PWD are so much more than the disease! Every single day those with diabetes pursue their passions and live their dreams. Here is a sampling from our PBN followers: Two things have saved me on sick days with diabetes that have become large parts of me and who I am. I thoroughly enjoy writing, and started shortly after I was diagnosed. It gave me a place to experience life without diabetes, in a way(I also picked up video gaming, but to each their own!). Otherwise, in my teen years I started creating jewelry on sick days, because if I wasn't writing, my creative mind had to be busy. I now start ..read more

Today's task was to discuss what brings us down and how do we cope with those feelings. Some diabetes downers are: Getting ready to for your doctor appointment because I feel I always have to go in with a solid reason for why it isn't perfect. - Lisa D. When no matter what you do some days your blood sugars just won't do what you want them to! - Donna F. The headache of dealing with insurance and helping them try to understand that a CGM is not a luxury item to a hypo-unaware t1d, nor is an insulin pump a luxury. There is nothing luxurious about this autoimmune caused disease. - Kelly E. As f ..read more

Today's topic: "Having diabetes often makes a visit to the doctor a dreaded experience, as there is invariably bad news of one kind or another. And sometimes the way the doctor talks to you can leave you feeling like you’re at fault. Or maybe you have a fantastic healthcare team, but have experienced blame and judgement from someone else in your life – friend, loved one, complete stranger. Think about a particularly bad instance, how that person talked to you, the words they used and the conversation you had. Now, the game part. Let’s turn this around. If you could turn that person into a pup ..read more

"Today’s topic is The Cost of a Chronic Illness. Insulin and other diabetes medications and supplies can be costly. Here in the US, insurance status and age (as in Medicare eligibility) can impact both the cost and coverage. So today, let’s discuss how cost impacts our diabetes care. Do you have advice to share? For those outside the US, is cost a concern? Are there other factors such as accessibility or education that cause barriers to your diabetes care?" Our Facebook followers shared their stories: We are fortunate enough to have excellent private insurance that has covered the majority of ..read more

It has been said that the only thing consistent about diabetes is that it is inconsistent. The 8th annual Diabetes Blog week sponsored by Bittersweetdiabetes.com asks us to ponder the unexpected. "Diabetes can sometimes seem to play by a rulebook that makes no sense, tossing out unexpected challenges at random. What are your best tips for being prepared when the unexpected happens? Or, take this topic another way and tell us about some good things diabetes has brought into your, or your loved one’s, life that you never could have expected?" We reached out to our social media followers to get ..read more

Shoot! I thought I was going to go through some serious surgery and chemotherapy. I swore I had lung cancer. Well, breast cancer that had metastasized into the lungs. Turns out it was only breast cancer. That was such a relief. My doctor in Chicago thought it was just Ductile Carcinoma In Situ – the Stage 0 one or something like that. We showed the scans to a friend in Australia and he knew there something more. He saw the invasive tumor which the people here only saw after my entire breast tissue and skin had been biopsied. Thank God I already decided I wanted them all gone, both of them, di ..read more

Halloween---a time for scary ghost stories, horror movies, and haunted houses. That's enough to put fear into the hearts of many people. But for parents of children with Type 1 diabetes the scariest part of Halloween is not the tricks but the treats. How can we keep our T1 on an even keel with all that candy around? Some parents choose to avoid trick or treating. Some give out toys or stickers instead of candy. My goal as Kate's mom, since the day she was diagnosed with T1, has been to give her as normal of a life as possible. And looking back on her first Halloween post diagnosis, that meant ..read more

Is there a month that just doesn’t seem to agree with you? July is that month for me. Our wedding anniversary is June 30th and we usually plan a celebratory vacation around this time of year. A little over 2 years ago in July, my beautiful 11 year old daughter at the time was diagnosed with T1D. My husband and I were in Mexico celebrating our anniversary and a new job promotion he had just received that would we require us to move out of state. We were on cloud nine for this new adventure. On day 2 of our vacation, our life changed forever. We received a call from my parents saying Ava was in ..read more

"Our limits aren’t created by objective facts. Diabetes. Gravity. Athleticism. Our limits are created in the story we tell ourselves about what those obstacles mean." Steve Richert from Living Vertical talks about how controlling the story in our mind is how we control diabetes. Some of you may be familiar with me as ‘that diabetic climber’. I chose not to say ‘climber with diabetes’ intentionally but I promise I’ll come back to that in the closing paragraph of this article. I recently experienced a life-changing event while climbing in the mountains of British Columbia with my good friend an ..read more

Let's round out the week by sharing our best diabetes tips and diabetes tricks. From how you organize supplies to how you manage gear on the go/vacation (beach, or skiing, or whatever). From how you keep track of prescription numbers to how you remember to get your orders refilled. How about any “unconventional” diabetes practices, or ways to make diabetes work for YOU (not necessarily how the doctors say to do it!). There's always something we can learn from each other. Thanks to our faithful PBN followers for these tips, tricks, and advice: Keep juice boxes on every level of the house...e ..read more