Category Archives: Additional Inspiration

Tending the garden.

August 11, 2014 – 10:10 am

I have a small vegetable garden in the back yard. This year, I’ve grown lettuce, green beans, assorted peppers, tomatoes and potatoes, and yellow squash. To get to the final goodness of what a summer garden can provide, I have to do a lot of weeding. A lot. Of weeding. A lot.

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And naturally, that makes me think about living with diabetes.

We’ll have average days, beautiful days, rainy days, sunny days, and super-hot days. But the weeding still needs to be done. During those same days, we need to remember to test, treat, inject, or whatever we have to do to maintain a healthy blood glucose.

If we go through a dry spell, I’ll need to water everything in the garden. If we go through several days of rain, I have to make sure nothing gets damaged by the extra dampness. If my blood sugar is high, I need to exercise and/or drink copious amounts of water to bring the numbers down. If I’m low, it’s juice, glucose tabs, or candy to the rescue. I have to be ready despite the weather or how I feel.

Sometimes the weeds are the creeping kind, that spread out across the garden. Often, they’re the climbing kind, that wrap around my plants and threaten to choke them before they can bear any fruit. Occasionally, an unexplained illness or a bent cannula can threaten to ruin my diabetes that day. Constant vigilance is required to snuff out all threats to a healthier life.

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Why do the weeds want to grow more in my garden anyway? The simple answer is that the soil is better there. It’s been cleaned up and fertilized every spring to help my veggies grow big and flavorful. If I were a weed, I’d want to grow in my garden too. Maintaining a lower A1c is kind of like that too: The better we manage our diabetes all the time, the closer we are to hypoglycemia all the time.

Better soil = Better environment for weeds
Better BG control = Closer to hypoglycemia

But… Just like tending our gardens diligently produces blockbuster crops and tasty, low-carb treats throughout the summer and even into the fall and winter, tending our diabetes with equal diligence allows us the opportunity to continue spending our lives with the ones we love. It allows us the chance to maintain steady pursuit of our dreams. It provides us with an opportunity to grow, blossom, and bear the fruits of a live well lived.

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I hope your summer gardens, diabetes, and dreams are all weed free and full of special moments.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Every picture tells a story.

July 21, 2014 – 9:37 am

 
 
#showmeyourpump
 
 
The Great Spousal Unit was away on Saturday, so I basically did what I usually do when she’s away on a Saturday: I got up early, had a couple of strong cups of coffee with breakfast, visited my favorite farm truck, came home, cleaned the house within an inch of its life, started the laundry, had lunch, Oh… she came home for about an hour and a half… and yes, absence DOES make the heart grow fonder… where was I… yes… I finished up, watered the plants and the gardens, picked up the dry cleaning, stopped in to say hello to my friends at my favorite local place (you know what I mean if you know what the number #147 means), and then I went home to make dinner.

The point is, the unsaid point of all this up to then, for me anyway, was this: I had seen so much bad news on the television this past week that I was happy to disconnect, turn it all off, and just concentrate on me and my happiness for a while. Simply put: The bad news from Ukraine, Gaza, and the anti-immigration factions in America (I think they’ve forgotten that they have descended from immigrants themselves) had me feeling so sad that I didn’t want to hear anything from anyone for a while.

Then I prepared dinner (and it was good– a recipe is in the near future here) and sat down to eat it. I pulled out my iPad, dialed up the Pandora (B.B. King channel), and proceeded to chow down. Some of my stress had gone away, but by no means had all of it dissipated.

Since the iPad was nearby, I started to check out my Twitter feed.

That’s when it happened.

I started to read post after post with the hashtag #showmeyourpump. Of course, this all started with Miss Idaho, who bravely (and why the hell NOT?) wears her insulin pump for the world to see, started to get some non-D world props on NPR and other outlets. I saw photos of people heading out for a run, people on the beach, having dinner, and living perfectly normal lives that just happen to include an external pancreas.
 
 
My reaction started with “Oh, that’s cool”, to “I love that… wouldn’t it be cool if that started trending?”, to something like this:

showmeyourpump

Once again, without even knowing it, the Diabetes Community pulled me up from a very sad, very unhappy place to a place where I was happy and optimistic, even proud that I wear my pancreas outside of my gut. And even though this has been trending for a few days now, even though I’m late to the party again, I can only say:
 
 
Thank you.

You will never know the extent to which you lifted my spirits.

I will support you through thick and thin, forever.
 
 
Thank you.
 
 

On my way to work this morning

On my way to work this morning


#shomeyourpump
 
 
 

By StephenS | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

We’re not EVER perfect.

February 24, 2014 – 9:26 am

I feel kinda silly posting this on the same day that Scott E. posted something very similar over at Rolling in the D… But, what the hell? Here it is.

But be sure to go over and read Scott’s post too. You’ll probably get more out of it anyway.

This story is nothing that should shock you. But it’s something that happened yesterday, and I think it’s an important story to tell.

I suspect I don’t get a huge amount of viewers here, but I do recognize there are some. Somewhere between some and huge is where my viewership is right now.

Anyway… It’s easy as a writer, and the person who basically oversees everything that gets posted here (after all, it’s my blog)… It’s easy to make everything about my life seem perfect and special. It’s even easy to make it seem like those moments where I’m not perfect are not exactly my fault.

Well, yesterday, I woke up, remembering I needed to change my infusion set. I had about 5.5 units of insulin left in my reservoir. Of course, those of us with a Medtronic pump know that 5.5 units means that you really have (probably) many more units than that left.

