The Return of the Meme.

Fridays are always hard because I feel like no one reads blogs on Friday nights, so I feel like there’s not much of a reason to put a lot of thought and effort into a blog post. However, I started this meme the last week of November, but I never finished it. It’s been sitting in my drafts folder for over four months.

I think it’s time to finish it.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
I don’t believe so. My parents went to high school with a girl named Allison, and I think that’s where my mom heard the name and she just liked it. I still have the list of names I could have had in my baby book. It was down to Allison and Kirsten, and Allison won out.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
Sometime last week while watching television because that’s the kind of sap I am.

3. Do you like your handwriting?
Yeah, it’s okay. Nothing fancy.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Plain ole turkey. I’m a simple girl.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
No.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Hell no. I still can’t figure out why ya’ll like me so much… Bunch a crazy people…

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
No, not at all.

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Let me think. NO.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
Not a huge fan of cereal… I like Kashi’s Heart 2 Heart and the kiddie cereals. I prefer oatmeal.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Most of my work shoes are slip ons (or like my boots, zip ons), but when I wear sneakers on the weekends, I don’t typically untie them. Or tie them. They are just perpetually tied which is probably why my shoes fall apart after six months.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
My physical strength is laughable, and my emotional strength leaves much to be desired, but I think when I truly believe in something, I stand strong.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Black currant. I have only had it in France and I miss it so, so much.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Eyes and smile.

15. RED OR PINK?
Pink.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My weight.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
My family, of course (two months until I’m back in Oregon), and also Dr. Hansen.

18. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
Jeans and my silver ballet flats.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
A Smart Ones frozen meal, an apple and a rice cake.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
A co-worker talking.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?

Purple.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?

Chocolate, anything cooking in the kitchen, grass, smoke from a campfire.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?

A co-worker.

25. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Sometimes I’ll watch ice skating or gymnastics if there is absolutely nothing else to watch, but for the most part, I try to avoid sports at all costs.

26. HAIR COLOR?

It’s naturally brown, but I dye it a deeper shade.

27. EYE COLOR?

Gray? Blue? Green? I never know…

28 .Do you wear contacts?

Yes. Unless I have a corneal infection in which case I wear glasses.

29.FAVORITE FOOD?

Indian food… chicken masala with basmati rice and naan. I am also extraordinarily fond of popcorn.

30. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
I like a twist, so happyish that ends up leaving you a little confused…

31. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
Baby Mama.

32 WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
It’s white with a purple floral pattern

33. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer. Because that’s when my birthday is. And up until last year it’s when there wasn’t any school.

34. HUGS OR KISSES?
Both.

35. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Chocolate. Or cheesecake. Preferably both.

36. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Nothing. It’s black.

37. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT?
I didn’t watch TV last night.

38. FAVORITE SOUND? Laughter, the ocean, or the ping when I get new e-mail.

39. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
The Beatles.

40. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
France.

41. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
I used to be really good with remembering birthdates and phone numbers. Not so much anymore (Facebook and cell phones have kind of ruined me) but there are people I went to middle school with who I still remember when their birthdays are.

The Glass is Half-Full with Lemonade.

First, a big thanks to everyone for your thoughtful, supportive comments yesterday. Whenever I write one of those big, emotional pieces there’s a little part of me that’s always petrified that everyone is going to think I’m an absolute idiot, but thankfully that was not the case! I’m glad that what I wrote helped so many of you and I feel much better having written it. When I first wrote it, I thought I was coming off as being harsh and a little unreasonable. My initial focus was on what Penny said in the comments. That there are plenty of noncompliant diabetics out in the world and that she often has to keep her mouth shut in order to not argue with the many people who say there is no distinction between a compliant and noncompliant diabetic. But, as I wrote in my post, there are people who actually don’t take their insulin or test their blood sugar. My grandfather was one of them. He either had LADA or type 2 (no one knows for sure - he was an adult, but my grandmother said he went on insulin very quickly) but never took care of himself. My grandmother would give him his injections and then he would go off and eat candy bars and cookies. He eventually died from complications.

In my initial drafts, I focused quite a bit on what a noncompliant diabetic is. But I decided I wanted to take the opposite approach - I wanted to focus on what a noncompliant diabetic isn’t. I’m glad to hear it helped give some of you confidence, and I appreciate everyone who read it.

