The Corner Booth

"How many times a day do you check your blood sugar?" Well, I'm supposed to do it X amount of times each day. But right now, I don't care. And so I am doing it maybe once or twice, if I'm lucky. "Did you check today?" Yes, I did. Twice. And no, I'm not wearing my CGM right now. I just don't have the energy to pay attention to that at the moment. "You should check more and do better? " You shouldn't be an asshole. Leave me alone. "It sounds like you're a little tired of diabetes..." Maybe I am. Especially after just spending a week traveling and thinking about diabetes non-stop, and being surrounded by it. That has gotten to me, and it makes me stop wanting to do what I need to. I need a mental break. I've been depressed before, an that's not what this is. Even in the past, my depression wasn't specifically caused by diabetes -- it was just regular life, but I was probably more likely t...

Longtime type 1 Jacob Padilla could be a case study on how healthcare reform is a two-sided coin with pros and cons, but how I think it's more of a benefit to people with diabetes. This 38-year-old in New Mexico had his wallet out and was ready to buy. Diagnosed at age 12, he's lived his entire adult life without health insurance... until now. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and the abolishment of the practice of pre-existing conditions historically leading to automatic coverage denials, Jacob is now able to purchase his first health insurance plan. While the plans he could choose from were breathtakingly more expensive than he was led to believe they'd be, he was philosophical about it. He was not only willing and able to pay the steep premium, he was eager to do so. "I was just happy there was going to be options, you know, regardless of cost. I was happy to be able to have something, just to have the opportunity to have health cove...

This past weekend gave me a chance to attend a local diabetes conference put on by the JDRF Indiana chapter. There's been a national JDRF dictate that these conferences all across the country be referred to as TypeOne Nation, so that's what this one was. It wasn't the first of its kind here, but since it's relatively small and new, the chapter's followed that directive. An estimated 200 people attended this year, I'm told. Had a great time, because it's just the right size to be intimate but not overwhelming. And what I liked was that it didn't force you -- as some larger conferences by JDRF and others do -- to miss some great sessions because there's too many crammed into the exact same time slot and you just can't be in multiple places at once, or even look back to view them on video or online at a later time. I was live-tweeting a bit from my personal @MHoskins2179 account, using the @JDRFIndiana account and #TypeOneNation hashtag ...