Knowing this, I had breakfast without changing my set. And I had a couple of chores around the house to take care of, so I didn’t change my set after breakfast either. I also didn’t change after getting my hair cut, or even after lunch. It wasn’t until we were nearly out the door headed for a movie that I finally remembered to do my set change. At this point, my pump was probably showing something like this for five hours or so:

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So apparently, just in the nick of time, I finally got that set change in. The reservoir had a little insulin left, because it was still pumping, but once I pulled it from the pump I could see there wasn’t much.

It wasn’t an epic fail, of course, but it’s something that happens in the course of day after day, year after year living the diabetes life. You’re bound to forget something now and then. You’re likely going to make a mistake once in a while. How do I know this? Because I make mistakes too.

Don’t let it get you down. Don’t let it make you feel like someone you read occasionally has his shit together, and you don’t. Because that is simply not true.

Instead, just pick up and move on. With diabetes, it’s good to be able to remember things. But don’t spend any time feeling bad about one thing or one day. Don’t ever let something from yesterday cloud the joy you’re seeking today.

By the way, we did make the movie. Monuments Men is a good one. Great acting all over the place.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Also posted in Diabetes | Tagged , | Comments (7)

The people we look up to.

October 28, 2013 – 1:18 pm

It was three weeks ago that Tom Hanks revealed he’s living with Type 2 diabetes.

Tom Hanks is maybe my favorite living actor. Everything I’ve ever seen him in… He plays all of his roles so well that I have no trouble believing him as the character he portrays on stage and screen. I’ve got to think that’s exactly what an actor is going for when they play a part. If there was a movie star I’d really like to meet (other than maybe Sandra Bullock– for obvious reasons), it would probably be Tom Hanks. So the news of his diagnosis really hit me. And since then, I’ve been trying to find something profound to say about it.

Then, last Monday, Karmel Allison, who writes over at asweetlife.org, has lived with Type 1 diabetes since age 9, and is now 21 weeks pregnant, nearly passed out while standing behind the President of the United States. She was there because she wrote a fantastic post about how she views the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare) as a Person With Diabetes. The President’s speech was about his signature piece of legislation. I haven’t seen anything from her that specifically says it was hypoglycemia, but in the video it sure looks like hypoglycemia to me. Anyway, that part really doesn’t matter… does it?

At any rate, I was on the road from Charlottesville to Baltimore when all this happened, so I didn’t even find out about it until the next day. And yes, I read the comments after many of the stories about the event posted on the web.

I was shocked. I was horrified at the mean, awful, hateful things written. Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, you have to admit that the vitriol spewed in her direction was ridiculously mean. Other than what I saw posted from the Diabetes Online Community, I did not see one positive, one semi-empathetic comment. Not one.

Meanwhile, Karmel has kept from writing awful, vindictive things in response to these hate filled attacks on her and our President. Her Twitter account has been almost silent since the event. Even though she has a right to be angry and lash out at people who hate her only because of her proximity to the leader of the free world during a speech in the rose garden, she appears to have taken the high road.

What does this have to do with Tom Hanks’ diagnosis from two weeks earlier? And what do these two events tell me? Just this:

Our heroes can and do develop diabetes.

Our heroes can be and are affected by diabetes.

Our heroes remain strong and retain our respect despite diabetes.

These words apply to everyone out there telling their story through laughter, advocacy, sadness, athleticism, schools, careers, successes, and failures too. Tell your story honestly, with empathy for all and resilience against all odds, and I will always look up to you.

And no amount of hate can take that away.
 
 
 

By StephenS | Also posted in Diabetes | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Happy Friday – Thanks for the donations.

October 4, 2013 – 9:35 am

It’s Friday! Yaaaaaay! Better yet, it’s the eve of a week’s vacation. Because of work, I tend to go without during the summer months, so that means a bunch of days off in the fall. Maureen is on vacation too, and she’ll be heading to Florida to be with family. I’ll be staying home. But before vacation begins, I thought I would pass these tidbits along from my local JDRF chapter. Wherever we are, together or apart, we’ll be able to support the great diabetes efforts of JDRF by participating in the following:
 
 
– Get your flu shot! Now! From September 1st through October 31st, Walgreens will donate $1 to JDRF per flu shot given when a customer presents the JDRF barcode/voucher or identifies themself as a JDRF supporter at any Walgreens (or Duane Reade location in the NYC area). – Find out more and get the barcode/voucher, go to:
http://jdrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/JDRF_Flu_Flyer_Walgreens.pdf

– Now through October 5th (that’s Saturday), Advance Auto Parts is doing the make a donation/hang a paper sneaker on the wall thing in their stores. Make a $1, $5, $25, or $50 donation and they’ll dedicate a paper sneaker in your name. More importantly, your donation will help to fund research toward advanced drugs, therapies, and a cure.

– Also through Saturday, Marshalls is doing the same thing. Go buy a new outfit and make a donation. Or just make a donation. That would be okay with me.

– Finally, if you’re a Wawa shopper (convenience stores on the USA’s east coast—really good coffee), you have until October 20th to donate to JDRF by adding $1, $3, or $5 to your purchase at the checkout, or by adding your loose change to coin canisters at the store.
 
 
If you can, please donate to one or more of these fundraisers. And tell everyone you know about them! Who says diabetes people always have to be the ones donating money for JDRF? Have a super weekend, watch out for the weather, and keep showing that diabetes who’s boss.
 
 
 

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