Monthly Archives: April 2015

What you do makes a difference, even if you’re not sure how.

April 6, 2015 – 11:03 am

Friday morning, I went down to my local American Red Cross office and donated blood (yes, in the USA, you can live with diabetes and donate blood—see more HERE).

The beginning of these appointments are usually pretty clinical, full of process-related steps that everyone has to go through before they actually stick a needle in your arm and do what you came for. At that point, things tend to open up a bit, because if they didn’t, you’d just be hanging out, you and the phlebotomist, with nothing to do for a while, and that would be kinda boring.

That’s when I try to get the phlebotomist to tell a funny story, or I try to tell one, and that keeps the conversation going while I squeeze on a little foam ball every three to five seconds during the “donation process”.

This time, after telling of my low adventures after the last time I donated, I asked the technician (name withheld) if she liked what she did there at the American Red Cross. I wasn’t prepared for what she said next:

“Oh yeah, I love it. I really do. When I started this job, I just thought I was collecting blood, and that was all. Then, my Mom was injured, and she needed at least a unit of whole blood every day for almost a month. One day, when I was visiting her in the hospital, I saw them hang a unit of blood and it had a sticker on it saying it came from my center. I just broke down and cried. I knew right then that I was making a difference, and I’ve never looked at my job the same way again. I love it.”

Maybe you’re raising money for a diabetes walk, hosting a D-meetup, or agitating elected officials to approve legislation so senior citizens can be covered for continuous glucose monitors under Medicare. If you do those things long enough, they can begin to get monotonous, and you may start to wonder if what you’re doing makes any difference at all.

Well, when you do, remember our technician’s story. And remember, like I’ve said before, if you make a positive impact on just one person’s life, that’s an impact that in most cases would not have been made if it weren’t for you. You make a difference, through the things mentioned above, and just by continuing to live well with diabetes. Even if we don’t get as clear an indication of our difference-making as my friend at the Red Cross.

If enough of us concentrate on helping that one person live better, healthier, happier; then eventually, those individual successes will steamroll into a greater success story than many of us could imagine. Until that day, let me say:
Thank you for making a difference.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Advocacy | Tagged , , , | Comments (5)

The world is a pretty big place.

April 3, 2015 – 8:09 am

I’m up early for a day off.

I’ve showered, had breakfast, and in a few minutes, I’ll be heading to my local American Red Cross location to donate blood.

This is partly due to my responsibility as a person, I believe. It’s also about helping where I can. I can do this, it will help people, why not?

I suppose there’s an element of faith in there too. I’m giving blood on a day that symbolizes the day that Jesus shed his blood on the cross. The irony is not lost on me.

As a white christian male in the USA, I’m not persecuted for anything at all. Oh, I may occasionally run across someone who doesn’t like me for who I am, but that’s pretty rare. For the record, I don’t really need a “religious freedom” law to be able to practice what I believe in. With, and for, whomever I want to share it with. No exceptions. I don’t go to church often anymore, but I know that Jesus would not turn anyone away. No exceptions.

That’s faith, and living in the belief that I’m not perfect, but I’m not helpless either. So if you’re asking me, I say take your stinkin’ “religious freedom” hate legislation and trash it. It is wrong, and it’s not hard to see why.

I hope your Passover or Easter is lovely, warm, and full of inclusion.

I support you… no conditions.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Advocacy | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

I don’t know from Glycemic Index.

April 1, 2015 – 9:39 am

I’ve been trying out those sliced bagel things that I’ve been seeing in my grocery store lately. You know, the ones where the bagel is sliced horizontally into three or four slices, so you don’t have to choose to eat the entire thing at once (which, I admit, I am prone to do). I like a nice bagel in the morning, but in the last year or so, they have been affecting my post-prandial numbers to the degree that the bagel goodness wasn’t a good tradeoff for a mid-morning (or noontime) high BG anymore.

So I’ve been trying out eating about half the bagel for breakfast, instead of the whole thing. And guess what? The numbers still suck. And that’s frustrating. I can still eat a donut occasionally (about twice a year), and it doesn’t affect me this much. I’ll have an occasional pancake, and while I get an initial spike, I can usually bring it down well in advance of my next meal. Other things, like bagels, biscuits, and certain breads, forget about it. Zoom-pow! To the moon!

But it wasn’t always this way. Yes, those products have always caused higher numbers, but not to the degree, and as long lasting, as they do today. I’m not eating these things for every meal, or even every day, or even every week for that matter. But when I do, my blood sugar does not like it very much. Now I’m trying to find out why, and particularly, why now, when this wasn’t as much of a concern as before?

Hey, listen: I don’t know from glycemic index. I’ve been living long enough with diabetes (and been told by too many) that things like donuts and Chinese food are bad for my blood glucose; and celery and carrots and nuts and tree bark are good for my BGs. Unless, of course, it’s that sappy kind of tree bark. Okay, now I just want waffles…

Anyway, it’s not much farther from there where my knowledge of how specific carbohydrates react specifically to my diabetes ends. (It’s okay… I’ll wait a second in case you need to re-read that sentence)

I think I need to educate myself a little more about the Glycemic Index (if that’s what I really need to concentrate on), and how each item in my diet will affect me. Fortunately, I have lots of resources at my disposal: a simple Google search on “Glycemic Index” returned 1,670,000 results. The University of Sydney has a great search tool where you enter a food and it returns the glycemic index and the portion size that resulted in that index number. The American Diabetes Association has a super informational page on GI that, among other things, identifies low glycemic index foods as those with a score 55 or under. Medium GI foods are scored between 56 and 69, and High GI foods come in at 70 or above. The Harvard Medical School has a web page with over 100 food items and their GI numbers, including Raisin Bran and Snickers bars. Which I don’t really eat anymore.

Of course, like everything else having to do with my diabetes, these are great reference tools, but the devil is in the details. Nothing about a glycemic index chart will tell me why I react so poorly to something that I did not have a lot of trouble with before.

I like to kid people and tell them that the only two vices left in my life are salt and alcohol, and while I want to enjoy them for as long as I can, eventually I’ll have to give those up too.

Now it looks like I may have to add bagels to the list.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Posted in Random Glucose | Tagged , , | Comments (5)