Insulin Pumps In The Wild.

You know that moment where your diabetes-related spidey sense kicks in, and you can't help but stumble all over yourself?

It could be triggered by a familiar-sounding "beep-boop-beep!" from outside of your personal bubble, a glimpse of pump tubing flapping in the breeze, or the accidental eavesdropping of a conversation not aimed at you.

But sometimes, it's seeing a purple pancreas clipped to the pocket of a Target employee as you pass by. You don't want to be "that crazy lady", so you bite your tongue and keep walking. But then, minutes later, that pump and its owner are mere steps away again, and you can't help yourself. It's like word vomit. It has to come out.

"Is that an insulin pump?", you offer cheerfully. (You know very well that it is - right down to the brand name - but you want to ease into this.)

"Yep!", she responds cautiously.

You motion to the silver pump tucked into your own pocket, as if performing some sort of secret handshake maneuver known only by those who have joined The Club No One Wants To Join. "Me too! I have a Ping." Your voice is tinged with a tad too much enthusiasm.

"Cool."

*awkward pause*

"Yeah. Well, rock on." You realize that you had no road map for conversation past this point, and with the one word replies you've accumulated, you retreat.

Cut to the checkout line, as the cashier rings up the last of your items: she's back. In your line. Standing right next to you.

You debate. You know you should just shut up, pay for your multi-pack of dry erase markers, and walk out the door. But YOU JUST CAN'T.

"So how do you do this? I mean, every time I'm here, I drop low from walking around so much. It's like you guys have inhalable insulin in here."

She politely laughs, albeit uncomfortably. "Oh? Um, I don't know. It, uh... it doesn't really happen to me that much."

You smile, say "Oh, okay", and get the heck out of there.

(And, sometimes, diabetes-related spidey sense happens while you're in a bathroom stall at the mall and can overhear the conversation at the sinks:

Friend 1: "Geez, you always take forever!"

Friend 2: "It's the insulin pump! I have to hold it in one hand and then try to do everything else with the other."

But fortunately for you, the Target experience happened first. You've learned your lesson, and zip it.)

Gestational Diabetes.

Last night, a dear friend of mine who is currently pregnant with her first child sent me an email. Within the first couple of sentences, my heart sank. She has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and was searching for some "help me know what to do and how to not freak out about this" insight in the meantime, before she goes to see a dietician next week.

Admittedly, I do not know as much about gestational diabetes as I'd like. I pointed my friend to Diabetic Mommy as a resource, but past that, I didn't have much to share with her.

Can any of you recommend good resources for her, or advice regarding the journey she's now on? Past the regular exercise and good food choices that we all are supposed to make, what else can she expect to focus on? What will likely be on her checklist of things to do? What words of encouragement can we give her?

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

Asking For Feedback.

Over the past several months, I've been running this video project thing called You Can Do This. It has been awesome, and while I'm so very proud of everything that's been contributed and the impact it's had on people, I feel like there is potential for it to do so much more to help people feel okay about this whole 'living with diabetes' thing. There are so many more people to reach. So much more good to do.

(I also will mention that there have been some behind-the-scenes things that almost happened last year, but because of timing or other reasons, just didn't. Which is a huge bummer, because they would have been awesome. Those doors aren't closed yet, however.)

My feeling is that while I may have created the project, I may not necessarily know everything there is to know when it comes to carrying out all of my ideas, or when it comes to expanding the project's reach. I am a fan of crowdsourcing, and I'm hoping you'll help me a bit with this.

In an effort to figure out both where it's been and where the people who are helped by this stuff would like to see it go, I created a survey that you can find by clicking here. It's just 9 questions (but two pages - just click "next" at the bottom to find the last five questions) and shouldn't take too long, but I'd really appreciate any feedback you can give me. I want to make sure I'm staying true to what people expect and want from You Can Do This - because it's about you guys, not me.

What's that? You'd like to be bribed in order to take the survey? Well, fine. Here you go.

Updated: I should mention that I'm leaving the survey up through the weekend, so it will close on 2/19/12 at midnight.

Skydiving.

It looks like...

It feels like...

Shooting Arrows At Diabetes.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue.

Your pancreas is busted?

Hey! Mine is, too!

Let's all give a hand;

A pat on the back

For every one of us

Who picks up the slack.

For that lazy organ,

That over-sleeper.

"Would it kill you to try,

you little creeper?"

So Happy Valentine's Day

With a little bit of sass -

Because diabetes is a pain

In our pancre-ass.

Things I Appreciate.

1. Sleep. It's really hard to do it when you can't breathe through your nose. I miss it.
2. The fact that diabetes has actually been playing nice through all of this sinus crap - usually I have to amp up my basal rate, but this time? Smooth-ish sailing.
3. The fact that being sick usually means I'm not eating much, which in turn means I'm losing weight. I realize it's temporary, but I'll still take it.
4. Gotye. Seriously. Can't get enough of that album.
5. Fur-fighting cleaning products. They magically turn the large furry objects in my living room back into recognizable furniture.

6. Dogs, even when they immediately snuggle up the the aforementioned sofas I JUST CLEANED.

7.   Sunshine, and the fact that it's Friday. I'll ignore that there is an expected high of 21 degrees today. Ignoring!

Blech.

image credit

I'm on day three of feeling like some green gooey monster armed with sand paper has taken over my sinuses and throat (I know - eww), and I have a doctor appointment set for this afternoon so that hopefully we can banish this beast with some antibiotics. Thankfully, diabetes has been playing nice through this bout of The Sickies (maybe because I haven't eaten much?), so I'm hoping the addition of new meds won't mess that up.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of Billy being a lazy bum.

Action shot!

Yes, that's a dish towel sewn to his doggie bed. Sometimes he gets chewy,
and sometimes you have to patch that up with whatever fabric
feels most like his doggie bed so that he won't notice and will
STOP CHEWING ON HIS BED.

I'm feeling very... slee... zzzzzz