The Corner Booth

I took a couple airplane rides recently, the first since buying a Dexcom G4 CGM. Airport security was mostly hassle-free and not an issue, for the two airports I went through in my own city and then the higher-traffic one I was flying home from. They knew what my insulin pump was, and just did their thing swabbing it for possible explosives that only took a few minutes. No issues there. ( maybe because I'm currently using an Animas Ping that really does look like a medical device and is much more old-school retro looking, compared to modern-looking devices like the t:slim... ) My CGM was less understood. At both airports, the same comment came my way from a handful of security people: "All phones and iPods need to go in a bin and get scanned." My response: "It's not an iPod, it's a medical device." TSA responses varied -- "Oh." ( Read: Whatever. ) "Oh" ( with an exclamation point! ). "Really?!" ( ...

Published this post initially in March 2010 . But it's again how I am feeling, after being reminded by Kerri Sparling in a great post she wrote recently. So, here it is again. In The Waters Again Sky is dark. Clouds hover overhead, trapping the light behind a veil of darkness, a haze that stops you Source . from seeing what's ahead. A bright spot, a break in the clouds, can be seen ahead on the horizon where the sun shines through. That's the destination.  But it's not an easy path. This journey means you must ride the river. A dangerous river. Toward that place off in the distance, a spot you hope isn't a mirage as you desperately try to reach it. This river is riddled with rough patches. A rocky, wave-splashing-against-the-shore type of river. Rocks sit in strategic spots along the river, aimed solely at catching you off-guard and pitching you helplessly into the waters. The only...

Photo by Mike Hoskins Today, something a little different... We're imagining what a job ad might look for that lazy organ in the body largely to blame for us having to live with diabetes: WANTED: Self-starting leader who isn't afraid to call the shots, and can bring a creative style to a challenging body of work. The position might even be for a CGM Data Entry Manager, Artificial Pancreas Division of Associates In-Corporated (A1C). Word has it that my very own slacker organ, Peter PANcreas, put his blood into the test strip vial for consideration. And rumor was that he scored an interview! So, we reached out to the company's executives to see how that all played out. Thanks to a source inside A1C who managed to get us "in range," we were able to snag a copy of the resume that Peter submitted for the position. Peter PANcreas 104 Blood Meter Blvd Mike's Body, 888 Behind the Stomach peterpancreas@diabetesmine.com OBJECTIVE: To find a management and supervi...

Let's start out with a couple catchy-quotes we all know and love. "Judge not, lest ye be judged." "Those who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones." Well, sure. Sound advice. Easy enough to follow, right? Only if you can tell whether someone's actually judging you or not. And that's not always easy, thanks to the simple little fact that we are made the way we are. A few people I know wrote some blogs recently that got me thinking about the human condition, and specifically the topic of how quickly we judge and point fingers in today's society. One post that caught my eye comes from Renza over in Australia , and she wrote about how so many doctors judge their patients who aren't following directions and doing what they're supposed to. Her point: leave that judgement at the door, and just realize that we don't want your judgement. That's not going to make us any healthier, or get us closer to wanting to lis...

The morning sun painfully peeks through the bedroom window to pay his final respects, warming her body as the warmth slowly fades for the final time. My eyes are closed to him, for in my eyes all the world is clouded with sorrow. With all my heart, I hold onto her hand to ease the pain, hoping to contain her love and tenderness in the earthly body for one moment more. A tearful joy floods my head as she takes my hand and holds on with that tender grandmother love. A while light of wonder that fills the room with essence of peace. Maybe that's just rays of sunlight, but to me they are angels. Beings with unblemished complexions of compassion and sympathy. They hover above the bed, waiting with patience to guide her soul into the heavenly light. Clouds of misery hang just as close, during this dark hour. The hour in which my childhood forever faded into adulthood. She has been released from this mere planet of pain and suffering, and moves on to a place of ...

We approached the table for breakfast, holding our plates of eggs and bacon and slice of French toast on each. The family already seated at the table were strangers, but that wasn't a big deal since we were all "family" at this diabetes conference anyhow. Hey, we all had bracelets -- most green, some were orange and others were yellow. But it all meant "family" to some degree, so there really weren't any strangers ( at least not for long! ). Once we stepped up to the table and did initial intros, the dad welcomed us and motioned that we sit down next to him and his boy, while the mom mentioned she had to run back up to the room with her teenage daughter. Sitting down, we instantly got to talking about what had brought us all to that conference and respective table. We shared diabetes diagnosis stories, and the dad wondered how I'd heard about the Friends For Life conference in Orlando. I told him about knowing of FFL for years, thanks to some fri...

While we were off enjoying Orlando and Disney and the whole Friends For Life experience , a comment came my way through email. It was on a post written more than three years ago, back in February 2010 . The post came just after Christmas 2009, when Suzi made me a Diabetes Ninja modeled after all my talk of "being a ninja" thanks to Super G who's widely known in the DOC as the original Ninjabetic. Anyhow, a few years have passed since then and we've since handed Lance off to a friend in the community who needed his protection - he's now been renamed, Little G . Dr. Google or the power of online connectivity apparently came into play, bringing someone to that post. And this comment came from that person: Just wanted to say to you and Suzi that I loved your Diabetes Ninja toy so much, I made 20 of them to send with my son to Camp Joslin for him and his cabin mates and counselors. I of course made the weapons, including a sword made from the cartridge p...