The Corner Booth

When a road trip that should take three hours one way ends up taking 11 hours, you know the stars are aligned for a story that you'll be able to tell for the rest of your life. Not Me, it's Steve Martin. For me, that happened during a recent visit to Chicago for a big diabetes conference in mid-June. My return trip home via Amtrak got a little crazy, and turned into my own version of the movie Planes, Trains & Automobiles . Except that I wasn't as frustrated as Steve Martin was at the rental car counter, demanding a " f*ing car right f*ing now ." And there were no planes, but there were plenty of stories coming from the trains, taxis, shuttles and buses that carted me around during those five days. Here's how it all rolled off the tracks ( see what I did there!? )...

I am scared to hell about what diabetes is doing to my body. What it may have already done, and still be doing. When limbs hurt, wounds don't heal, new bumps or bruises or scrapes or eye issues come at me, I'm afraid of what it could mean. Once, "they" told me that complications would happen. It scared me then, and it scares me now -- even as I put on a "whatever" attitude then and a "brave face" now. Fuck that. Right now, I'm over that. This is the point where I just want to crawl into a corner and cry, or yell at the wall for being there. No matter how positive we try to be in this D-Community, it doesn't change the fact that sometimes we can't escape this fear, this negativity, this sense of dwelling on the "what ifs." Maybe it's diabetes, maybe it's just aging. Maybe it's a mind trick, worrying about what may not even be reality. But it doesn't matter, because that dread grips your heart a...

I rode in my first-ever Tour de Cure this past weekend. Our local Indiana Tour de Cure on Saturday morning took place on and around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Central Indiana, and I was proud to be there as a Red Rider on my inaugural ride. This was only the second ride ever here in Indy, with more than 1,400 people participating from 25 states. It's now the 11th largest Tour de Cure out of the 89 rides that take place across 44 U.S. states in total. I was psyched to be one of the 83 "declared" Red Riders in Indy proudly sporting red jerseys identifying them as PWDs (people with diabetes) -- although organizers told me there were likely other PWDs riding who just didn't go through the hoops of being recognized as a Red Rider. Anyhow, it was pretty impressive that Lilly, headquartered in Indianapolis, had more than 400 riders out there and Lilly Diabetes president Enrique Conterno gave the opening remarks that morning. I was lucky enough to have ...

Dear Woman Who Served Me Coffee Twice Between the Hours of 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. ( as I was staying overnight with a loved one in a Michigan hospital ): Thank you for responding to my knock knock knock on the glass door to the coffee shop, and opening the glass door at 4:12 a.m. even though you'd closed at 4 a.m. Thank you for not freaking out when I apologized for bothering you when closed, but that I was a type 1 diabetic who needed some juice. Thank you for not questioning why I didn't have more than 4 glucose tabs and a protein bar with me while staying overnight... Thanks for listening patiently as I described my plight while Low, which basically boiled down to me not wanting to risk wandering the late-night/early morning hospital wings in search of a group of vending machines that no one seemed to believe actually exist. Thank you for letting me in to grab one of the bottles of apple juice, and refusing to accept the $2 that I offered you for the $1.69 bottle of...

As I've shared in the past few months, I've been training for my first-ever Tour de Cure that takes place on June 8. Along with an expected turnout of several thousand others, I'll be starting out on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and will journey around a 31-mile area on the western edge of Indianapolis before ending up at the 2.5-mile track where the Indy 500 just took place. I've registered for the 50k (the shortest possible option), and my route is supposed to take about 2.5 hours if I go the minimum 6 mph they say I should. I'm planning to take it slow but steady, and finish the ride before my legs fall off and I crumble to the ground in a rest-craving ball of flesh. In other words, this is going to be a major physical challenge for me. My two-wheel of choice: the black, 12-speed Huffy mountain bike that I've had for about 15 years. Older ride, but it does the job just fine! We have cleaned it up, bought new tires and tubes, found a bike pedometer and ...

By Amy Tenderich, DiabetesMine Founder and Editor Originally published at DiabetesMine on May 28, 2013 Holy Diabetes Innovations! I am happy to announce that a small group of entrepreneurs and researchers including several parents of kids with type 1 here in San Francisco are tackling the diabetes data dilemma head-on, having just launched a new startup called Tidepool . A few months ago, a gentleman named Howard Look reached out to me after hearing about the DiabetesMine Innovation Summit and a call for D-data standardization and open model of diabetes care. Turns out Howard is a self-described "Silicon Valley tech guy" with experience leading software, product and user experience teams. His daughter Katie, 13, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two years ago. "I've recently decided to do something about it full-time, and have been connecting with several like-minded folks. I applaud the work of of folks like Benjamin West and others that are 'hack...

Well, here we are - my first post for Diabetes Blog Week to run over here at The Corner Booth . Don't worry, I haven't been slacking. At least not completely. Most of my D-writing these days can be found over at DiabetesMine . You can make sure to catch some of my week's earlier posts - on a Fun Petition and Memories - over there. Plus, there's a whole slew of them (to the tune of 130+ every day!) to read, too! Since I wanted to make sure to tackle one of the topics that we won't be featuring there, my little corner booth online seemed like a great place to post it! So, here we go... Diabetes Wild Kingdom Wildcard What is the ideal diabetes service animal? Think beyond the obvious and be creative in explaining why your choice is a good one. For example, maybe a seal would make a good service animal - it flaps its flippers and barks every time you get a good blood sugar reading! ( Thanks to Tristan of Based on a True Story for this topic sugges...