A Little Encouragement . . . .

As much as I try to focus on the bright side of living with diabetes, the truth is that it’s tough.  Day in, day out, relentless and often unreflective of the work we put in.  So when I received an email from Betsy Bush about her involvement in creating a line diabetes greeting cards for kids I immediately loved the idea.  Betsy, along with fellow artists Corrie Kuipers, Doreen Erhardt, and Sharon Fernleaf, and writer Nene Adams, are currently selling the cards online at Greeting Card Universe.  Nene Adams was kind enough to provide a little more information on the creation of their diabetes greeting card line . . .

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“My partner, Corrie Kuipers, and I have been designing and selling specialty greeting cards since 2007. In 2011, I was diagnosed with diabetes. Of course, I wanted to read everything I could about the disease. During my research, I was surprised to find very few greeting cards for diabetics, especially children and teenagers.

According to the American Diabetes Association (http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/), 25.8 million adults and children in the U.S. have diabetes. We feel the need exists for special greeting cards to serve the diabetic community. Creating positive greeting cards addressing issues like insulin pumps, body image, lifestyle changes, emotional reactions, feelings of isolation and other concerns seemed like an obvious choice, especially paired with Corrie’s whimsical and often humorous art.”


“We invited other uniquely talented artists - Doreen Erhardt, Sharon Fernleaf and Betsy Bush - to join us and make one of a kind greeting cards for diabetics.”


“If there’s a child or teenager (or adult) who’s been recently diagnosed with Type I or Type II diabetes in your life, send them a “hug in the mail.” A little encouragement accompanied by a colorful greeting card will go a long way toward making a diabetic feel like they’re not alone.

http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/get-well-feel-better-cards/diabetes”

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Thank you, Nene!!  Want to hear a little secret?  I may supposedly be an adult, but I’d love to find one of these in my mailbox.  After all, we could all use a little encouragement now and then, couldn’t we?

Intuition . . . .

I believe that sometimes, as people with diabetes, we just know.  Intuition screams at us.  Unfortunately, sometimes I don’t listen.  That’s exactly what happened yesterday.

Somewhere around the middle of the day, my blood sugars got stuck.  They weren’t high high, but they were higher than normal.  They hovered in the 170s, even after the treadmill and dusting and vacuuming the whole house and cleaning the bathroom.  Corrections did nothing to budge the number.



Here’s the thing.  170 isn’t a terrible number for me.  I had under-bolused a snack before the treadmill so I wouldn’t go low.  I had eaten dinner.  I had a bit of dessert.  All justifications for that stuck blood sugar, but my intuition was saying otherwise.  My intuition said my site had crapped out early.  It was scheduled to be changed this morning.  But it was in my abdomen, and in the past my ab sites haven’t lasted the full three days.  However, I didn’t listen to that intuition and instead I went to bed.

About a half hour later, my Rise Rate alarm rang.  And my blood sugar hit the 200s.  And I knew it was time to listen to my intuition and change out my site.  I dragged myself out of bed, turned on the light (much to the dismay of my sleeping husband) and did what I should have done a few hours ago.  One new site and one correction bolus later this happened.



Not only did I come down from the 200s, but I came all the way down to a gross low and a 2 a.m. juice box.

I’d love to say I learned my lesson.  I wish I could swear that next time I’ll listen to my intuition and get that site issue taken care of right away instead of going to bed hoping things will work themselves out.  But right now, my intuition is saying that next time I’ll probably make the same mistakes again.  I guess I just get so stubborn about pulling a site early, and I guess I just haven’t quite learned yet.
 
Am I the only one, or does your stubborn streak drown out your intuitions too?

Let Your Patient Voice be Heard . . . .

For the past few years I’ve enjoyed reading about the DiabetesMine Innovation Project.  The opportunity for DOC members, as patients, to discuss what we need and want with the people who are making the products we use and the policies that affect us is so important.  And I have such appreciation for all of the past delegates who took the time to be involved.

This year is particularly exciting for me, because I’ve been asked to be part of the selection committee and to attend the summit.  I can’t imagine how hard a task it will be to choose 10 delegates from this year’s submissions.  But I’m up to for the challenge - and I want YOU to make it harder!!

There is still time to get your Patient Voices application in.  You can win a scholarship to the 2014 Innovations Summit on November 21st at Stanford School of Medicine.  To apply you need to review a diabetes product on video for the DiabetesMine Test Kitchen and fill out the Patient Voices application.  Listen, we use our diabetes products day in and day out - so a review is no sweat, right?  Right!!  You have until next Friday, June 20th, to apply.  So what are you waiting for?

For more information and to hear what past participants have to say, be sure to check out Amy’s post on Diabetes Mine.  And don’t forget to review the contest rules here.

** As part of the Patient Voices selection committee, I will attend this years Innovation Summit on scholarship. **

Sugary Beauty . . .

I’m a little bit addicted to Sephora.  I’m shamelessly girly and I can’t help it.  I’m a Beauty Insider so I often find Sephora emails in my inbox.  And the one that arrived the other day really got me thinking.  It featured a line called  Fresh Sugar.

Photo Credit: www.fresh.com

Beauty products made with sugar sound pretty luxurious to me.  But I worry about the impacts, diabetes-wise.  Would regular applications of lip balms and glosses full of sugar cause a spike?  Would I need to bolus for the carbs I am absorbing?  (Am I the only one who finds thoughts of bolusing for lip gloss completely ridiculous?)  And would using the hand creams or washing with the soaps before a finger stick leave traces of sugar that throw off my meter reading?

