and trying desperately hard not to embarrass yourself or show your lack of skill. It means looking back and cringing at some of the things you said and did on your first day of work. Unconscious incompetence…I'd say this equates to someone just being...

I've been Living With Diabetes for 27 years, after being diagnosed in 1984 at age five. My mother has been Living With Diabetes for 53 years, after being diagnosed in 1958 at the same young age. We both have certificates and medals "awarding" us for these milestones. Many friends in the Diabetes Online Community and Beyond have been living with diabetes for just as long, even longer, and can be considered "veterans" in many respects. Many mark their own yearly "dia-versaries" that celebrate the specific number of years they've gotten through. On a broader scale, we have had some recent media coverage about those People With Diabetes who have lived for long - including one man who has reached the 85-year mark and could be one of the first to hit that mark. Others who've achieved the 50-year mark and are participating at in the Joslin Medalist Study recently gathered at the Boston-facility to celebrate their long D-Lives. And Kerri'...

About a month ago, my parents visited Indianapolis and we were able to set up a long-awaited tour of the Eli Lilly headquarters. This has been something that had been on the mind for a long time, going back seven years since I'd moved to Indiana from southeast Michigan. Back in early 2010, I'd had the chance to briefly walk through a part of the historic museum when attending a JDRF Research Update where I met Aaron Kowalski. I wrote about that experience at that time . But coordinating a tour with my mom was more tricky, as the company has had tighter security protocol since 9/11 and the touring isn't something they do all that often anymore. Finally, we had that opportunity in early May through a contact I've made locally as a board member of the Diabetes Youth Foundation of Indiana. The stars had finally aligned for this visit to take place while my parents were in town. My mom and I both have Lilly medals - she's a 50-year recipient marking her diagnosis in 1...

"Always know if the juice is worth the squeeze. " Yes, it's a quote. From philosophers, I'm sure... but I heard it first in a movie called The Girl Next Door. Mulling that quote on little sleep and high stress levels, I offer a Friday message for any Person With Diabetes who might be hitting scary-productive levels of awesomeness or just simply trying to tread water effectively until a life boat arrives. "Always know if the Boost is Worth the Bolus. " As I said, lots of work + too little sleep = A NEED TO KNOW WHEN IT'S WORTH CLOSING YOUR EYES, OR WHETHER YOU CAN KEEP RUNNING ON CAFFEINE AND FUMES WITHOUT A.) CRASHING OR B.) OVERLOADING. Yes, I take that much for 82g between these pair of energy boosters. Worth it? I mean, that is a lot o ins'lin for those 2 drinks there...   Yep. So totally bolus-worthy! All gone. Oh, so sad... :( Please don't ask why there's a used syringe, lancet, and two test strips in this empty bott...

Every Wednesday is trash day in our neighborhood when the trusty garbage and recycling trucks come by to pick up whatever we've left at the curb. In our world, we typically leave a few white pull-string trash bags inside a plastic container on wheels. We also put out the green plastic bin for recyclables - miscellaneous glass and plastic bottles, the dog-chewed plastic milk jugs, and a plethora of empty Diet Coke cans. Among other things. One of those containers usually contains some D-supplies, like discarded infusion sets, empty vials of BG test strips, a neutralized Army of Used Test Strips, backup syringes or tangled pump tubing no longer in use. Random sharpies. Some scattered lancets, if by chance I changed one that past week. Really it just depends on the particular week's activities. Anyway, the trash and recycling has usually been picked up by the time I return home from work that day. That was the case on one recent Wednesday. But there was something more to n...