I thought today would be a great day for an encore. You may have seen the Five Pieces of Advice You Won’t Find In A Book meme floating around on a few of the blogs. Well, I think yesterday’s post was a pretty good piece of advice, so that will be my #1.

Here are 4 more things:

RELAX!
This has been the biggest piece of advice I have been giving to parents and the newly diagnosed since I can remember. Often I’ll meet parents who are seriously freaking out and I always wondered, How is this helping anyone? It isn’t helping you, and it certainly isn’t helping your child when your every move is filled with hesitation, sadness and anxiety. This does not help you think clearly - and thinking clearly is a very, very important skill for someone with diabetes. So breathe, step away from the edge, take things as they come, don’t worry about the future, don’t worry about things that are done and can’t be helped. Just do the best that you can and odds are, everything will be fine.

Avoid Auto-Pilot
This is the biggest mistake of veterans with diabetes. They go on auto-pilot. They do the same thing, over and over, day in and day out, without actually realizing that, ohmygod, their insulin amounts have changed! Imagine that… Seriously though, I know it’s not realistic to be spot-on with analyzing trends every single day, but it’s important to sit down with your records (digital or old-fashioned) and just read them. See if you can see anything, and if you can’t, double-check with your doctor or diabetes educator or your spouse/parent/child. They might see something you don’t. The more you avoid auto-pilot, the better your control will be.

Take a Diabetes Vacation
Okay, okay, before you start yelling at me about taking a vacation from a chronic disease which has no cure (uh, yeah, I got the memo), let me tell you that this idea actually originated from Dr. Bill Polonsky, diabetes psychologist extraordinare. The idea behind this isn’t to completely stop your diabetes management for a week, or a few days or even one whole day. The idea is to cut back just enough on your management that you can relax (advice #1) but not die - which is a good thing. To go on a diabetes vacation can go many different ways. When I go on “vacation” I tend to cut out testing my blood sugar a bit more. I might test my blood sugar 3 or 4 times a day, but I’ll take much longer stretches without testing. Another good one is to have your partner or parent do all the carb counting or even have them program your pump entirely (make sure they know what they’re doing first!). Sometimes a diabetes vacation means eating whatever you want without worrying about high blood sugars. I know The Powers That Be would kill me for saying this but a handful of out-of-range blood sugars will neither kill you nor cause permanent damage (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!). A diabetes vacation, however, should only last about a day before going back to your usual routine.

Ask Questions
If you don’t know why something is happening, ask! You are perfectly well within your right as a human being with a chronic disease to ask questions about it. I mean, you always encourage your children to ask questions in class if they don’t understand something, right? Well, same idea. If you don’t understand why something is happening, how can you or anyone else expect it to change? People with diabetes need to be more vocal not just with each other, but with their medical team. And if your medical team doesn’t give you a satisfactory answer (i.e. an answer that actually makes sense and helps the situation) then you probably need a new medical team.

Also, if you are looking for some helpful suggestions on eating healthy in college, you should check out this new article I wrote for JDRF. It features two great diabetes educators and a handful of kick-ass ladies with diabetes (Sara, Allison, Ashley and Jenny).

The Myth of the Noncompliant Diabetic.

Some people think that an uncontrolled, noncompliant diabetic (said with the deep, dark voice of death) is just a myth that endocrinologists and diabetes educators use to make all of us feel like no-good delinquents who should be serving time in some kind of diabetic corrections facility.

But the truth is it isn’t a myth. Noncompliant diabetics do exist.

A high A1C always strikes fear in the hearts of people with diabetes the world over. Accusations of lapses in testing, not enough record-keeping, too many SWAG boluses and not enough sound nutrition are common among doctors. Have you ever had a doctor ask you, “Why were you 247 mg/dl on October 4?” But even if you do test regularly, take your insulin, try to exercise often, and attempt to count carbohydrates the best you can considering we eat in a society that up until recently prided itself on keeping nutritional content hidden, you can still have crappy blood sugars. It’s a fact of life. We all know that not just insulin and food influence blood sugars. I know this, you know this, and even your doctor knows this (even if he won’t admit it).

