Guest Post: Mila Ferrer of Jaime-dulceguerrero.com

I first met Mila Ferrer early last summer while she was investigating different platform options to launch her type I diabetes blog. In only a few months she has proven to be a strong voice in the diabetes blogging community and I am proud to feature her today as my first guest writer. Take it away Mila...

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Hi, I'm Mila Ferrer, I write a blog in spanish about Type 1 diabetes. Why? My younger son Jaime was diagnosed at the age of three. Since then, our family has been learning and educating ourselves about this condition, to be able to provide Jaime the best care. My blog Jaime-dulceguerrero.com is filled with experiences, education and mostly support to other families. During this learning process we've met the most amazing group of parents and patients, people that are as committed to educate and support as we are. This wonderful community or DOC (Diabetes Online Community) is eager to help, promote education and inform about anything that might be useful to us parents and patients. 

As a parent my first search was to meet other families, having a young kid diagnosed with T1 Diabetes can sometimes be overwhelming, and it's nice to know that we are not alone. Thats how I met Scott and Arden, I started reading his blogs and really connecting with his feelings. My family wasn't alone. Scott and I have decided to share some of our posts, that way we'll keep sharing our thoughts and experiences through this journey.

I want to share with you my thoughts and feelings about the DOC. That group of people who are always there to answer questions and lift your spirit when your feeling blue. This link will take you to the spanish version. I also created a tab on the page that is named Mila's Blog, there you'll find some of my posts translated. Hopefully you'll enjoy my posts and find them helpful to you and your family, feel free to ask me anything in english, I'm fully bilingual (sometimes I like writing better in english than spanish). 

You can find me on Twitter @dulce_guerrero (english and spanish information)

or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Jaimemidulceguerrero

Mila

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Please take a moment to check out Jaime-dulceguerrero.com but before you do... dust off your high school spanish and give Mila's DOC post a read... It is linked above but I'm including it in it's entirty right here.

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¿Qué es una comunidad? Para mí, una comunidad es un grupo de personas que trabajan o buscan un fin común. Ese grupo de personas que hablan el mismo idioma, viven experiencias similares y se ven reflejados en otras historias. La comunidad se apoya, busca el bienestar de todos y comparte ideas e inquietudes.

Algunos de mis compañeros de viaje en esta travesía llamada Diabetes.

Afortunadamente cuento con una gran comunidad que apoya a mi familia y me ha servido de ejemplo en este gran proyecto de educación.  Me refiero a el DOC (Diabetes Online Community) o la Comunidad de Diabetes en Línea. Esta comunidad cuenta con tanta gente maravillosa, talentosa, inteligente, pero sobretodo comprometidos con la diabetes. Lo más curioso es que no he conocido personalmente a ninguno de ellos, sin embargo en nuestras conversaciones en Twitter o Facebook es como si nos conociéramos de toda la vida. Siempre dispuestos a ayudar, a contestar preguntas y apoyarte cuando te sientes frustrado.

En muchas ocasiones cuando tengo alguna duda o me ha pasado algo fuera de lo común relacionado a la condición de Jaime, recurro a mis colegas blogueros de diabetes. Através del DOC he conocido padres y madres de otros niños igual que Jaime y pacientes adultos que llevan años manejando la condición. Quién mejor que ellos para contestar preguntas, aconsejar y dejarnos saber que no estamos solos. Ellos viven lo que yo vivo, tenemos las mismas preocupaciones y queremos lo mismo; el bienestar de los pacientes de diabetes.

Durante este mes de noviembre el DOC ha trabajado mano a mano creando conciencia y apoyando las actividades benéficas que provean un mejor tratamiento a los menos afortunados, la Gran Prueba Azul fue un éxito. Otra actividad que hizo el DOC fue crear un intercambio de tarjetas postales entre familias y pacientes diabéticos. Alrededor de 530 personas participaron de este intercambio, Jaime envió postales a Canadá, Australia, Reino Unido y varios estados de los Estados Unidos. De igual manera él recibió tarjetas de estos niños, la carita de emoción de Jaime al leer cada postal fue de gran valor. Inclusive hasta una nueva amiguita por correspondencia hizo. Esta actividad nos relaciona con otras personas y crea un lazo muy fuerte entre los pacientes.

