The Corner Booth

Hello, it's me. After all these years, we're fully established back in Michigan after more than a decade in Indiana. And with that, comes finding the new doctors -- including my trusty diabetes-focused endo Dr. G, and that ever-important eye specialist who's going to see me (!) through whatever vision and retina woes may come my way. Making a new appointment at the start of the year and going through all the insurance referral hassle thanks to the new HMO, that appointment finally came at the end of February. No, it's not with Adele. So sorry for that opening -- couldn't resist. I've never been to this eye clinic before, but this doctor's name was on a list of about a dozen others given by Dr. G. Along with his eye credentials as an expert in this field, I put some faith in that. The whole appointment took about 2 hours to go through the new patient process and enter in all the info that apparently didn't transfer over from the electronic forms ...

In the labyrinths of diabetes device history, there are endless examples of great ideas for gadgets that never got off the ground. But what about that D-tech that actually got FDA approval or was all-but-guaranteed to, yet never made it into the hands of people with diabetes? Yep, some products underwent the whole development and regulatory review process and ended up getting scrapped anyway, never seeing the light of day. Today, we want to share a couple of these stories from the "lost and never-launched" file. (We're pretty sure there are more out there, now all but forgotten by time.) Let's start with some "almost-lost tech" news that was a hot topic at the big Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD) conference that took place in February 2016 in Milan, Italy: Medtronic's predictive 640G with Enlite sensor? Word on the street is that Medtronic is flirting with the idea of tossing aside its plan to release here in the United States ...

Several years had gone by since the last time Mr. Mumbles visited our house, and quite a bit has changed. But one thing that hasn't is the fact that once again, Mr. Mumbles met Mr. Diabetes in way that wasn't too much fun. One day after my 37th birthday, I found myself in the dental surgeon's chair getting two teeth removed. A bridge had come loose just before Christmas, and a subsequent dentist appointment in January after the bridge was removed discovered the teeth underneath weren't salvageable. So, setting the appointment as early as possible without interfering with my actual birthday, I scheduled the extractions. The experience itself wasn't all too bad, as I specifically asked to be put under. We got to play a fun round of "Find A Vein" until they punctured both elbow joints and my left hand, before settling on a particular visible vein on the top of my right hand. Under pretty quickly, and the teeth were extracted. Then, the true advent...

The high cost of insulin has long been a sore spot among the Diabetes Community. And the dust was stirred up again when Eli Lilly executives made comments about their increasing profits from insulin during a recent earnings call (covered in this MarketWatch story ). During the late January call, Lilly leadership highlighted growing earnings from Humalog — up 9% overall over the previous year, and up roughly 20% during the last three months of the year alone. That growth is “driven by price and to a lesser extent volume,” they said. At one point, in response to a question about the "captive audience" for this life-sustaining drug, Lilly CEO John Lechleiter said, “Yes, (drugs) can be expensive, but disease is a lot more expensive." The company has made recent price hikes, apparently following a spell from 2009-2013 when price increases were extremely low and the industry “felt the pain.” Yes, he actually said that. OUCH! Talk about your lack of sensitivi...

A Texas teenager who's being dubbed one of the next big stars on Nickelodeon TV is also stepping into a role as a diabetes advocate, based on her eight years of living with type 1. In just the past few years, 16-year-old Brec Bassinger ( @BrecBassinger ) has starred in The Goldbergs, Bella and the Bulldogs and Liar Liar Vampire. She now even appears on billboards on Sunset Boulevard and in Times Square! We were delighted to have the chance to chat with Brec (and her mom), about her personal D-story, how she got her start as a competitive child pageant star and cheerleader, and even how diabetes could be weaved into some of her acting roles if that's what producers might want. We even talked Nick Jonas, the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) and some Super Bowl predictions for this weekend's big football game... An Interview with Teen Actress Brec Bassinger DM) First off, Brec, tell us your diabetes story...? BB) I was diagnosed almost exactly eight...