We have to move beyond the idea that an uncontrolled and/or noncompliant diabetic is someone who has an A1C outside of recommend levels or forgets to test their blood sugar or eats cupcakes. It isn’t the person who is suffering from neuropathy after thirty-eight years of diabetes, with half their time managing diabetes coming before modern tools like glucose meters, insulin pumps and fancy-schmancy insulins. It isn’t even about being burned out from diabetes, because you can hate diabetes and still manage it. Being burned out can lead to noncompliance and consistently high blood sugars, of course, but plenty of people are tired of diabetes and still do the best that they can.

Not perfection. The perfect diabetic is the myth.

Your results don’t make you noncompliant or uncontrolled. It’s what you do that matters.

The uncontrolled, noncompliant diabetic is someone who knows exactly what they are supposed to do and refuses to do it. The person who looks at the requirements to test blood sugar 4-6 times a day, to count carbohydrates or at least make an educated guess, to wear an insulin pump or keep insulin pens with them and they say, “I’m not going to.”

It is this - the complete forfeiture to manage this frustrating disease - that makes someone a noncompliant diabetic and leads to uncontrolled diabetes. They do exist. But if you are reading this blog, if you are sitting there thinking, “I really want to take care of myself and I am trying to do this the right way” then you are not a noncompliant diabetic. I believe that to control your diabetes means you are controlling your attitude and actions - not your test results.

Sometimes life gets in the way of diabetes and that’s okay. Sometimes you forget to test when you’re on vacation, sometimes you just can’t figure out how many carbs are in your Aunt Carol’s casserole, and sometimes you just can’t help eating the entire bottle of honey during a 3 a.m. low. What matters is that you recognize that it’s going on and you try to fix it. Even if you’re not successful on the first try, or the second try or the nine-hundred and twelfth try. As long as you are trying to do your best, you are doing great.

That’s really all you can ask for.

Press Play.

I was on my couch last night, watching an episode of House and scrolling through apartment listings on Craigslist when something dawned on me.

Being the social media addict that I am thanks to my job, I twittered my epiphany:

“You know what I just realized? I’m perfectly fine with the speed of life and there’s nothing that I want to skip ahead to.”

It was an amazing realization to have. I can’t remember the last time I was even remotely content with where my life is at. For a long time, I felt like I was always waiting. Like my life was a series of highly stressful commercials. Waiting for the summer to see my friends from high school who were away at school. Waiting for the term would end so economics would quit suffocating my soul. Waiting for heartache and homesickness to vanish. Waiting to move. Waiting to hear about a job. Waiting to finally feel that sense of belonging that had been escaping me ever since I left my hometown.

It became even more dramatic my last six months in Oregon. I was waiting to go to New York for job interviews. I was waiting to hear back from the interviews. I was waiting to move. I was waiting to find the right apartment. I was waiting to have friends, furniture and an understanding of the God-forsaken freeway system in New Jersey (which I have determined will never, ever happen).

For the first time in a long time, I’m not wishing for a remote control to fast forward my life or to rewind it to better day. There are things that I’m looking forward to like my trips to Oregon for my brother’s graduation and the Children with Diabetes conference in Florida, my twenty-third birthday rolling in at the beginning of August and hopefully a meet-up or two around the East Coast.

But none of these things are going to fix my life the way that I expected all the moving and changes in school schedules. I’m not expecting them to. There are things that I hope will eventually happen - like having a boyfriend, or moving to a nicer apartment, or changing job, or getting a kitty.

But I’m not looking to jump ahead to anything.

Right now is just fine with me. Enjoying the friends that I have made, either through this blog - which has been a godsend to me - or through my real life adventures. I’m perfectly content to explore the neighborhoods of New York City, and even New Jersey has surprised me on a number of occasions. I have friends that I can call or at least e-mail, though perhaps not quite as spur of the moment as I’d like, but we’re grown-ups with jobs and errands and things to do. Not everything can be as spontaneous as when you’re 19. I have made my attempts to join groups, and while they haven’t all panned out like I planned, it’s still been an enjoyable adventure.

I’m still homesick sometimes. But I don’t think I crave that sense of belonging that I did when I first came to the East Coast. I think that’s something blogging has taught me actually. With so many welcoming friends - sometimes friends that I haven’t even met yet - I know I belong. I belong everywhere and I can finally just press play.

That’s a very nice feeling to have.

Playing Tour Guide.

