The Corner Booth

Written by Mike Hoskins and originally published at DiabetesMine on July 24, 2014 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The tides are a changin' at two of the top diabetes orgs, with both the JDRF and the American Diabetes Association getting new leaders this month for the first time in years. Whoa, both at the same time... is there something in the water?! And should we be concerned about what this means for the diabetes community in terms of how these key organizations will move forward on important issues like research, technology, patient access, legislation and other advocacy? Short answer: We can assume the two departures are just coincidental timing, but where exactly Big Red and Big Blue are headed from this point remains To Be Determined. We're expecting to publish an an exclusive Q&A with the new CEO of JDRF very soon, along with learning the identity of the interim ADA leader, so stay tuned! For now, we're reporting what we know from the outgoing guard. ...

Several years ago, a friend and I were playing golf one day. It was just the two of us and it wasn't particularly busy that morning, so we thought maybe we'd be sneak on without being paired up with another two-some. Not the case. We ended up with another two guys who weren't anything to write home about as far as golfing skill, and they seemed a little self-absorbed and unwilling to engage in just casual chat. So, we went about our golf game and maintained pleasant attitudes toward our fellow golfers. Per my usual golfing routine I was wearing khacki pants with a tucked in polo shirt. And so, my insulin pump was clipped on to my belt as it usually is. This was a number of years ago, and at the time I wasn't wearing a CGM so my pump was the only diabetes device I had on me. That's when it happened out of nowhere, on one of the later holes. As I stood behind the tee watching my friend make his drive, one of the random-golfers was off studying his clubs on t...

Today is #dblogcheck day... you know, the one where you leave a comment on all the diabetes blog posts you're reading. Thanks to Christopher Snider for getting the ball moving on this check-in effort, btw. **(Oh, and hat-tip to Kerri for clearing up on Twitter recently that this wasn't #dblogcheckin, since that sounds too much like #dblogchicken ... with a chicken in the crockpot last evening, I had to jump on that. Yes, the D-blogging chicken did get to pose for a #bgnow Tweet. But sadly, the chicken is no longer online post-dinner. I must say, he did go well with some white wine and rice at dinner last night. So, props to you, DOC Chicken.)** OK, silliness aside. Honestly, I wasn't going to post anything today. There's a lot of diabetes news happening and I'm caught up in that, so really I was just going to read a small handful of D-blogs, comment on those, and go about the day's business. And coffee... because, well... of course. How can the...

I've been struggling with diabetes burnout lately, feeling as though I have to talk and think diabetes all day long. Thanks to that, it's been tough to keep my interest in wanting to do what I should when it comes to my own diabetes, or even interacting more personally within the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) because again -- it's all about diabetes taking away from the rest of my time. But a local D-Meetup recently gave me a refreshing boost, as I was able to sit and chat with friends about so many things -- and although we came together due to diabetes, our meetup wasn't necessarily about diabetes and it didn't have to come up. The D aspects weren't forced, they were natural and helped me once again actually feel that I'm not alone. We met for a Thursday night event at Granite City Brewing in downtown Indianapolis. Six of us came out, from longtime Type 1s who are at our 40, 30 and 20 year marks, to those within just the past several years. I un...