The Corner Booth

For the past several months, I’ve had a (yet another) case of diabetes burnout. It’s been a semi-constant itch that I ignored and tried not to scratch for a while, but eventually it became unavoidable. This is probably a byproduct of dealing with diabetes on both the personal and professional front. To me, the balance is always a challenge. When I’m at the top of my game professionally, my own D-management isn’t great, and vice versa. When I'm thriving on both ends, that only lasts so long before it's too much "diabetes all the time" and eventally there comes a boiling point. I imagine that for all of us, no matter what job or study course or set of responsibilities we're dealing with, there can come a time when we feel like the diabetes is "spilling over the wall" and drowning us. This is a fitting time to address the psychosocial state I’ve been spinning around in, and how I’ve begun addressing it. I'm working on some specific tactics to for naviga

  Remember when one of our own in the Diabetes Community ran for president? OK, it was a joke, but a great one by none other than Jim Turner, the actor diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a teenager in the 1970s who's had many memorable roles over more than three decades. Jim starred in a live comedy show on NPR and appeared in vignettes in 1980s movies like The Lost Boys and St. Elmo's Fire. He's also been on shows through the years like Grey’s Anatomy , Castle , and Criminal Minds , and even got a mention in Stephen King’s updated book The Stand. Jim's been in numerous TV commercials and played Larry "the boss" in the 2005 movie version of Bewitched . On top of all that, Jim co-hosted the CNBC D-Life diabetes TV show for many years before that series eventually ended. And he ran for president! Sort of... That was part of his shtick as his signature persona Randee of the Redwoods , a fictional MTV character in the 1980s that went viral and

  Puffing a brand new form of rescue glucagon up my nose to treat a low blood sugar is everything I thought it could be. No kidding. With just a two-click press of a plunger and surprisingly forceful blast of powdery mist up into a nostril, Lilly's new Baqsimi nasal glucagon began circulating into my bloodstream. Within 10 minutes I could tell it was working, boosting my blood sugars that had plummeted into the 40s and were still dropping. Not long after, my CGM (continuous glucose monitor) graph started showing the rise. After monitoring the Baqsimi effect for two hours post-low, my wife and I were convinced that this first-ever intranasal glucagon, approved by FDA in July 2019, is indeed a game-changer. It is worlds apart from the traditional mix-and-inject glucagon kits we PWDs (people with diabetes) have been forced to endure as the only emergency glucagon option since 1961. Unfortunately, most patients will struggle to access this great new product, as Lilly