Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

Today begins a new chapter here.

Owing to my (very long ago) past in radio and advertising, and the fact that I always thought it might be fun, I’ve wanted to do a podcast for some time.

In the last year and a half, I started to feel like that wasn’t going to happen. Because, let’s face it, there are many diabetes podcasts out there, and they are all good. Why create another program where I sit with someone for 45 minutes or an hour, talk about diabetes, and say “Thank you for listening”? If I was going to dive in, I needed to offer something different.

With the help of another patient advocate at the HeatheVoices conference in April, I was able to start thinking about it again (thanks Josh!). His idea: Make the podcast much shorter.

That’s what I’ve done. Each podcast should be ten minutes or so, focusing on diabetes news of the day. I’m not going to hold myself to that; if the content is important and it goes eleven or twelve minutes, so be it. Today’s podcast is right around ten minutes.

I worked hard to get a perfect sound from the room in my home that I’m recording from. To put it bluntly, that’s not going to happen, though you will be able to hear me and understand me. In addition, I’ve long realized that my voice is not exactly perfect, and after not speaking into a microphone for close to 20 years, I’m a little rusty. But I also realized long ago that the real success in endeavors like this lies in the personalities being interviewed.

A great example is today’s interview with Katy Killilea. She’s a superb writer and an engaging talker, with super advice about 504 plans for kids going to school with diabetes this fall. If you don’t know a 504 plan from Formula 409, listen to the podcast and click on the very helpful links below.

It’s called Diabetes By The Numbers (listen to the end… you’ll get it). Today is episode one. Just like this blog, I suspect that the podcast will grow and evolve over time, and a year from now, it may not sound anything like it does today. That’s the way things usually work when they work best for me.

Have a listen. Do you have any good ideas for a future podcast? Want to be interviewed? Feel free to let me know.

And for the first time, let me say: Thanks for listening.
 
 
Reference Material – Click below for more information on this topic

Children With Diabetes – Sample 504 Plans

American Diabetes Association – 504 Plan Information

JDRF – 504 Plan Information

JDRF – 504 Plans in College

National Diabetes Education Program – Helping the Student with Diabetes Succeed: A Guide for School Personnel