Me siento muy orgullosa de pertenecer a una comunidad tan activa y deseosa de trabajar. Una comunidad abierta a recibirte, dispuesta a ayudarte y compartir entre si educación, información y sobretodo apoyo. No estamos solos, hay toda una comunidad que con mucho gusto y placer te darán la mano cuando lo necesites.

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Mila, gracias por compartir tu blog con mis lectores y por su amistad en elDOC. Mejor de mí, Scott (lo siento, pero tuve que usar Google Translate,espero que funcionó!)

Untitled Giving Project Update#1

It's been 14 days since I wrote about my want to launch a charitable foundation to provide insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors to children that need but can not afford them. 14 days

A very lot can apparently happen in 14 days...

The Diabetes Online Community has fully embraced my goal and I thank you! Monetary gifts, offers to help and professionals wanting to donate their services have all been pouring in. I've made new connections and had conversations that can only be characterized as uplifting. I've received gifts great enough to pay for the initial paperwork filing and am currently in discussions with an attorney about how to best move forward. I won't stop you from leaving a gift today but I will say that, for the moment, we've reached out initial goal! Please take a moment and reflect on what an amazing place the DOC is, I'm proud to be even a small part of it and I hope you are as well.

• If all goes well I'll be able to announce the name of the future charity very soon. 
• Wonderful offers to guest post on Six Until Me and The Girl with the Portable Pancreas have helped get the word out.
• I'm diligently working at acquiring corporate sponsorship for the charity, having already made my first pitch yesterday. (If your company is interested please reach out)
• I'm currently crafting a mission statement and can not wait to be able to tell you more.

Thank you for being the amazing group of people that you are! Wait until you see what we do when we band together...

I'll be back with more news as soon as I can.

Best,

Scott

Update on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 7:54AM by Scott Benner

The 501(c)3 process is moving! More when more is available.

So that was World Diabetes Day?

So that was World Diabetes Day... Good thing I have a Twitter account and this blog or I wouldn't have known. I saw a message on Twitter yesterday saying the same thing. The author wrote that they didn't hear a word on any large media outlet but that Twitter was on fire with diabetes related posts. I found myself agreeing.

Every blogger, website and person whose BG was ever above 120 took the opportunity to announce something yesterday, me included and everyone's exuberance caused a flutter for certain, tweets were flying down my timeline at a furious pace. I spent my entire day keeping up with, managing, posting and responding to things related to World Diabetes Day. I felt great, though a bit exhausted (I may have fallen to sleep on the sofa and not woken up until 4:45 am) and I'd do it all again in a second but my question is, "what did I do?"

Was I only talking to other people who already knew that it was World Diabetes Day? Did our community have a party that only we came to? I'm sure not totally but I'm betting that the answer is, in some part, "yes". It's this nagging feeling that I have that helped me to decide to follow my passion and announce my charitable intentions last week. My overall concern that while we are supporting each other and doing it well, our message may not reach far outside the community or with the same intensity that it does inside the community.

It's a huge and difficult question but I want it answered - How do you get a baseball fan to care about hockey? A serious news junky to care about the Kardashians? Is it possible to get a message to a person that has no interest, connection or concern with a topic without marketing that person to within an inch of their life, thusly ruining the message? I think the answer is "yes" and I'm determined to find a way to do it. 

None of this is to say that the amazing things that go on in the DOC everyday aren't valuable, just the opposite, they are the heart of the DOC but how do we expand? How do I leave a guy who has no connection to type I diabetes feeling what a T1 mom feels when she reads something that I've written. It is possible, I know it. I know in impart because I believe but also because it's happened to me and recently.

We took Arden to see 'Wicked' in New York last week. At the end of the first act the character Elphaba is hovering above the ground having just come to an important realization about herself. The scene ended, the curtain went down and the house lights went up - I was crying. My level of interest going into the show stopped being an issue when I was presented with a well told and interesting story. That is how I see our message about diabetes going wider. We have to stop spouting statistics and saying the same things over and over when we're presented with a larger audience. I know that it's difficult to find new and interesting ways to say the same stuff but it's doable. We need to tell more interesting stories, well.

