Day Of Diabetes: World Diabetes Day Edition

Six years ago I began this blog with the intention of sharing every diabetes related moment that happen to us over a twenty-four hour period. I planned to share our day with diabetes with my friends and family but didn't have one idea about what I was going to do after that day ended. I had never read a blog, didn't know another family who lived with type I diabetes and only ever saw two message boards in the Internet. I had no idea what my sharing would introduce me to or what meeting all of you would one day mean to me. So many diabetes related events happened in the first few hours of August 16, 2007, that I had to stop before the day was over - but that was on my first day.

Today, I think I can make it for twenty-four straight hours... One full day of sharing to help bring awareness to the the world of type I diabetes. Every moment of our World Diabetes Day that is touched by type I diabetes, I will share as an update here on Arden's Day and other social media portals that lend themselves to the moment. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr

If you want to follow along or share the posts, I'll be hashtaging them with #DayOfDiabetes - Many other DOC members will be doing something similar today, please support them as much as you can. Here we go!

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 12:45AM by Scott Benner

#DayOfDiabetes - Just 39 minutes in and diabetes is already making noise. 
#NDAM #WorldDiabetesDay

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 1:05AM by Scott Benner

3hrs 30min since snack time insulin. Going to wait up a little longer. Tonight may just go well. #dayofdiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 1:33AM by Scott Benner

1:33 am. Arden's BG is drifting lower. Temp basal, off for 30 mins. I'll listen to some music and check again in 30 mins. Eyes starting to hurt.

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 2:18AM by Scott Benner

BG is steady at 95. One last temp basal, off to sleep. now. getting up in 4hr 45min. #DayofDiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 8:13AM by Scott Benner

I overslept. Sometimes staying up until after 2 am can do that to me. Was woken finally by Arden's DexCom. Not only did her BG slowly drift to 196 by 8am but it wanted me to know that the sensor needs to be replaced in four hours. Thing is, we use that sensor to get through the school day. Going to have to reset it and set timers for extra testing.

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 8:43AM by Scott Benner

Arden couldn't take her chewable vitamin this morning because her BG was 200 and they are 6 carbs, would require .45 units of insulin and hinder the bolus that is working for the elevated BG - vitamins. #DayOfDiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 9:11AM by Scott Benner

Currently trying to decide what caused morning rise.#dayofdiabetes

The popcorn Arden ate before bed resolved almost perfectly. I set a decreased temp basal at 1am that seemed to work (Happy enough with the 150 range). Guessing the AM rise was not due to temp basal at 1am. If I hadn't overslept I could have boluses it just as it began and I think the 8 am number would have been around 140ish.

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 9:14AM by Scott Benner

Timer just sounded. Arden will be testing in class and sending me a number in a moment. #DayOfDiabetes 

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 9:34AM by Scott Benner

Working on high BG from AM & getting ready for snack.#dayofdiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 10:36AM by Scott Benner

On the phone with DexCom to deal with transmitter battery message. #DayOfDiabetes 10:28am

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 10:44AM by Scott Benner

Arden just texted, CGM is ready to calibrate. She is testing now. #DayofDiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 11:03AM by Scott Benner

“The blood won’t come out, I did it like 12 times” - Arden’s Text

I’ll have a #Dblog up in 20 mins about the last 1/2 hour. edit: Here it is LINK
#DayofDiabetes 

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 11:51AM by Scott Benner

Arden is at lunch, CGM is back and new DexCom transmitter has been ordered. This looks like a safe time for me to take a shower. #DayofDiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 1:32PM by Scott Benner

Post Gym CGM check 97. #DayofDiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 1:46PM by Scott Benner

I just entered Arden’s post gym BGs in the #BigBlueTest #DayOfDiabetes

www.bigbluetest.org

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 2:06PM by Scott Benner

Arden just ate 5 Mike and Ikes to keep a #CGMnow of 97 steady. #DayofDiabetes 

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 2:46PM by Scott Benner

Arden is on her way to the bus port. Just sent her CGM, we made an adjustment/bolus  and she will be home soon. #DayofDiabetes

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 6:46PM by Scott Benner

CGMnow 90 mins after Chinese food, 84. Small snack going in. #DayOfDiabetes 

Update on Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 9:52PM by Scott Benner

Arden is in bed, had to bolus again for an elevated BG. I’ll check on her in a little bit. #DayodDiabetes

Feel World Diabetes Day 2012

I've spent some time recently thinking about what World Diabetes Day meant to me, what did I want from it, what did I hope it's existence would leave for those that witnessed or participated. On Monday night I found the answer to my question...

