Books on Diabetes...diabetes books...best diabetes books

Well after a recent google search on books about Living with Diabetes, I am amazed to see how many there are.....thousands at least. It seems that diabetes encompasses so many people that it also creates quite a few diabetic authors. I am happy to see so many books on diabetes that should help make it easy to help people find the Joy of Diabetes in living with the disease. As always, there is a lot of data out there that is not always easy to plow through. I wrote The Joy of Diabetes to try and help the common man or woman who struggles to get through not just the physical side of diabetes, but also the mental/mindset side. Diabetes management is definitely all in your head. You have to develop the right mindset in order to achieve success.

I was honored this weekend to be a speaker at Southeast Georgia Diabetes Fest. I am always excited to meet new folks in the industry and to get positive feedback that says what I presented was helpful. I am always happy when people say that they have renewed their desire to improve their control as they go forward.

Whatever books you can get your hands on, you should read and digest all that you can. It will help you in the long run.

The Mothers of JDRF..on a mission :)

Small world, I spoke with one of my clients who wanted us to sponsor tshirts for a walk a thon they were having on their property for JDRF. I was given a phone number to call and spoke with the lady in charge who was the mother of little Kaylan who has been diabetic since age 2.
I had to laugh as I always love talking to the Moms at JDRF because they absolutely get things done. High energy and on a mission to find a cure, a solution, or an improvement in their childs life.
You know who they are...they are the one on every committee, getting 5x more stuff done than everyone else.
God Bless the Moms.....

What's that on your waist sir...? Please step over here sir!!!!! Flying while Diabetic!

Ahhhhh, the joys of flying while D.....

Sir you're gonna need to remove your pager.....Ummmm it's an insulin pump. Oh....Ok, take it off please..Ummm, Id really rather not if I don't have to...as I unclip it and show it to him. .Ok, I guess. You need to put everything else including your pager in the xray machine. Ummmm...its a glucose meter....A what? A glucose meter, I'd rather not run it through the xray machine....(I understand you probably can, but as I am gonna be on airplanes for the next 5 hours, I'm not really willing to chance anything....including it happening to alarm while being off my body. I probably would be hog tied and tasered ...lol)
Ok , Sir, Please put it in the basket and come with me..... says the security lady after I walk through the xray machine.)
I am directed to a little holding area off from everyone else right by the xray machine, and told not to touch anything and to keep my hands out of my pockets. A little holding area "fenced in " by ropes....as I stand there with my shoes off and feeling like a square peg in a round hole.

The following is Loudly announced by the female security officer who is not allowing other folks to proceed..... to the other 5 security folks and the 50 people now starting to back up in line....
WHITE MALE...NO ALARM.... No response...
WHITE MALE...NO ALARM.!!!!!....as she holds up my cgms in the basket
WHITE MALE....NO ALARM.!!!!!!...again, no response
For the fourth time....WHITE MALE !!!!!.....NO ALARM.....
Ok, now I'm starting to feel like a suspected terrorist...
WHITE MALE....NO ALARM.....!!!!!!!
At this point I'm starting to think,,,,jeeessshhh , it isn't bad enough that I have to deal with this in my own way 24 hours a day and struggle to stay motivated, regulated, and healthy, ...Now I am being treated like a domestic terrorist....

At that point, a man comes over and and says he wants to wand me.... Sir, I need you to hold your hands out and spread your legs....Ok, fine...go ahead.... I say in my sock feet and assume the crucifixion position...Ok great.....Sir, I'm gonna need to pat you down.....Ok, as he feels anything that could be in any spot on my body. ....now I'm starting to feel like I am being singled out because of my diabetes needs and am starting to take offense.
Sir keep your arms up, don't touch anything, and keep your hands out of your pockets.
Ok, great! he says after he pats me down.
Step over here please sir, and don't touch any of your stuff and keep your hands out of your pockets....Dont touch anything sir....
I now move to the "other" holding cell of ropes...as I slough over in my sock feet.
Sir, I'm gonna have to wipe down your insulin pump and your glucose meter and place it in this chemical reader over here to check for traces of potential chemicals...Please keep your hands out and stand in place...Please don't move and keep your hands out of your pockets....
At this point, I truly was having emotional feelings.....I understand that they have a job to do, but I was really feeling denigrated. I remembered at that point that I had been shooting targets at the gun range the day before, I was hoping I wouldn't have a problem with gunpowder on my cgms or pump.
I imagine I would have been gang tackled if the chemical reader had had a problem...lol

The man wipes down my cgms with a cloth on a set of tongs and then wipes down my insulin pump....He wipes the whole outside of each, front, back, and sides. He puts it in the chemical reader, and we wait.....hmmm hmmm hmmmm
hmmmm hmmm de hmmmm
woo doot doo hmmm de hmmm hmmm

After what seems like a minute.....beeep Ok, sir, you're fine....thanks for your cooperation....Have a nice flight....

