Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

Yay! Diabetes Blog Week is back!

For the 5th year in a row, diabetes writers from all over the world will be participating in a solid week’s worth of informative, educational, and inspirational blog posts. To find out everything you need to know about Diabetes Blog Week, click on the banner above. A big Thank You to Karen Graffeo for making this happen every year!

Today’s topic:

Let’s kick off Diabetes Blog Week by talking about the diabetes causes and issues that really get us fired up. Are you passionate about 504 plans and school safety? Do diabetes misconceptions irk you? Do you fight for CGM coverage for Medicare patients, SDP funding, or test strip accuracy? Do you work hard at creating diabetes connections and bringing support? Whether or not you “formally” advocate for any cause, share the issues that are important to you. (Thanks go out to Kim of Texting my Pancreas for inspiring this topic.)

Changing the world, eh? No pressure there.

I don’t know if what I’m passionate about right now is changing the world. But I do know of two things that I hope will be of use to others in the future.

You can find out the first by clicking on the button with the medals in the upper right portion of this page. Since November, we’ve sent out 11 medals to Athletes With Diabetes who do their best to fight through the scary things that come with taking along your diabetes to gym classes, bike rides, or half marathons. Our eleven winners (that’s right… we’re up to 11!) have all set an example of courage and determination that others will always look up to. So I didn’t really do much there except shine a light on something great that was already happening.

But I get such a huge kick out of shining that light, and introducing everyone to amazing people that maybe they haven’t met before. And a few that they probably have. In any case, it’s exciting to give someone a medal like that. I remember finishing my first triathlon three years ago, and the feeling I got when I crossed the finish line and received my medal. I wanted brave D-Athletes to feel the same thing.

The second thing I’m really fired up about right now is happening… right now.

Last week, I started participation in another clinical trial. This will make three in the past year, and it’s something I take very seriously. This study will be my first artificial pancreas trial. I’ll talk about it more as the study progresses. But I want to help you understand why participating in clinical trials is so very important.

All of us want to see new ideas tried out. New therapies, new drugs, new understandings of how our bodies-with-failed-pancreases work. Often, the only way we’re going to get those ideas tried out is during clinical trials. And clinical trials need volunteers. So here I am.

Participating in a clinical trial isn’t necessarily easy. The ones I’ve taken part in aren’t hard, either. What they do require is a lot of attention to detail. If you’re supposed to do something at a certain time in a certain way during the trial, you have to do that. Otherwise, you risk not meeting the parameters of what is being studied. Researchers might not get the proper data they need to move forward with their idea.

But trust me: The feeling of participating in a clinical trial is awesome. To know I’ve helped move the needle, even a little bit, for people living with diabetes is something that will stay with me forever. I’ll bet you’d feel the same way.

To look for clinical trials involving diabetes, you can always go to clinicaltrials.gov and put Diabetes in the search box. If you’re in the UK, go to the UKCTG—the UK Clinical Trials Gateway. Also, JDRF sponsors its Clinical Trial Connection, that helps connect potential participants with diabetes clinical trials.

And don’t miss day two of #DBlogWeek coming up tomorrow!