The Corner Booth

Without actually participating in the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge , I saw the Day 10 prompt "Dear 16-year-old Me " and decided to offer some thoughts on that topic. Not exactly in letter format, but close enough.  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In a particularly powerful role, you may remember Morgan Freeman's passionate monologue in Shawshank Redemption about how he wished for the chance to travel back and talk some sense into his younger self. "Am I sorry for what I did? There's not a day goes by that I don't feel regret... I look back on the way I was then, a young stupid kid... I want to talk to him. Try to talk some sense into him. Tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone, and this 'old man' is all that's left. I gotta live with that." For this type 1 diabetic of 28 years, I regret my actions in one formative phase of life just like Red did in Shawshank. If onl...

We were watching the disaster-themed movie marathon on Sci Fi recently, and a crazy D-scenario came to mind: What if THAT particular apocalyptic situation played out and those of us People With Diabetes had to maneuver our own survival? Hmm. This particular flick was a 2009 TV-movie Polar Storm , with the plot basically being that a comet collides with Earth and knocks the planet of its axis, throwing off its magnetic field and causing some crazy EMP bursts that randomly appear and short any electronic device going at the time. So, any cars or cell phones - and anyone touching those at the time of the burst - would pretty much be out of luck. ( Disclaimer: the fact that I was actually watching this movie should in no way signal my endorsement for others to watch it, or hint that my thumbs are in any way pointing upwards when describing the quality of this screen-writing... It was just a way to pass some time without having to exercise the mind. Seriously. ) Anyhow. As some of ...

Uh huh. That's right. Up is Down. Right is Left. And cupcakes just aren't yummy. The world is upside down. My equilibrium is totally off, and I feel as though I'm running in circles trying to find an unknown destination without a map. Now, it's not particularly connected to diabetes - most of the craziness is everything else in life. But a consequence of the storm damage is that my D-Management is completely off as well. It's not really that my diabetes has been cooperating, it's more to the tune that I have not been cooperating with my diabetes and have been totally slacking. With all the storms swirling in life, I've just not been up to doing what needs to be done. Depression begets depression, and it's just not something I've been really dealing with all that lately. It's really not all that impressive when I routinely see 400 and 500s at night before bed, and just nonchalantly correct before turning in. I was pondering this recently, ...

Story of My Life. Particularly this week. Robert Duvall, portraying newspaper editor Bernie White in the 1994 journalism movie The Paper : [Reading in a dictionary] "Deadline: A date or time before which something must be done." Uh huh. Right... At least there is coffee. Lots of it. And steady blood sugars - well, we can hope...

 Courtesy of my Google search for "Mr. Strickland" & "Slacker" I am a Slacker. Just like the high school principal from Back to the Future saw it, when it came to Marty and George McFly. Call it slacking. Burnout. Laziness. Or my own interpretation of a vacation in pretty much the only way I'll ever be able to know one. The array of names all translate to the same style of self-care in my D-Life these days. Lately, I've been the Slacker in Charge as far as my diabetes management. I am nose-to-nose with being a slacker. Not testing as regularly. Eating carbs without dosing for them. Like those bags of peanuts, or handfuls of Vanilla Wafers, or just a pack of crackers. I was hungry, and just didn't care. Just like not uploading my pump data to the laptop, or writing blogs or participating in the Diabetes Online Community as much. And I'm OK with this, for the most part. Slacking can be like a vacation of the mind, for us People With...

As regular readers may know, the Back to the Future trilogy is my favorite set of movies. Well, a couple times a year I get to step into the world of Marty McFly and fire up the Flux Capicitor when we embrace time changes. You're telling me, that you built a time machine, out of a DeLorean...?!?!?! No DeLorean needed here. No 1.21 jigawatts or bolts of lightenting to generate that kind of power. 1.21 JIGAWATTS!... What the H#* is a jigawatt?!?!?! Nope. Our annual time came this past weekend, with Daylight Savings Time kicking the clocks back an hour for the annual "fall back" - going from 2 a.m. Sunday to 1 a.m. and, among other things, offering an extra hour of sleep (so very needed). So, just like Doc Brown sent his dog Einstein "one minute into the future," we've now been catapulted one hour into the past. Einstein caught up to that minute within a few, while we'll finally catch up the hour we lost when we "spring forward" again on S...

