The Long Goodbye
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
Today marks the 901st blog post at Happy Medium. And it’s the last. Probably. I mean, never say never, right? I’ve been working up to this for over a year. I had always wanted to end this blog officially, rather than letting it just fade away. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… but I wanted to have a definite beginning and end to everything here. A couple of years ago, I decided to publish 1,000 blog posts and call it a day. Then, a few months later, I checked to see how many I had churned out, thinking I was sitting at around 900 or so. I was only at 788. That’s when I decided ..read more
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I Hear You
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
Many things about living with diabetes can be difficult. One of the hardest things is when we start to feel alone in our walk with this condition. It can be when we’re at our best, when we’ve had a good day and we post something about our blood sugar playing nice. On those days, maybe we just want to ask, “Will it last?”. Other days, nothing seems to go right, and we need a place to share our frustrations and our deepest fears. As part of her Doctorate research, The Chronic Scholar, Heather Walker convened an action group that came away with a campaign to promote listening and support amon ..read more
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Friends for Life 2019
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
For many of us living with diabetes, being together and supporting one another through the day-to-day grind of a chronic condition is what makes us feel like we have meaning. The notion of that statement was on full display last week at Children With Diabetes’ 20th annual Friends for Life event in Orlando. Young and old, newbie and veteran, all took turns sharing (both lterally and figuratively) and supporting one another. I was at Friends for Life as a member of CWD’s IT team, helping to set up projectors and sound in rooms, and getting speaker presentations ready to go. Full disclosure: Ch ..read more
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Enjoy it While it Lasts
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
I’ve seen the TV news reports. I’ve read the excellent piece Mike Hoskins wrote at Diabetes Mine. I’m excited that people are able to go to Mexico or Canada and get insulin at a cost that’s far less than what we pay here in the good old USA. Enjoy it while you can, folks. Because the thing is… it’s not sustainable. The current environment that allows people in the USA to go to neighboring countries, purchase insulin, and bring it home for personal use will eventually come to an end. The reasons for that are many. First among them is that Canada and Mexico negotiate the price of insulin fo ..read more
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That Time of Day
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
I don’t know what it is about that time of day, but… There’s something about 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. It seems like every single day between 4 and 6, my blood sugar takes a nosedive. Doesn’t matter what I’m doing, doesn’t matter where I am. It’s a strange, strange thing. This has been happening for years. It goes back over ten years, in fact. Some things have stayed the same during that time, but some have not. I still work for the same company, though I’ve worked in my current office location for almost a decade. On the other hand, I don’t go to the office five days a week like I did back the ..read more
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What are your dreams for the future?
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
Earlier this week, I talked about how far closed loop technology has come in the past ten years or so. Today, I want to ask you: What’s next? In other words, what do you think is next in diabetes care? What are you wishing was next? What do you want your world with diabetes to look like in five or ten years? Maybe you just care about a cure and nothing else. That’s fair. Perhaps you’re interested in trying a patch pump, whenever it’s available in your country. Or maybe you want to learn more about that implantable CGM you’ve been seeing headlines about. Would you like to see improvements ..read more
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Defining Moment
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
Every now and then, I look back and realize just how far we’ve come in less than ten years. I realize access is an issue, and it deserves its place and time. But for this moment in time, I’d like to focus on the sheer magnitude of advances we’ve witnessed over the last decade. Part of the story of the birth of this blog comes from a radio interview heard by The Great Spousal Unit one day. She called me at work, very excited, and told me I needed to listen to it with her after work that night. The interview was about artificial pancreas technology. The year was 2011. I’ve told this story se ..read more
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Guarding against the next time, preparing for it anyway.
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
I had a crazy low recently. They don’t happen very often anymore, but on the rare occasions when they do, they’re scary. It’s hard to describe it to someone who’s never experienced this before. It’s one of those situations where you’re cognizant enough to know what’s happening, but you have to fight like hell to actually perform the task you need to perform to maintain consciousness. The reason why it happened? Doesn’t matter. Sometimes it’s a more-than-perfectly working infusion site. Sometimes it’s human error. Sometimes it’s unexpected things popping up at the wrong time, a perfect st ..read more
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Do the extra steps in your day really matter?
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
Holey Moley, the health care world is full of stories that contradict each other. Everyone will tell you it’s science, but very few can tell you if it’s actually definitive. For years I’ve ben reading stories and hearing advertisements about how taking 10,000 or more steps a day will help us lose weight, get our hearts (and the rest of us) in good shape, and generally turn our frowns upside down. But now, I’m starting to see the counter-argument taking place… that the science of how many steps we take each day is complicated, and that movement may be less important than metabolism. So the qu ..read more
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Another June… Another 5k
Happy-Medium.net | Diabetes Blog
by StephenS
5y ago
I’m all about meeting goals, especially if they’re my own. And this past weekend, I was able to meet one of my yearly goals in a unique and fun way. If you check out my blogroll on this page, you’ll see a link to Phyllisa’s blog, Diagnosed Not Defeated. On Saturday, Phyllisa celebrated her 40th birthday. As part of her celebration, she arranged the Fit & Fabulous Virtual 5k… a chance for 40 people all over the world to complete their own 5k (5,000 kilometers) wherever they were. For the last several years, I’ve usually participated in my local 5K, held about five minutes from where I l ..read more
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