Category Archives: World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day 2018.

November 14, 2018 – 10:11 am

Welcome to another World Diabetes Day. 2018 marks the five year anniversary of the beginning of our Champion Athletes With Diabetes program. It’s been a remarkably rewarding experience sending medals to people from all walks of life, all over the world. It’s been the one, consistent thing I’ve done that makes me feel great every time I do it. It never gets old.

So, with this anniversary, I thought I would share a few photos of our athletes, and remind you that your medal is waiting. Find out how to get yours below.













To get your Champion Athlete With Diabetes medal, send me an e-mail at champswithdiabetes@gmail.com. Tell me your name, name of the athlete (it’s okay if it’s you), and your address (gotta know where to send the medal). Most important, tell me what athletic goal was accomplished, and when. Extra points if you tell me how you felt accomplishing the goal.

If it’s a big deal to you, it’s a big deal to me too. Send an e-mail for your award today.

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

Diabetes Awareness Month. There, I said it.

November 1, 2018 – 4:27 pm

Welcome to November 1, the beginning of another Diabetes Awareness Month, culminating (oddly enough, in the middle of the month) on World Diabetes Day November 14.

I get the “I’m tired, I raise awareness all year long, every day is Diabetes Day to me”, etc. comments. People wouldn’t be saying those things if they weren’t true. But instead on focusing on all that, I thought I might take a moment and talk about a few of the nice things happening this month too.
 
 
To begin with, November marks the five year anniversary for our Champion Athletes With Diabetes program. Scores of medals awarded over the years, to athletes in multiple states, and in multiple countries on four continents.

I’m so proud of our medal winners, and I’m extremely eager to send more medals in recognition of sought-after athletic goals, large and small. CLICK HERE to find out how to get yours.
 
 
November is always a great time for #DSMA Twitter chats, and on that front, I have bad news and good news.

The bad news: No all-day #DSMA chat on World Diabetes Day. I know, bummer… but none of us has the time right now to coordinate moderators, topics, and scheduling in order to get it done. Sorry about that. Hopefully, it will be back next year.

The good news: World Diabetes Day is on a Wednesday, so we’ll be chatting for an hour anyway. In addition, I hope you’ll join me as I moderate the #DSMA chat on November 7 and November 28. Join your friends and make some new ones, Wednesday nights at 9 PM eastern time here in the USA, or whatever time that is in your counrty. Follow the @DiabetesSocMed Twitter account and the #DSMA hashtag to participate.
 
 
Finally… if you check my blogroll on this page you’ll see I’ve added a new link, to MakeDiabetesVisible.com. Created by Mike Durbin, it’s a place designed to curate things associated with the #MakeDiabetesVisible hashtag. Here’s the challenge, from Mike himself:

“I invite all of my friends living with any type of diabetes to join me in this challenge. 30 days, 30 photos, ALL types of diabetes. Any social media platform. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how much we could all say about life with diabetes in 30 days.

Please share, use the hashtag, and let’s #MakeDiabetesVisible”

Are you in? I am! Let’s #MakeDiabetesVisible in November!
 
 
So… what are you following, participating in, or initiating this month? Please share here!

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

World Diabetes Day 2017.

November 14, 2017 – 12:15 am

Welcome to another World Diabetes Day! Just in case you were wondering, there will be 18 hours of diabetes chat on Twitter using the #WDDCHAT17 hashtag. Join the conversation anytime from 6:00 a.m. eastern time (US) until 12:00 midnight. I’ll be moderating the 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. hour, talking about Using Your Voice. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to do anything too strenuous at that time of the morning…

This World Diabetes Day, the International Diabetes Federation has focused its attention on women living with and affected by diabetes worldwide. To find out how I feel about that, CLICK HERE. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Probably because I’m not a woman.

So, we’ve made it another year, and just like every year, some things have changed. Likewise, some things have stayed the same. Let’s talk about that.

What has changed in diabetes in the last year? Two things immediately come to mind: two more insulin pump makers went away in the United States. And we have an additional choice in continuous glucose monitors. I’ll miss you, Animas. I hardly knew you, Roche. Welcome to the U.S., Freestyle Libre.

But there’s more. In the advocacy space, DPAC has been the driving force behind the Affordable Insulin Project, helping to keep the conversation going when it comes to access to the most important hormone in the entire world to those of us living with this condition. The continuing #BeyondA1c, conversations have been helped us move toward more meaningful benchmarks in managing our diabetes. So, advocacy-wise, there is some really next level stuff going on.

Also, I love being able to write “next level stuff”.

What has stayed the same in the last year? Well, I still have diabetes. That’s the same. Also, insulin is still expensive. I wish that wasn’t true. But it is.

What else is the same? I’m sorry to report that divisions within the diabetes community still exist. And that’s shameful. Look, we all have crappy pancreases. Every single person, every single soul, is important. I don’t care about types or what you think of them. Just like we want to take care of our entire bodies, let’s work on taking care of the entire body of everyone living with diabetes.

I long for the time when I can write that the things that have stayed the same in diabetes are wonderful things.

There’s a lot more to talk about. What has changed for you? What has stayed the same? We all have the same disease, but we all have different perspectives. I hope this edition of World Diabetes Day brings you more health, more hope, and most of all, more happiness.

By StephenS | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

This one looks different.

November 14, 2016 – 10:20 am

It’s November 14 again… World Diabetes Day.

To many of us, the thought of that seems to be a mixture of “meh”, and “sorry… too overwhelming”. Blame it on a disease that produces more than its fair share of burnout, therefore burning us out before Diabetes Awareness Month is even halfway over.

