Pump Peelz.
Diabetes devices are boring, but I'd rather they be boring and useful (read: accurate, precise) than to have spangly, sparkly bits and a dozen different color options. I don't want glitter being what holds up an FDA approval.But having a way to dress up your diabetes devices, even just a wee bit, can go a really long way in psychosocial satisfaction. Which is why I think the Pump Peelz stickers are clever, cute, and customizable. The genius is in the simplicity of the idea: a sticker on the exterior of your device to give it some personality.Behold! A Dexcom G4 receiver, ready for its close-up...
Source: Six Until Me. - April 3, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetes Products Source Type: blogs
Growing Up with Diabetes.
"With diabetes" isn't this big, prepositional phrase that hangs on to everything. Growing up with type 1 diabetes was, as far as I'm concerned, just plain "growing up." And that's what this video is about.(And I realized, after listening to my mom on DSMA Live 'Rents last night, that this video mentions a few of the same memories she mentioned, which further solidifies the theory that she and I may, at times, be sharing the same brain.) (Source: Six Until Me.)
Source: Six Until Me. - April 2, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Vlog Crap Source Type: blogs
Support for TuDiabetes.
(I'm re-blogging this message here, because I support TuDiabetes, the DOC, and also because every time I see that little TuD face, I can only think of The Facts of Life [Tootie!!]) My name is Kerri Sparling, I have type 1 diabetes, and I have been blogging about diabetes since 2005 at SixUntilMe.com.I was diagnosed as a kid, and for much of my life, I didn't know anyone else who was living with type 1 diabetes. Even though my friends and family have always been very understanding, and supportive, I always felt kind of alone when it came to all the diabetes stuff.This is why the diabetes community, both online and off...
Source: Six Until Me. - April 1, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: DOC Source Type: blogs
SpiderEgg.
Lovely pastel Easter eggs with flowers and bunnies and pretty little glittery bits? Nope. My kid opted for Spiderman eggs. I can't say I blame her. ("We don't do Hulk eggs because they would be smashed, right, Mom?" "Eggs-actly.") And lo, a new tradition was created. (Source: Six Until Me.)
Source: Six Until Me. - March 29, 2013 Category: Diabetes Source Type: blogs
Up All Night.
So last night? A distressed toddlerbird woke up several times ("I want to sleep in your bed with you and Dad," and then "I want to go back to my bed with Mickey Mouse and not you and Dad," and then "I don't even know what I want - waaaaaaah!!!!"), the Dexcom wailed all night long with one legitimate low (52 mg/dL on the meter, under 55 mg/dL alarm on the Dex) and then one low that wasn't low (78 mg/dL on the meter, under 55 mg/dL on the Dex), and Siah took it upon herself to pounce the eff out of two hair elastics that were on the floor in the hallway, dancing frantically around on the w...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 28, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetic Mommy Source Type: blogs
Don’t Be An Apphole.
“What diabetes apps do you use?”I am asked this question all the time, especially now that entire conferences are being geared towards mobile health, honing in on the fact that more people have mobile phones than access to toilets. (This is true, or at least according to the fact I saw on Time. A phone but no toilet?) “Mobile apps to manage diabetes – isn’t it exciting? What are the ones that you’re using?”Last month, I spoke at the Kairos Summit in NYC about mobile health and the app-frenzy in the healthcare sphere. I felt kind of like a tool, though,...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 27, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetes Tech Source Type: blogs
I Have the Right.
I have the right to opt out of the TSA body scanners. I have the right to stand there, politely, and wait for someone to manually inspect my diabetes devices. I have the right to decline to send my medical devices through the scanning machines. I don’t make unreasonable demands during airport security screenings, and I follow the rules as they are laid out to me. But, rules or not, I have the right to be treated like a human being, instead of having a flock of TSA agents stand beside me and talk about my diabetes devices – the one attached to my body, not theirs – without even look...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 26, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetes Advocacy Source Type: blogs
Thirty-Five.
Birdy,People warned me about the “terrible threes,” alluding to the fact that a two year old was a cakewalk when compared to the parenting quandary that is a three year old.“Of course,” I said at the time, sighing and picturing myself in the future, working on my knitting whilst my perfectly-behaved child tugged my shirtsleeve, asking politely for a bowl of quinoa because she was done coloring a picture for our elderly neighbor across the street.What I should have pictured was: “Oh my God, three is freaking HARD,” swiping my hair out of my eyes with a sticker-covered wrist whilst my craz...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 25, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetic Mommy Source Type: blogs
That'll Do It.