Arden brushed her teeth before bed, she put on a silly pair of pajamas and climbed under the sheets. Her voice called to me and said that she was ready to be tucked in. When I entered her bedroom she had the lights out, her face was illuminated softly by a stream of dimmed light from the hallway. Her eyes were closed, she was pretending to be sleeping so that she could try and scare me as I approached. I stopped halfway into her room to tease her, she was trying so hard not to move, carefully holding her lips together so that she wouldn't smile. I looked at her face for a long moment before I sat next to her so that she could scare me. She popped up, I acted frightened, and then we laughed. We talked about the next morning and she expressed how happy she was that I was able to schedule a play date for later in the week with one of her friends. It was a wonderful few moments, some of the best that I had that day. 

Our party was crashed seconds later by the electronic beeps of Arden's CGM. Three beeps to be exact. It's urgent bells told me that her blood glucose was falling, I looked at the clock but I knew that it was doing so far sooner then I planned. Those beeps brought me right back to reality. We tested and continued to mess around, Arden's spirit was unchanged. I decided that Arden needed a juice box, she didn't want it, actually Arden hasn't enjoyed a juice box in some years because they feel like medicine after all this time. I could tell by the slight change in her face that she didn't want to drink the juice but she didn't make a fuss. I smiled and continued to talk about the next day as she forced herself to drink. It occurs to me now that we were both putting on a brave face for the other.

I hope that World Diabetes Day allows one new person to see my blog today, anyone's diabetes blog really. I'd very much like it if as many people as possible could understand more about type I diabetes. I'm not talking about the tried and true stuff. No talk of how many shots or pokes, those things suck but you can't fully appreciate them if they aren't your reality. But feelings, we all understand feelings.

This may seem on the surface to be a minor thing, a petty inconvenience but please trust me when I say that it's very much more. I sat on the left side of Arden's bed as she forced down a juice box that she didn't want. She did it so that she could go to sleep without worrying that her BG would fall to a dangerous level, she did it because she had to, did it because that's what she does. She tried to keep the happy in her face, tried to hold on to the joy that we made together only moments before. She did a good job, I may be one of the only people in the world that could have seen through her mask. 

Watching my daughter with that juice reminded me that there are forces in each moment of her day that manipulate her life. These moments aren't scripted, we don't know when they will happen, how they will end or if we are responding to them correctly. They demand that we stop living and pay attention to them so that we may continue to live. It probably only took her three minutes to consume the juice, but those minutes and all of the ones like them, they steal from us and they take more then time. My hope for WDD is that someone takes the time to understand a little better that which is the life of a person with diabetes, and that they feel as best they can what it means to carry type I through each day. I think that understanding will make an advocate out of even the most casual observer, and that understanding will lead all of us to a brighter tomorrow.

Arden hates drinking juice, I loath having to ask her to do it. Each time acts as a mallet that strikes at my soul. I can't be sure of what it does to Arden, I probably couldn't handle knowing. Please don't think of this as a story about a juice box, it's a story of a chronic disease and it's effects on an innocent person. I began this post with the intention of describing the sadness that watching diabetes do what it does has on me, but I can't find the words. I guess I'll simply say that it hurts, physically hurts me. It changes me. Some days and in some ways for the better, sometimes for the worse, but I am inarguably changed. 

November 14th is World Diabetes Day, November is Diabetes Awareness Month, people that live with diabetes do so bravely each and every second of their lives. Please try and feel what that means, let it change you.

WDD: Hero of the week

The International Diabetes Federation is asking, "Do you know someone that is active in promoting the diabetes cause or that are engaging, motivating and leading others to take steps toward creating healthier lives". If you know someone that fits this description please nominate them at this link. There are so many "Diabetes Heroes" in the DOC, please help to get them the attention that they deserve.

I want to thank the IDF for the unbelievable pleasure that comes with being recognized by them and for the honor of being called a "Diabetes Hero". I am humbled by this distinction and I hope you can take a moment to visit their site and learn more about their amazing efforts in the diabetes community and the world.

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!