I understand that. Regardless, I was kind of excited about where our cause was. Before our recent election, I had written a quite different blog post from what you see below. Now… well, this World Diabetes Day looks different.

Sure, in the last year, we’ve seen FDA approval of Medtronic’s Minimed 670g. I’ve already spoken with a parent that was so excited about her son’s clinical trial experience on the device she’s already looking forward to the sleep she won’t be doing without soon.

In addition to Medtronic, there are several groups working feverishly on true closed-loop artificial pancreas solutions. Bigfoot Biomedical, Type Zero, Beta Bionics, and several others had us all comparing possibilities and looking forward to our own restful hours spending less time managing our numbers, more time enjoying life (or getting shuteye).

Pause for a moment and consider how far we’ve come in just the past five years. I actually let myself imagine the kind of advances we might see in another two or three.

I was equally excited about the increased scrutiny being given to insulin pricing nationwide. The crescendo of outrage hadn’t bubbled up from nowhere. Diabetes advocates have been sounding the alarm on drug pricing for some time. It was great to see that other voices were finally taking notice.

(image courtesy of Twitter)

(image courtesy of Twitter)


Many of you are viewing this because you consider yourselves part of a larger online diabetes community that supports, coalesces around important issues, and encourages others living with our condition to stand up for themselves and help others to do the same. That didn’t come from nowhere.

In person events like the Diabetes UnConference, online happenings like the weekly DSMA Twitter chats, webinars from countless diabetes advocacy groups, a plethora of diabetes podcasts, and much more underscore the fact that ours is a community that has face-to-face gatherings and every social media channel churning away for the better good of all people living with diabetes.

And people are taking notice, like the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and countless device and drug makers that reach out to us for our input. Five years ago, would you have imagined patients having a real presence at both the ADA and AADE conferences? We, as patients and advocates, were making our mark.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had taken the time to convene multiple online and in person gatherings to help make patient concerns (and sometimes, patient and corporate concerns together) a part of their research on drug and device efficacy. That’s not where we were a few years back, is it?

But… we’re living in a different world this World Diabetes Day. In a little over two months, it’s quite possible that millions of Americans will lose their right to healthcare coverage. Millions of voters made a clear statement to say that they’re okay with that. For the record, I am not, and will never be, okay with that. My friends and I have been betrayed by half of America, and it hurts me to my core.

I will take solace today by joining the World Diabetes Day chat for a few hours on Twitter. But…

If you’re burned out on all the Diabetes Awareness Month / Must Do Something Because it’s November, I get it.

If you feel like you and your condition have been given the middle finger by half the electorate, I get it.

The truth is, we have a lot to be proud of this World Diabetes Day. But this one feels different. I don’t have answers or ideas for you yet. I’m still trying to blow air back into my balloon. But know this: I will never turn my back on you.

And: I support you… no conditions.

By StephenS | Tagged , | Comments (4)

Join us for #WDDChat16!

November 11, 2016 – 9:08 am

So, it’s November and all. You know what that means:

24 hour #WDDChat16 Twitter Chat November 14!
wddchat16
Let me be the first to remind you that Monday marks another World Diabetes Day, and among all the other happenings around the world, much of the world will be checking in to the diabetes talk on Twitter. Some people, like me, multiple times.

If you’re a seasoned veteran of the #DSMA chats, terrific. Consider this your friendly reminder. Just remember to use the #WDDChat16 hashtag for this special event. We’ll see you Monday.

If you’re not familiar with the Twitter discussion, or if it’s been a while and you don’t remember, here’s the deal: each hour of the chat will have a different topic, and will be moderated by a different host. I will be your moderator from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. (EST in the USA). The topic: My Diabetes House. My Twitter handle: @StephenSType1

Each hour’s chat will include several questions asked by the moderator, and participants are encouraged to reply. And chat with other participants while they’re at it. For a list of the WDD hosts and topics, CLICK HERE.

If you’re new, don’t be discouraged. The #WDDChat16 chat will be a fun atmosphere that welcomes everyone living with and affected by diabetes, regardless of your type of diabetes, regardless of how long diabetes has been a part of your life. It really is the fastest hour of the week when the chat happens at its regular time on Wednesday nights from 9:00-10:00 (EST). On World Diabetes Day, the lively conversation will continue for 24 straight hours.

The moderators on Monday include some of my favorite People With Diabetes. If you don’t already, I encourage you to get to know them too. People like Christel Marchand Aprigliano, Anna Norton, Chelcie Rice, Kerri Morrone Sparling, Kelly Kunik, Chris Clement, and others. Over the years, I’ve seen participants from every continent except Antarctica.

Don’t have a Twitter account? No problem. Go to twitter.com and create yours in about 15 seconds.

To join the chats, follow the #WDDChat16 hashtag on Twitter, or use one of the several hashtag feed web sites that will link with your Twitter account. That way, everything in the chat just keeps flowing, and you also have a space on the same page to Tweet away yourself. I like to use this one: http://tchat.io/rooms/WDDChat16

Then just jump in and enjoy the conversation!

If you’re still not sure how this all works, CLICK HERE and send me an e-mail. I will help you get going or answer your questions.

This is truly one of my favorite things about November each year, and like other years (this is my 5th!), I hope you will join me during the 24 hour (including 8:00-9:00 a.m.) World Diabetes Day Twitter Chat sponsored by Diabetes Community Advocacy Foundation.

Special thanks to Cherise Shockley for coordinating the chat every year, and for her tireless efforts to bring our community together, one conversation at a time.

By StephenS | Also posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)
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