Frigging vampire cannula ...... that'll explain a 200 mg/dL that was seemingly unbudgable. Nothing a little site change won't fit. And to that end, I had someone ask me about how I handled the diabetes-related sharps while traveling. I do a carry-in/carry-out method, where everything I travel with - lancets, infusion sets, needle tips, etc - comes home with me and I dispose of it in our sharps container at home. I think the only exception would be test strips, because I leave an accidental trail of those everywhere I go. How do you handle sharps while traveling? Or vampires, for that matter? (...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 22, 2013 Category: Diabetes Source Type: blogs
Guest Post: Diabetes Scholars Foundation.
Patients connecting with patients, embracing that psychosocial support, is something I feel so strongly about, and Friends for Life is a conference that hits the mark for me on all of those levels. Today, my friend, PWD, and fellow FFL faculty member, Natalie Bellini is guest posting about the Diabetes Scholars Foundation, and the opportunity to apply for a scholarship to attend FFL this summer. * * *This year, July 9-14, more than 3,500 people affected by T1D will descend on Disney’s Coronado Springs to meet new people and learn to thrive with T1D at Friends for Life a...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 21, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Guest Diabetes Bloggers Source Type: blogs
From Abby: Do You Have What It Takes?
Abby is an RN, a PWD, and en route to becoming a CDE. (Her last name will eventually snap off due to all of the accompanying letters.) As she's worked through her schooling and now her experience in the field, her scope of what she's learned through life with diabetes as a patient and what she's learned through school and experience as a nurse are very different, and both play a rule in her pursuit of a CDE certification. * * *My goal when applying to nursing school in 2009 was simple: become a Certified Diabetes Educator. I wanted NOTHING to do with nursing, and I for sure did not...
Source: Six Until Me. - March 1, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: From Abby Source Type: blogs
Rising.
Sometimes just waking up in the morning and thinking about breakfast is enough to give my blood sugar a boost. Oh blood sugars ... you are so sensitive. And you hate when I think about Golden Grahams. (Just thinking about them, not eating! But I can think about them, since they are so delicious and are easily the best cereal on the face of the planet and even when they get mushy from the milk, they are still excellent. I can't remember the last time I had a bowl of Golden Grahams ... or when I dared to even have a box of them in the house, due to aforementioned tastiness.) (Source: Six Until Me.)
Source: Six Until Me. - February 28, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Blood Sugar Source Type: blogs
Humalog vs. Novolog.
It wasn't until recently that I started thinking about building up a tolerance to insulin. Do you build up a chemical familiarity, a resistance of sorts, to a drug after taking it for ... oh, say a few decades? Do PWD eventually become the Dread Pirate Roberts, building up a tolerance to iocane powder? "I realize this is probably ridiculous, and I'm sure there aren't any studies on this," I said to my doctor the other week. "But it has prompted me to want to try a different kind of fast acting insulin, to see if I have better results. Is that something I'm able to do, to have a script...
Source: Six Until Me. - February 27, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Diabetes Products Source Type: blogs
Fun With Injuries, Revised: Achilles Tendonitis.
"Is this related to diabetes, or is this purely a running thing?"I think the podiatrist guy could read my face, pleading for him to tell me this was simply a sports injury."I see a lot of runners coming in with this, especially those who are doing daily distance, and if you have even a mild pronation, Achilles tendonitis is very common." He paused. "And it's much more common in my diabetic patients, due to blood sugars and their effect on tendon health. Have you had issues with tendonitis before?"I thought back to just after Birdy was born. "I had issues with my wr...
Source: Six Until Me. - February 26, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Fitness Source Type: blogs
Articles Forbidden!
I received an email from Krista, one of my oldest friends in the world (not that she's old, but she's one of the people I've known the longest), and the attached file made me laugh out loud. Her email said, "I found this list in an old (as in published in 1924, and stuffed with articles clipped from various magazines from the 30s and 40s) cookbook that I got from a friend when she cleaned out an old relative's house ... anyway, thought you'd appreciate it."Oh, I did.(link to original version, which is way bigger)This list is an old-school "diabetic diet" list, and the contents read as follows:Food...
Source: Six Until Me. - February 25, 2013 Category: Diabetes Tags: Food Source Type: blogs
