The Corner Booth

To those who knew her best, Kitty Castellini was a lover of bologna, a practical joker and passionate Disney fan -- not to mention a devoted mom and wife who had a quick wit and feisty personality, along with (believe it or not) expertise in explosives and hazardous materials. She also happened to be a tireless diabetes advocate who inspired countless people across the globe, founding the Diabetes Living Today weekly radio show and website in 2007 that was one of the early online hubs bringing our community together. Through the years, she received Congressional and state government recognition for her advocacy work, and made history as the longest-surviving pancreas transplant recipient who was basically cured of type 1 for several years. For more than a half-century, Kitty fought the good fight with a sense of humor and pluck that defined her spirit beyond diabetes. But our world lost her light on June 19 after several months of declining health. Our friend from Vineland, N...

--> Here I sit, in the New Orleans airport waiting for my flight back home following the ADA’s biggest diabetes meeting of the year. I've got some personal thoughts to share. This isn't a professional recap of anything, just a line to what's going through my head and heart here at the moment. More professional, balanced writing and analysis will occur elsewhere, in due time.  My mind is swimming with so much information and there's so much to process on so many fronts. While this ADA event leaves me hopeful and inspired in so many ways about the state of things, it also leaves me a bit unsettled and sad. In many ways, I feel powerless to move the needle on change when it comes to making sure people have access to the tech and treatments and tools they want to use. #DiabetesAccessMatters was a big topic on everyone’s mind at ADA. No doubt, the United Healthcare and Medtronic partnership in early May was a hot-button issue that got a...

A month ago, I decided to step away from my Medtronic insulin pump. This was long overdue, a needed change that I needed to revisit in order to get my diabetes back in line. Yet, I had been putting this off and it wasn't until Medtronic's business decision to screw with patient choice and access that I made the final personal decision to disconnect from my pump and go back on injections like I've done a few times in the past. My first pump vacation lasted for about five months in 2010, and led to a 1.1% drop in my A1C. The later vacations also saw smaller drops, but still they helped me re-focus on D-management. And so, that's what I set out to achieve in the here and now.  After my first month of this #PumpHiatus , my BGs have been phenomenal compared to how they were before. Glucose variability is hella better, and my A1C dropped from 8.4% in February to 7.6% in early June! This was also down from my A1C last Fall where it rang in at 9.1 -- so progress conti...