I think I’ll play it safe and stick with my cute eos lip balms and my Gold Bond Ultimate.  How about you, would you be willing to give them a try?

Being Less Efficient . . . .

I asked for, and received because I’m spoiled, a Fitbit for my birthday on Monday.  Since then it’s been riding along with me, clipped beside my insulin pump on my waistband.  And what it has been telling me from the start is not really surprising.  I don’t move enough.

I hit 10,00 steps easily on Monday, but it was my birthday and a holiday so that made it easy.  Sure, I had a lazy morning with breakfast in bed and a chick flick.  But the sun was shining and my Fitbit was calling, so Pete and I went for a run by the ocean.  And before going out for dinner, we took a nice long walk on the beach.  Bam, goals reached, thank you very much.

Then Tuesday hit and the normal weekday routine kicked in.  Long walks on the beach are replaced by long hours with the laptop.  And the step goals?  Not even close.  So I cut all goals in half, as a start, and will take the advice I read about increasing them by 5% each week.  Even though I cut my goals in half, I still didn’t meet them on Tuesday.  So I’m learning ways to be more active during the day.  And part of that seems to include being less efficient.

I’m a wiz at efficiency and multi-tasking.  But my new goal is to knock down my efficiency in order to take more steps.  The recycling gathered in a neat pile to be brought to the basement at the end of the day?  Well now I’m bringing each item downstairs immediately.  Belongings gathered on the main floor landing to be taken up in one trip?  Nope - each thing gets whisked upstairs and put away immediately.  On the upside, my house has never been cleaner!  Straightening up adds steps.  Vacuuming adds steps.  Wiping down counters and scouring out sinks adds steps.  With a little more cleaning and a lot less efficiency, I’m learning how to work more movement into my day.  10,000 steps still might be a tough one to crack, but I’ll keep trying to add 5% more steps each week and see if I can make it work.

Do you find an activity tracker is helping you move around more?  What are your secrets for working in more steps?

Move Along . . . .

Memorial Day Weekend has always been one of my favorite long weekends of the year.  The weather is turning nicer and summer is kicking off - Pete and I usually attend our first cook-out of the year.  Honestly, I’m already in holiday mode over here, so I’m going to move you along to some other places worth a visit today.

First, check out Diabetes Mine’s announcement earlier this week about the 2014 Patient Voices scholarship contest, in which you can win a full scholarship to this year’s DiabetesMine Innovation Summit.  The application process has changed this year, so be sure to check out all the details.  And I’m delighted to have been asked to be part of the selection committee this year, so you’ll definitely be hearing more from me soon about the event.  And I’ll also be reminding you to get your application in before the June 20th deadline.

Also, my latest post is up at The Loop.  I’m talking about different kinds of stress and some ways I try to deal with them.  Of course, I’m hoping your weekend will be completely stress free but unfortunately Tuesday will be here before we know it and we’ll be back to the old weekday routine.

** My Medtronic disclosure can be found here. **

Wordless Wednesday - Good Stress . . .

Yesterday I was thrilled to be included as a panelist again for the second annual Diabetes Hope Conference.  I truly love having the opportunity to speak on panels, but I always get a bit nervous before.  And my CGM graph definitely reflects that (good) stress.  I ran high all morning with a bigger rise during the half hour before my panel.  Stayed high during the hour my panel was on and for the hour following.  Then as my nerves faded away, I came right back down into range.

Highs caused by fantastic opportunities like the one I had yesterday?  I’ll take them!!

It’s A Wrap - 5th Annual #DBlogWeek

So another Diabetes Blog Week has come and gone, and the day after always greets me with joy from the fantastic week mixed with a bit of sadness that it’s all over already.  But it is, it went by really fast (at least for me it did) and it’s time to wrap up a few loose ends now that we’ve made it across the finish line!


First of all, thank you so much to everyone who signed up this year.  We officially capped off at 211 names on the participant list this year and I can’t tell you how thrilled I am for all of the DOC enthusiasm and support.  I’m working hard to read all of the posts on the daily link lists.  Some days I read most of them, some days I only read a few, but I will be going through each list over the next few weeks to read all of the posts I haven’t yet gotten too.

Speaking of the link lists, they will remain open for a couple more weeks.  If you’ve written a post and forgotten to add it to the list, go ahead and do that now.  Or, if you missed a day of blogging but want to tackle the topic now, feel free to add your link once your post is up.  On June 1st the Link Lists will close, meaning no new entries may be added.  But the lists will remain online (hopefully FOREVER) for future reference.

I want to send special thanks out again to Mike Lawson for the fantastic DBlogWeek graphics, and to Lauren’s Hope for the FB graphics and all of the support last week.  Thanks to all who shared blog posts and tweets spreading the word.  Thank you to everyone who sent in topic suggestions for this year - I thought this was our best year ever and that’s because of you.  Thanks also to everyone who has sent a note, tweet, comment or post telling me how much you enjoyed the week - I love hearing that more than you know!

So what is next?  Well, don’t forget to attend the Diabetes Hope Conference tomorrow (it’s free and virtual) for another great chance to connect with the on-line community.  If you’re wishing for another blog prompt, remember to check out the DSMA Blog Carnival every month for a new topic.  This month we’re teaming up with Diabetes Mine to get your input on open D-data & device interoperability.  And next May, if everyone isn’t tired of #DBlogWeek, we’ll do it all again for a sixth year!