On Saturday, I took the train into the city to meet up with Jon Schlaman, co-founder of Diabetes Talkfest. It was definitely not the great day weather-wise for a day out (and considering how sunny it was on Sunday, I’m kicking myself for not double-checking the forecast). But we managed to have quite a fun time seeing some tourist attraction and actually going on Saturday worked out because I was able to go to church - which I really liked! yay! - and I managed to get everything off my list. My bangs are cut, I worked a bit more on my freelance article, I went grocery shopping and bought my mother’s present for Mother’s Day. Very productive indeed!

Anyway, on to the recap:

We met at Penn Station and walked up through Times Square and over to Ninth Avenue to lunch. After a quick bite to eat and a long discussion about the future of Diabetes Talkfest, we walked down Seventh Avenue after deciding to try going to the top of the Empire State Building. But right as we walked past 42nd, I spotted Madame Tussauds. We decided to check it out. I wasn’t sure if spending that much money in a museum full of wax celebrities would be that much fun, but man, this is definitely going on my Things to Do When Schlepping Tourists Around NYC List! Jon took out some of his anger on Bill Gates, I modeled for Annie Leibowitz, I rocked out with the Spice Girls, we said hi to the Clintons, I got some comedy tips from Lucille Ball and even my boyfriend came!

Afterwards, we waited in the longest line in the world to go to the top of the Empire State Building. It was far too cold and we really should have skipped it (or been smart and checked the forecast), but it was still amazing to be that high up off the earth and to see so far. You could even see the lights from Giant Stadium, which is next to where I work. Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries so I have no proof that I was actually up there, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

When we were done, we headed back down and hopped on the subway to Queens where we had Thai with Scott Strumello and then walked over to his apartment where I got to meet Phyllis, his adorable cat. I also saw the most amazing contraption in the history of the world.

A personal soda machine.

It’s amazing.

I want one.

Welcomed Weekend.

Another week has come and gone! Hard to believe. It feels just like yesterday I was moaning about how it was only Tuesday and then zooooom it’s Friday!

It’s kind of weird how that works. I wish that wasn’t how it worked on the weekend though. I want the weekend to move like molasses but that doesn’t usually happen. Mostly because I sleep through half the day since I don’t typically wake up until around 11:30 or even noon. By the time I’m awake, showered and dressed it’s usually after 1p.m. and the day is practically over and I have to get ready to go to bed again!

Okay, maybe not quite, but you know what I mean.

My plans for the weekend:
- Weight Watchers check in (ugh)
- cutting my bangs
- buying new shoes. I’ve been wearing these adorable silver ballet flats to the point that I’m starting to hate them. Our dresscode just changed to casual Friday everyday so wearing fancy shoes isn’t required but I don’t have many casual shoes now!
- going to NYC to play tour guide with Diabetes TalkFest’s Jon Schlaman and have dinner with him and Scott Strumello
- hopefully going to a new church (maybe, if I don’t chicken out)
- grocery shopping
- working on freelance article
- sleep?

What do you have planned for this weekend?

Merry Month of May.

I love May.

Ever since I can remember, May has been one of my favorite months. It’s the month where the cold weather streak snaps (supposedly) and at least in Oregon, it’s the time when our marathon weeks of overcast skies and rain slow down and become more sporadic. May is more relaxed and being the last month before school got out, most of us were more comfortable slacking off a little bit more. We spent more time hanging out on the back porch of our favorite coffeeshop in Eugene, Espresso Roma, where everyone liked to congregate between classes to drink coffee, play chess and chat.

Of course, now that I’m a big person, there’s no summer break for me but I’m still enjoying seeing more sunny days and warmer weather. I would appreciate it even more if Mother Nature cooperated and quit with the rain completely, but I’ll take what I can get.

May looks to be a pretty good month so far. This weekend, Jon Schlaman, co-founder of Diabetes Talkfest is in town, so I’m heading into the city to play tour guide for awhile. Next week is JDRF’s Spring for a Cure fundraiser, which is the first JDRF event that I’ve actually paid to attend, believe it or not. I actually felt quite grown-up being able to afford the $100 entrance fee without having to rely on my back-up plan of volunteering for registration and then quietly sneaking away to enjoy the party. Later in the month are dinners with friends and of course, our first summer meet-up in Delaware (email for details).

