January 31, 2011

Jay Cutler and Diabetes Demenor by John Madden

John Madden knows his football, toughness and apparently a little bit about type 1 diabetes. Have a listen to him on Adam Schein and Rich Gannon on Sirius NFL Radio show.


Thanks http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bears-sth/2011/01/audio-of-john-maddens-comments-about-jay-cutler.html#ixzz1Cf3tiVy7

Best Use of Pizza in a Diabetes Video

Ginger Vieira for Your Body is a Pizza Restaurant.



Good stuff. I'll have pineapple and ham.

January 26, 2011

theBetesNOW January Event

theBetesNOW event on Saturday was awesome.

Well all but the car curse.

After introductions Connor did a quick cool top three - three cool new things in the diabetes world. Having just earned a drivers license Connor talked about the freedom driving brings a teen. He also mentioned that with that mobility comes taking diabetes around with you. So the first cool thing was a gift from our good friends at Roche. Key rings that have a little holder for four gluco tabs. Everyone got a few to take home. Thanks Todd at Roche.

Connor pointed out that they can be useful and keep you from going low and hitting the house as you pull into the driveway. That happened as he came home from taking the SAT test that morning. Same car that got towed the day we had the last event. Bad karma. (get it karma - CAR-ma? ok sorry about that back to the event update.)

Ninja meters on a key chain were the number two cool item followed by... Art. Connor introduced Lee Ann Thill of Diabetes Art Day fame. Lee Ann talked briefly about how art stretches our minds to make connections out side our typical norms. She pointed out that is exactly the kind of thinking that makes diabetes care successful.

Genius.

She then led the group to stretch their brains and create some art. I brought some stuff, Colette from OmniPod brought some dummy pods and Lee Ann brought loads of supplies. A great time was had by all. The kids being more nimble both physically and mentally got right to it and created some wonderful stuff. We old folks tried to keep up.









It was hard to come back to reality. Fortunately we had Gary Scheiner there. After pulling a few tables together Gary led the adults and older teens in a round table discussion that was every bit as creative as the process of making art. He spoke briefly about CGM and pumps and then asked each person which they would choose if they could only have one. Opinions varied and this was Gary’s point. Understand what you value in your care. Don’t focus on what others think work to your own strength.


Genius again!


After some wonderful conversation we did manage to get Gary to talk a little about the the new online programs his office is offering. Called Type 1 University the program offers a variety of advance classes on different aspects of type 1 care. Both live and recorded hour long classes are offered. You can learn more by liking Type 1 University on Facebook or by visiting their web site at: http://www.type1university.com/.


As for the car, it is fine. It’s a 1988 Olds 98. Cars were made of steel back then not tin foil. The house has vinyl siding. Minor repairs to the siding will be needed when it is warmer.

January 25, 2011

Your Diabetes Science Experiment

Woot Check out what came in the mail! Ginger's book!



I will have a review as soon as I can read it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

January 13, 2011

Son of a Bong: Inhaled Insulin II

Dr. Alfred Mann of Mannkind Corp talks about inhaled insulin.

(you are going to see Market Watch's ad, YDMV etc.)

January 10, 2011

Wish you were here George

We have holiday traditions. I have to have sinckerdoodles, Mom’s Birthday (aka Christmas Eve) is the best meal of the year and having a big home cooked breakfast Christmas morning are all traditions. 

It is just that this last breakfast tradition is only a year old. It started last year, kinda a reaction to teens who would be just as happy sleeping in. This year we added bacon to the tradition. It not that we didn’t make bacon before. It just wasn’t “officially” tradition. All that changed this year. We bought some Nueskes bacon online.

It was spectacular. It was bacon only it wasn’t. It was like anything I had ever had before. The smell of truly apple wood smoked bacon was intoxicating. The single best sent I have smelled in the house and that was before cooking it.

Typically I turn the fan ON before I start cooking. Now, when I cook this bacon, I don’t. I let the smoke  cooking fill the house. This may be the single most perfect tasting item in history including great bourbon and sinckerdoodles.

Awesome!

Wish you were here George.

January 6, 2011

Happy Holidaze

I love the Holidays. Seriously who doesn’t love a surprise?

Connor had a couple of wrestling match two days before the school break. He is new to wrestling and the first match was against the other team’s captain. He managed to get both crushed and a muscle strain in short order. For the match the next day the flu that was getting around got him and while he was winning for the first two periods he ran out of gas and lost on points.

Then he through-up for hours.

Apparently throwing up all the fluids you have had leads to dehydration. That, the muscle strain and the possible bug de-jour help spill keynotes. The next day he was too dizzy to do much of anything but he had a performing arts recital that night an managed to pull it off. Helpfully he didn’t have to stand up a whole lot on stage. The next day Kimball took him to see the doctor who then decided he should be taken to the ER for further testing.

They hung two litters of saline and ran a host of blood tests. Somewhere else in the ER the cops had someone they wanted to book later so they put the place was in lockdown. Naturally Connor’s hoodie wearing friends managed to just walk right in for a visit eliminating the possibility that the cops had one of them.

They brought him sugar free Reeses cups and some other get well gifts in the kind of poor taste that only hooded teenage boys can think of and left. The Reeses were vile and we contemplated keeping them and force feeding them to the guys who bought them. However that would have been a violation of the Geneva Convention so we tossed them out when he was released.

That was Friday night. Blair was scheduled into the same hospital Monday morning for a spinal surgery. He had been dealing with pain and decreased movement for a while. The common perception was it was some kind of muscle issue since it was manifesting itself as leg pain and stiffness. Finally some doctor called for an MRI and found he had a herniated disk, probably for some time.

We (a word that hear means I) had scheduled the surgery for the start of the Christmas break to minimize the time away from school. The date was set to do the surgery and get a follow visit around the  doctor’s time off. I hadn’t taken into consideration that Kimball had a final exam that same morning and was in hot water for that.

Blair and Mom both got thorough the morning as did I. In the process I learned something beyond the knowledge that you get one whole dollar off parking if you get the surgery desk to validate your parking ticket.

Meanwhile Delaney’s meters were tossing off errors and her iron levels were tanking like bank stock prices following a burst housing bubble. So while the boys were going in and out of the hospital she was at Quest every few days getting progressively more specific blood test drawn. Blood draws, just what a kid who test her blood all day anyway wants to do. The good news is that we were able to rule out a number of concerns and she doesn’t hate eating baby spinach in a salad.

I still love the holidays but come to think of it I can do without the surprises.