No problem I say as I put my shoes on and collect my stuff which has been seperated by itself in it's own area. .................I gather my belongings and try to put everything back as it was......but as I walk away, I really wasn't ok...
I was very offended and upset .....and I'm not the type to feel that way.
Hey thanks for degrading me in public before I get on the plane,.....No problem,,,,just one more thing I will have to accept that goes along with being D.

I sit where I can, put on my shoes....reorganize, regroup, and recover mentally.
I'm not sure why it hit me so hard, I've been through this before...maybe it was just that I was "In a fish bowl" in the middle of the crowd and being singled out.....for something that I don't have a lot of options to control....
The whole process was probably less than 5 or 6 minutes, but it seemed like forever.
Oh well,,,alls well that ends well. After a day of flying, I got to come home to my kids and wife and give them all a hug. I realize that I am very in love with my family...especially when I am separated from them on my business trips.
Life goes on......However, I am guessing I will probably cringe next time I hear.....

Step over here please sir!!!.....

well...I kept my eye out for a low yesterday

It would have been nice had I seen it. I absolutely crashed and burned at work yesterday. One of those stare at the computer screen, put your feet up on the desk,and fade in and out of consciousness. I did not feel it, and somehow I even did not hear my cgms buzzing at me. Thank goodness for my brother who shoved gatorade down my throat till I recovered.
Now I get to be on guard for highs.....man, the saga continues.
High Low ping pong ......and its a game I don't even want to play. An unwilling participant who begrudgingly has to learn the rules.....again.

You would think I could get it right after 44 years. Ah the Joys of Diabetes!!!!

If Diabetes were an automobile.....

a diabetic car...
1962 convertible corvette...candy apple red, white top, and raring to go...
the only thing is....it would have to have an external fuel tank...and the fuel pump wouldn't work..so I would have to have a gas can and a syphon line with a bulb to press to put in fuel. The gas gauge wouldn't really be accurate, so I would have to stop a few times a day and check the fuel level with some sort of "dipstick"

What would yours look like...?

Finally......They're Here!!!!

I picked up the books yesterday afternoon from the press.

I can't describe how great it felt to finally see all the hard work in fruition.

The Joy of Diabetes has been a long time in the making and it was like watching your child be born. I hope that this book is helpful to a lot of folks.
I have shipped all of the pre-orders today and everyone should get them in the next few days. Thank you all for your patience.

It is a relief to finally be done and see the finished product. They turned out beautifully and the the folks at Harrington Design in Jacksonville Florida did a great job. I highly recommend them to everyone. You can follow the link on my blog to see their website. They do good work!!
Keep going.....Peace, Bob

Hour by Hour, Daily Battle!

Well, Today's the Day! I went to my press company and did the Press Check for color at 8 a.m. this morning and the book is being run today. They tell me it will be folded and bound next week and I should have it by Thursday or Friday. It is amazing how everything, is always a week out. It was great as I had my son with me and we got the tour of how the operation ran and printed and were allowed to tour the whole facility. The press operators were very helpful. One said that he really appreciated the concept of the book as his father had become diabetic in the previous few years and that it was close to home for him. I am amazed at the numbers of people affected by this disease.

As I got back to my office, I got a phone call from an old friend who had been diagnosed diabetic and is on 4 injections a day. I highly recommended looking into seeing if maybe an insulin pump would help him to improve his control. I related to him that before I went on an insulin pump 15 years ago, I too was taking 4 injections a day. Wow! am I ever glad to be done with that. As like the rest of us, he is struggling to maintain control and keep it right! It is an hour by hour, daily battle.......but it's a good fight!

As always, Keep going...........Peace, Bob