All of this leads up to the grand finale which is I’M GOING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My younger brother is graduating from high school on June 6th. :: sniff sniff :: My little baby’s all growed up… Anyway. I’m flying to Oregon on May 31 which gives me a full week in Oregon. I’m actually working remotely from home, as I am speaking to a few public relations classes at my alma mater, the University of Oregon. I’m not entirely sure how I convinced them I’m qualified to mold young minds, but apparently they’ve given me the power so I’m taking it!

I think it’s safe to say that it’s going to be a good month.

This photo was actually taken in October, but with all the evergreen trees we have, there isn’t much of a difference between summer and winter in most parts of Oregon.

Gripes About Glucose Meters.

I would like to register to a complaint.

Twice in the last few days I have had questionable results on my glucose meter. While this isn’t the first time that this has happened, and I know quite a few people in the community have lodged their concerns about the accuracy of glucose monitoring, I would like to add these two anecdotes to the books.

This past Sunday I woke up very, very late (as in, past noon) and eating in the morning isn’t something I typically do on the weekend. Usually I wake up around 11:30 and I’ll just wait a couple of hours until lunchtime and eat then. Sometimes I’ll even go longer and just eat an early dinner if I have a lot of errands to run and my blood sugar is steady. However, on this particular morning, I awoke with an 89 mg/dl (or something like that). It was a little too low to just forgo eating altogether, but I wasn’t that hungry and wasn’t sure what I wanted. I had a bag of chips left over from Panera, so I snacked on that for awhile before heading out to run my errands. I didn’t bolus for this bag of chips, but it was small, coming in at only 19 grams of carbs. I thought perhaps I might go a little higher than ideal, but I also didn’t want to take insulin and then go low while I was driving. I thought I was being smart.

Well, 3:30 p.m. rolls around and I’m starving. As in, I can’t go one more minute without shoving something in my face. I was about to go grocery shopping, and you know what they say about grocery shopping on an empty stomach (anyone seen those Mastercard commercials? Not pretty). So, being the bad diabetic (and WW participant), I went to Burger King. It was was close, it was convenient and it was cheap, especially important when the oil companies are sucking my wallet dry.

I sat down with my food and brought out the trusty Lifescan Ultra (the Keynote was out of strips so I grabbed the other meter before leaving). Whipped out the lancet, pricked my finger and five seconds later…

484 mg/dl

Excuse me??

Okay, now, I know I didn’t bolus for my chips. I realize that may not have been a smart move. But I know carbohydrates pretty well after almost fifteen years of tracking my blood sugar and there is no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that 19 grams of carbs would take me from 89 mg/dl to 484 mg/dl. No way.

In complete disbelief, I tested again.

218 mg/dl.

Sigh. Now that’s more like it.

Seriously, now, what the hell was that 484? I clearly was not 484, as I would have been gulping down the Diet Coke like I was in the Mojave Dessert. How does something like this happen? I understand there being some degree of variance in blood sugar meters (I understand it, I don’t like it one bit, but I understand it), but this was a difference of two hundred and sixty-six points!

I’ve even noticed meters that register me higher than I feel when I know I’m low. When I can clearly feel it. Trust me, I am not the least bit hypounaware ( ::knock on wood, toss salt over the shoulder, spin around three times, spit:: ).

You know, these fancy gizmos like continuous glucose monitors and wireless insulin pumps and laser finger pokers are great, but I could really go for a glucose meter that did its job right.

Thank you.

IRL.

IRL, for those of you unaware, stands for “in real life” and was created as a differentiator between people you knew just from the online community - be it blogging, social networks, message boards, etc. - and people who you actually knew in, well, real life.

The real world.

Well, I know a lot of you haven’t met many people with diabetes, so I always like to share opportunities where you can meet people with diabetes and/or myself IRL.

First up, for all you New Yorkers, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is throwing their annual Spring for a Cure event for young professionals on Thursday, May 8th at the Puck Building in Manhattan. Cost is $100, but the good news is that $75 of that is tax deductible! There will be food and beverage tasting from some of the hottest NYC restaurants, a silent auction, music and dancing.

Second, if you live within driving distance of Delaware, don’t forget we’ll be be having a Delaware D-meet on the shore on Saturday, May 24. Starts around lunchtime. Email me at amblass [@] gmail.com for the deets.