If only diabetes was a green witch that could sing...

They didn't allow photograph in the theater so here is a picture of Arden surveying New York from the Empire State Building.

"There's nothing you can't do"

Spring Universal Infusion Set - Giveaway

In celebration of World Diabetes Day, Spring Health Solutions has generously allowed me to identify one child that would benefit from receiving a *three year supply of their Spring Universal Infusion Set, at no cost to the child! Spring has also contributed a $250 gift to help me realize my goal of starting a charitable foundation whose focus is putting insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors in the hands of children who want but can not afford them. 

If your child could benefit from a three year supply of the Spring Universal Infusion Set, please complete the form at the link below to be considered. Be sure to read and understand the following details before completing the form.

The details...

The Spring Universal Infusion Set is compatible with the following insulin pumps: Animas One Touch Ping, Roche Accu-Check and Sooil Diabecare IIS.

You must have a doctor's prescription to receive the Infusion Sets and complete a product training with a Spring U.S. representitive.

What's next?

Consider helping the Untitled Giving Project become a reality.

Become a member of Arden's Day to stay up-to-date about future giveaway opportunities.

Complete the form to be considered for the Spring Universal Infusion Set giveaway.

Spread the word about our efforts by using the 'Share Article' link just below or by sharing this link - http://www.ardensday.com/main/2011/11/11/spring-universal-infusion-set-give-away.html

The rest...

Arden's Day is not a charity and does not claim to be one. We take no responsibility for your experience with the Spring Universal Infusion Set should you be chosen to receive the three year supply. Arden's Day is not directly giving the winner any products but merely choosing one child that Spring will award the gift to, train in it's use and make delivery of as they see fit. In the event that Spring can not, for any reason, fulfill it's promise to supply the infusion sets. Neither Arden's Day nor it's owner Scott Benner, assumes any responsibility to fulfill this offer. The recipient will be chosen based on many factors, at the discretion of Arden's Day with the primary focus of provided the best clinical outcome possible. If the recipient is unable to accept the gift, a new winner will be chosen. The gift has no cash value and is non-transferable. Recipient must be a U.S. resident.

*"Three year supply" means 450 total infusion sets. 

Update on Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 7:23PM by Scott Benner

This giveaway has ended. Look for a follow up story soon.

Thank you for your interest!

Gina Capone's Diabetes Blog Day 2011

I literally have to pick Arden up at school in 45 minutes (we are heading into Manhattan to see Wicked - Arden's birthday gift). I'm packed, the D-Supplies have been triple checked and now I am going to finally have a second to write my contribution to D-Blog Day. 

The blog topic for this year is: Why you feel the Diabetes Online Community is so important? especially to you personally? Give examples of other diabetes involvement may you have, on or offline, how it helped you etc… How do you think “we” as an online community can band together to reach broader audiences to help even more people living with or affected by diabetes.

I am going to answer the last sentence in the prompt only as I am short on time, know that now (as I'm writing) is the first time that I've seen the topic... Which I'm considering a sign after reading it...

This community online, the DOC, has a crazy amount of potential in regards to it's power and influence. It is already a force with it's countless voices but I've found myself wondering, "exactly how loud would all of those voices be if they all were saying the same thing and at the same time?". So I set out to find the answer to my question.

There is immense value in the power of the many telling their individual stories but what if once and a while we united? Could we effect serious change, I believe that we can!

If you believe too please click on this link, put away your fears and embrace the warm glow of hoping with a dreamer. If you do, if we all do, well... maybe we'll look back to today on D-Blog Day 2012 and be able to say that we focused our individual power and changed a few lives for the better.

Find out more about my dream for children and families with type I that want but can't afford insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. Let's see what this already amazing community of people can do when we speak as one. Thank you for reading - I have to get to Arden's school.......

Leave a comment, share a link, make a gift...

My best,

Scott