Today is a day when we write about anything NOT related to the chronic conditions we are living with. This idea is the brainchild of  The Great Ninjabetic . This means no blogging, Tweeting, or Facebooking statuses on that subject. George describes it this way: "We are more than a disease, a lot more and tomorrow is a day to share some of that. There are many facets to each one of us and since we do talk so much about our D lives, we maybe miss some other cool stuff about each other. It’s not easy. It is a serious exercise to avoid all D talk but, I think it is a positive step in seeing that life is more than diabetes. We are more than diabetics or People With Diabetes. We give diabetes a lot of attention, let’s spend one day and give the rest of ourselves the spot light." Since I'd neglected to mark this on any calendar and didn't even remember it until sometime later Tuesday, I had little time to get my sass in line for a specific Non-D post. My mind rolls through i...

We won't have huge boulders to outrun. No leather whips, snake pits, temples of doom, or power-hungry tyrants and bloodthirsty cult worshipers. Even so. Feel free to call me Indiana. Not because I'm named after the dog, but because I'm a Hoosier. At least that's what they tell me after living in this state now for six years. Just don't ask me to define what that word means - nobody here knows, even the lifers. But more significantly, you can refer to me this way because for the 1st time since I've lived here we are actually taking part in our Central Indiana Walk to Cure Diabetes on Oct. 9. That makes me Indiana, officially. Every other year that we've had this walk, something else has interfered and pulled us away from participating- work, out-of-state travel, conflicting church charities. So six years have passed and we haven't found a chance to be a part of the type of event that I spent many of my younger years participating in, fundraising for...

Aerosmith said it best when they coined the phrase, "Back In The Saddle Again." So, in honoring that great rock song and also the classic Gene Autry film by the same name, I offer my own D-Version of that saddle-ness recaptured. Now that my five-month Pump Hiatus has come to a close, I've reconnected to my trust Minimed 722 Paradigm and am back in the pumping game. It's been a long MDI adventure, but one that I'm glad to have experienced. You may remember that I had no issue with my pump as far as how it enabled me to live a more free D-Life. Just with not rotating as often as recommended by the powers that be, for nine years of mostly continuous pumping, took a toll on the body. It just got to be too daunting and frustrating to endure the pump site changes every handful of days, and the prospect of non-working sites and gushers just got to be too much. So, we took a bit of a break. That led me to realize that it wasn't the pump that was dict...

If I had a time-traveling DeLorean, my first stop could very well be Orlando, Florida in July 2011. That's when the annual Friends for Life Conference will be happening. While I hear it's always a great time worth attending, next year is expected to be an even more special time for Adult Type 1s. That is because Jeff Hitchcock, the creator and editor of Children With Diabetes that's been holding the FFL Conference now for more than a decade years, wants to develop a conference aimed specifically at the needs of Adult Type 1s. This is awesome news. But please, don't take my word for it. Please, leave The Diabetic's Corner Booth and travel over to Diabetes Daily where my friend and fellow D-Blogger Scott Johnson has already written about this and is garnering incredible feedback about the idea. The planning and direction is already underway, and with now less than a year to go, deadlines are quickly approaching to get this established. So if you haven't alre...

So, I had a strange dream the other night. As it turned out, this dream came at a time when my blood sugar was running High. Awaking about 3 a.m., a blood test revealed a 350 mg/dL. Trip to the bathroom. Thirsty. So, I had an orange flavor-ice and took a correction bolus. Then, I began reflecting on the nightmarish-vision that had been on my sleeping mind just a while earlier. What if I was buried alive for an extended period of time, without an insulin pump or any insulin? Not only would it suck being buried and all the not-fun issues that go along with that, but I'd also be battling the High symptoms - thirst, urination, slugginess. Not a pleasant times. That had been my dream. Being stuck in a coffin, with a lighter, and no insulin pump. Only on MDI (as I have been now for a few months), but unfortunately I didn't have any supplies. No water bottles or pop-cycles or push-up flavor-ice to hit the spot. Some burning foot neuropathy to go with it. NOT cool. I blame the ...

There is no reason that obtaining basic living supplies should take 28 Days. Unless, of course you live in a Zombie World. Obviously, we do live in this Diabetic Zombie World. This has been written about before. Some of us have Lows, causing us to behave like rambling incoherent zombies out in search of glucose brains. Sometimes, we have Highs that make us feel like we're stumbling through molasses, or moving as swiftly as a zombie does. Yet, there are other Zombies in this D-Zombie World of ours - the stupid, rambling, unproductive zombie-like fools who have one basic mission in life: to make your brain hurt and give you the desire to just give them a quick shotgun-blast to the head to stop the craziness. Insurance companies. Medical supply companies. Mail order suppliers. Local pharmacists. Billing reps. They invest our lives, and force us to go all zombie-killer Woody Harrelson on them. That's how I've been in recent days. En...