Lastly, Children with Diabetes will be hosting their 8,291 conference, Friends for Life, in Orlando, Florida this July. From July 22 until July 27, you’ll have non-stop education and support at one of the coolest places on earth. Some of the most respected minds in the diabetes field attend this conference - including some OC faves like John Walsh, Gary Scheiner, and Kelly Close - and you’ll get to spend a whole day at Universal Studios with some of your new best friends. This is definitely a conference not to miss. And if you’re thinking, “But I’m not a kid anymore!” So what? The conference topics for parents are often applicable to adults with type 1 and meeting new people, especially some of the people we read about everyday like Phil Southerland and Doug Burns, is definitely worth it.

I’ll be attending all three of these events, so if you have any questions or want to meet me, please email me.

And in case you missed it…

I’m not entirely sure why I bother posting things on Fridays since it’s one of the lowest traffic days I have (Sundays are typically the lowest of the whole week). But I want to plug something I wrote on Friday one more time in case you didn’t see it. Last Thursday, I attended the world premiere of Life for a Child, a documentary about families struggling to live with type 1 in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. Please check out my reactions to the movie and thoughts on the campaign and let me know what you think we can do to help thousands of children who die from a disease that is completely survivable.

All Together Now.

The image of the girl on the left is what children looked like before insulin was invented in 1921.

The girl on the right is what children looked like after it was invented.

But for thousands of children around the world, this is still their reality.

Although we live in a developed country where gaining medical care can by tricky, it is nothing compared to the complete isolation that children with diabetes in developing countries must deal with on a daily basis.

At the premiere of the short documentary, Life for a Child, I watched as three families struggle to deal with caring for diabetes in Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world. The International Diabetes Federation estimates there are 440,000 children with type 1 under the age of 15 in the world, around 250,000 live in developing nations. While getting insulin can be as quick as driving to the local pharmacy - which some of us complain about at times - in Nepal, getting insulin can take anywhere from two to six hours of walking and public transportation in order to travel from a small village to the hospital in Kathmandu.

Children diagnosed with type 1 must go to the hospital once a month to receive their allotment of insulin and to take their one and only blood sugar reading. One. There are times I bemoan having to test as often as I do but when faced with the prospect of testing only once a month - one glimmer at what is going on inside my body - I reel at the injustice, the sheer impossibility of ever being able to take care of myself. I know how poorly my body reacts when I test under four times a day. I can’t even imagine what the impact is when you are given such a blurry insight into your health. Children who come to the hospital often have low blood sugar from all the walking and lack of food, so who knows what is happening to them the rest of the time?

This is, of course, if the child is even diagnosed.

Many children in rural and developing countries die from diabetes in part because no one knows what diabetes is and what symptoms to look for, and thus they never even have a chance. Medicine men and palm readers take advantage of families and lie to them, leaving families broke and children on the brink of death.

Life for a child with diabetes in a developing country is wrought with a lack of support and education. Parents who are uneducated and illiterate don’t understand what is happening to their children and the importance of coming to the hospital and taking their insulin. Many families simply cannot pay for health care, and those who can still struggle with keeping their insulin cool and their test strips in stock. While most of us complain about not having a mocha frappaccino or a Snickers bar whenever we want, children in developing countries struggle to keep their blood sugar from crashing simply because they don’t have any food.

IDF’s Life for a Child program is working on solving this crisis. They are working with clinics and governments in developing countries to provide better education and access for children. So far, they have nearly 1,000 children enrolled in the program in 17 different countries, including the children featured in the Life for a Child movie. Although the families don’t have to pay for their child’s medication, many of them still lack the capability to test their blood sugar frequently and they must navigate the hundreds of miles from their village to the city.

I want to write about this because I have several close friends who are actively involved in the Life for a Child program. Although I don’t want to preach and pressure anyone, I do think we have a unique opportunity to help the children in these countries, whether it’s through a monetary donation or through a post on your blog to educate others.

Last week, our community came together to raise our voice about life with diabetes. To raise our voice about the truth of what type 1 diabetes really is.

The truth also includes the fact that there are thousands of children - children just like us - who are dying from it. One day, there will be a cure and we should all work hard to make sure that happens. But until that day comes, these children need our help.

No child should to die from diabetes.

So I ask you, whether you have type 1 diabetes or not - whether you are a mother, a friend, or a co-worker - to listen to the children, the children who are trying very hard to share their strong, courageous voices.

They are out there and they deserve to be heard.

Then raise your voice in unison.