Diabetes 'Free Pass'.

While a lot of the DOC is spending a few days in San Diego this week for the Roche Social Media Summit (also known as #dsummit on Twitter), some of us who aren't attending wondered if we could have our own little DOC event instead. Martin from Diabetically Speaking suggested a topic for today's posts: When has diabetes got you in the door, VIP treatment, etc.? I don't have any long, witty stories to share on this one, but I can think of one particular perk. So, here we go...

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"Would you mind if I put some snacks in there?"

There was certainly an advantage to rooming with me in college.

No, it wasn't my fabulous KoRn and Deftones posters (shut up, okay, it was the late 90's!) plastered all over my side of the room. It wasn't my stash of oddly-hued makeup or hair dye (oh, Manic Panic - you were so messy, but so pretty), or the music blaring from my CD walkman as I fell asleep.

And it certainly wasn't the fact that, at the time, I didn't drink alcohol and found the activity a bit repulsive... yet, I belonged to a sorority. (Irony!)

Nope - I was in demand because I had the elusive mini-fridge. The house, where I lived during my sophomore and junior years of college, didn't have air conditioning anywhere but first floor. And guess where all of the bedrooms where? Yep. Trying to fall asleep when it's 97 degrees out (and in!) is "fun".

You can see where I'm going with this - insulin has to be kept cool, plus I needed stuff like juice around. And so, I became the only person in the sorority house to be allowed a mini-fridge, probably ever - which became very convenient storage for non-medical essentials, like cheese and diet soda.

Not a bad perk.