You may know them as Insulin Reactions, Hypos, Lows, or by some variation of those terms. In my world as a Type 1 diabetic since the age of 5, they've historically been "Reactions" that have transition into the more generic "Lows" in more recent years. The opposite of Highs, which garner quite the confused and befuddled glares when you say out in public that "I'm High" and follow that with the need to "shoot up." (Fun, seriously. Try it out if you haven't already!) But two new descriptions for Lows came with a recent experience when the in-laws were visiting during the Memorial Day Weekend. It was Sunday, and they'd gone out with Suzi for a day of shopping at a nearby mall while I stayed home with the goal of cleaning up our kitchen and doing some outdoor work while they were gone. A Law & Order: SVU marathon and The Sandlot 2 interfered only briefly, and the plan was to clean the kitchen and do some outdoor work. But, a...

You may know that I'm a fan of 80s movies. Particularly comedies such as Caddyshack, Weird Science, the Breakfast Club and Others that offered humor as an outlet. These helped shape my earlier years, and now they offer some mindless release and laughs into an often sobering adult life. Another favorite is Spaceballs, a 1987 sci fi parody that mocks movies like Star Wars and Star Trek and has become a cult classic. This movie goes beyond greatness and is simply a stellar creation of the highest form, fitting right into the Hoskins Hall of Movie AWEsomeNess. So on that movie homage note, I honor Spaceballs with my analysis of some recent D-Life happenings as it relates to the first 10 days or so of my continuing Pump Hiatus . You may recall my most recent post on Good Friday about My Burning Bush Toe , or the neuropathy-impacted body part that's become a radar-like tool in my D-Management. Over time, I've noticed that when my ...

Slow start this morning. Woke up just after 7 a.m. to a 433 mg/dL. Grumble. Didn't sleep well last night, and apparently I'm accused of being restless and stealing covers. This was probably due to the High, which tends to make me a pain to be in the same bed with at night. Or so I'm told. Anyhow, this was one of those nights and now I knew the BG number to blame. Looked down at my infusion site on my right side leg. Redness. Grumble. Skillfully peeling the tape and Silouette stickiness away from my leg, I yank out the site. Fortunately, I wasn't wearing anything with light colors. Anticipating what ultimately did happen, I had strategically placed a towel to cover up the newly-washed bed sheets that I had no interest in covering with blood. The foresight was to my advantage, it turned out. We had Blood. A Gusher. With that, I've added another war-torn mark to my body. A Hallmark for any Insulin Pumper. Grumble. Not ready to deal with the frustrations of fi...

You may have guessed it based on previous posts stocked full of movie quotes.. but in case it escaped your attention before: Yes, I'm a Movie Buff. Love a good flick. Love quoting them. Classics like Caddyshack, Breakfast Club, Godfather Trilogy, Back to the Future Trilogy, and Scent of a Woman. All greats. Really, anything with Al Pacino in it is a necessary movie to own in my world. Gangster Pacino is especially liked, in roles such as Michael Corleone, Carlito, and you got it.... Tony Montana. Pacino illustrates the point of this current post: "Say hello to my little friend..." Yep, that's from Scarface. The Movie. Classic role. Good stuff. Violent, but good. Gave new life to words such as, "cockroach." Of course, Scarface has become the name of my Paradigm pump. Without a cool name like Master P or Elvis or anything smooth like that, I've now dubbed it: Tony P (Paradigm) a/k/a. Scarface. You can see why this is from the photo, I'd venture...

Life's been crazy nuts lately. Work Deadlines. Back to Back Meetings. Writing. Reporting. Planning. Diabetes Rollercoasters. Everyday Stresses. Sleepless Nights. Mental Exhaustian. You name it... The whirlwind has engulfed everything, leaving little time for life's pleasures. Like Blog Reading or Humor Writing. No time to be Off Cooking Bacon. No comfort from My Ninja, Lance. Obvously, it's time for a break. Right. Now. So, here's to the end of a crazy tornado week and what will hopefully be a great weekend of sleep, catching up, and just relaxing. Without Tax interfering with my becoming a mental jello-bowl with plans to just Veg Out. Seriously, it's needed. About all I can muster up the mental strength for right now are some movie quotes from classic flicks. The classics, in which I'm able to recite half-asleep and even in a state of Low Blood Sugars. This isn't the Master List and only represents a snapshot tainted by my current mood and exhaust...