Blog Week Thoughts and a New Idea

Diabetes Blog Week has come and gone for this year.  As you noticed, I did much better last year than I did this year.

I made a fundamental mistake this year.  I have to admit that the topics did not do much for me.  What I should have done was sit down and write about them but instead I was lazy and just sat for a few minutes and then gave up.  I have found that if I just sit down and start writing, after a little bit I find a rhythm and I can delete all the stuff I started off writing.  (The part that says, I have nothing to say on this topic and it is dumb etc.)

I think that I was also discouraged because in checking out the other bloggers that were participating, all the ones I checked were either Type 1 or caregivers for Type 1 diabetics.  As I have said before, I think these people have an incredibly tough road and I respect them.  It is just that our situation is very different.  I was hoping to find Type 2's that would inspire me.  I didn't find any.  It could be that I did not check enough of the blogs - there were over 200 signed up. I just double checked the number and I found two blogs that could have applied. One looks like a professional web site with a blog on pre-diabetes (Pre-Nicole) and one from someone who has diabetes and has had lapband surgery. This woman also seems to be very into training diabetes alert dogs.  (and signing people up to train dogs in her method)

It also didn't help that someone, who shall remain nameless, mentioned that the blogs last week were not exactly interesting.  Nice, huh?  I would like to dispute that but I am not sure that I can.  Uninspired might just be uninspired.

So, what can I do to be more inspired this week?  There is something that I am a tad bit excited about.  Okay, that is an understatement but we will let it go.  I don't think that I have mentioned it here before but I write a blog for a podiatrist.  Yes, I am the Foot Blogger Chick.  You can check it out here.  That blog covers different foot issues but we do talk about diabetes often.  In doing some research, we have not found a guide for the diabetic patient or caregiver on foot care.  So we are seriously talking about writing an ebook on the topic.

What do you think?  I would like some feedback on this idea.  The ebook would be a user friendly guide for  diabetics on how diabetes can affect the patient's feet and what diabetics should do  and not do to care for their feet.  Our current thought is that it would be available for download for a small fee ($0.99 - $2.99).   If you have looked at the blog, it is our goal to impart medical information but in such a way that it is understandable and friendly.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading!

Memories

Today is day three of Diabetes Blog Week.  And I am still here.  Shocking!

Today's theme is Memories -

Today we're going to share our most memorable diabetes day.  You can take this anywhere... your or your loved one's diagnosis, a bad low, a bad high, a big success, any day that you'd like to share.  

The sun will come up tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow

There'll be sun

Okay, I would really like to tell you about the day that Silent Sam had done so well that he was taken off all medication.  It was a great day but to be perfectly honest, I don't remember it.  I am sure that he does and could tell you how great it felt.  

I remember the day we went to the emergency room.  Yes, our road started in the emergency room and then moved to a hospital room. We did not go to the emergency room because of diabetes.  Silent Sam had not been diagnosed with diabetes at that point.  We went because he had an infection in his leg.  So maybe we didn't even know that exactly.  We just knew that his leg hurt.  

I clearly remember the ER doctor coming in and saying that his blood sugar level was high.  Seriously, I had no idea what that meant except, of course, that it was bad because he was talking about it.  He suggested that SS go to the doctor and that he might have to take pills.  While this was not good news, what they were about to do to his leg sounded worse, so I still was not focused on the concept of pills.  Silent Sam ended up being admitted because they wanted him to get more IV antibiotics for the leg infection.  Once in the hospital room, the doctors became more more interested in his blood sugar levels.  They quickly noted that his level was high (300ish) and it was not coming down. 

This is how we moved into the land of diabetes.  

It was memorable because I knew so little and there was so much information to absorb. To be honest, I still have much to learn. I am hoping that Silent Sam continues to do well and I don't have to learn more.  Wouldn't that be great?  The odds are against us but we keep fighting.  

Thanks for reading!

My Petition for Diabetes

We are now on Day Two of Diabetes Blog Week.  Today's topic is as follows:

We, The Undersigned -

Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let's pretend to write our own.  Tell us who you would write the petition to - a person, and organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) - get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change?

YO LISTEN UP!

To the Suits in the drug companies and the suits in the Government -

I don't know if you know this but diabetes is a serious disease.  Diabetes doesn't mess around.  It hurts people without them even knowing it.  It attacks their bodies and parts can be lost.  Really, parts can be lost.  How much more serious can you get?

Therefore, we the people signed here below feel that medical supplies needed for diabetes care should be free to the patients.  No patient should have to go without supplies because they cannot afford them.  No patient should be sticking themselves with used lancets because they can't afford to buy what they need.  No patient should be under dosing themselves because they can't afford the medicine.  Did you know that it is estimated that one out of every 200 people in the U.S. has had an amputation and that a large percentage of those amputations are due to diabetes?* If we could avoid some of those amputations by having the supplies for diabetes free than we would save more then than the program would cost.  

So let's save limbs and eyes and hearts.  Let's make diabetic supplies and medicine free.  Let's take care of one another to make sure we are all here for each other.  

YO THANKS FOR LISTENING!

(Yes, it is very possible that I have lost my mind with this one.  Silent Sam was just thrilled to participate, too)  





*National Limb Loss Information Center http://www.amputee-coalition.org/fact_sheets/amp_stats_cause.html

Welcome to Diabetes Blog Week!

I am delighted to be joining the diabetes blog community for the 4th Annual Diabetes Blog Week.  As I recall from last year, posting daily was hard but very rewarding.  I "met" some wonderful bloggers and was able to learn a lot.

The way that Karen from www.bittersweetdiabetes.com has set up the challenge, we have a topic each day (Monday through Saturday) with two alternate topics if we want to substitute.  Today's topic is as follows:

Often our heath care team only sees us for about 15 minutes several times a year, and they might not have the sense of what our lives are really like,  Today, let's pretend our medical team is reading our blogs.  What do you wish they could see about your and/or your loved one's daily life with diabetes?  On the other hand, what do you hope they don't see?

First of all, let me say that I love my husband's endo.  She is very nice and has been great at responding.  I am not sure that I was a huge fan of electronic medical records until Silent Sam was diagnosed with diabetes. Now it is wonderful to have all his doctors connected and on the same page.  The other thing I liked about his endo is that there is a dietitian as part of the practice.  On the first visit, we saw the endo but also had an appointment with the dietitian.  That was a great help.

What I wish the endo could see about our daily life with diabetes is how hard it is to be on the straight and narrow.  That after our initial surge, maintaining the behavior has gotten really hard.  It is almost like being back when we were told that Silent Sam was pre-diabetic.  We worried but with no visible illness it was hard to behave.  I wish that she knew to call us back in and call us on the carpet to get us back on track.  Don't get me wrong, Silent Sam has done very well.  He has been submitting his numbers each week and they have been pretty stable (except for that week of vacation, maybe....).  But I wish there was a mandatory meeting with the doctor to go over everything again.  I don't want to be as scared as I was at first : I just think the urgency was good for us.

Diabetes is hard because it is silent.  I worry that things will go bad before we can fix them and there will be a larger problem.  I wish she could look into our lives and point out - perhaps not too kindly - what we are doing wrong and what we need to change.

So off I go to now explore some of the other diabetes blogs.  I will let you know about what I find.  There are just so many talented people!

Thanks for reading!

We are hiding from diabetes in here