Misconceptions.

Yesterday while I was surfing the Internet, I stumbled upon this jewel of a segment:

Apparently, Good Morning America aired a segment on ways to cut your risk of developing diabetes.

Notice something strange?

That’s right. They neglected to distinguish that this was type 2 diabetes they were talking about. I did not watch the segment (thank God) but apparently the doctor on the segment did not make one attempt to indicate that you can only cut your risk for type 2 diabetes, but there is nothing you can do to cut your risk for type 1 diabetes.

A write-up of the segment was posted on their website, and quickly the title was changed to specify type 2 diabetes. But the damage was done.

Thousands - possibly millions - of people were once again fed the message that there is only one diabetes. While many people have protested against the almost criminalization of type 2 diabetes, which I am opposed to as well, the fact is that type 2 diabetes does display certain characteristics that are contrary to type 1 diabetes.

The idea that diabetes is preventable is a misconception on both sides of this coin. For type 1 diabetes, it is never preventable. Ever. It is not curable. Ever. It can simply be managed through insulin and an understanding of how food, exercise and other factors can impact your blood sugars. For type 2 diabetes, it can be preventable, but not always. Even if a person could have prevented their diabetes, there is no reason to make them feel like a bad person. Some could say that a high blood sugar reading is “preventable”, but we encourage the belief that a reading or an A1C result does not reflect the worth of a person. We need to remember that if we don’t want to be judged by our numbers, then type 2 diabetics deserve the same in return.

We are then left with the misconceptions perpetuated by the media. Already more than 80 people have commented on this story, including myself, Bernard, Landileigh and Kerri (perhaps more, though these were the only ones I know of). My hope is that this shows the producers at ABC that we will no longer tolerate these misconceptions being spread by the media.

In my view, there is no other disease that is so consistently misrepresented in news broadcasts which I feel is an enormous disrespect to all of us - people with type 1, people with type 2, families, friends and colleagues. So many hours are spent educating the public on AIDS, cancer, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and now autism.

This entire disease is ridden with media misconceptions. I’m tired of it. We’ve raised our voices inside this community with our blogs posts and message board threads. It’s time to move this conversation outside of our circle. We need to stop chastising journalists and instead we need to prevent it from even happening. Proactive, not reactive. We need to start sending these letters to those who have the biggest influence in public knowledge: the journalists. Start small. Contact your local newspaper’s health reporter. Contact your local TV channel. Tell them your story. It’s worth being told. Even if you don’t get on the television, even if you aren’t in a newspaper, at least the reporter is aware for the next World Diabetes Day, for the next celebrity diagnosis, for the next athlete’s achievement.

We need to start now.

A Whole Year.

Last Saturday, I drove down to my dad’s cousin’s house for dinner after babysitting for a little girl with diabetes and her baby brother. My great aunt was also there, so we spent some time catching up on work and life. I told them about my plans for moving, talked about my job, and I found out that her daughter, my cousin lives in Israel, is going to have a baby girl soon. Then I realized that it had been exactly one year since I moved to New Jersey and I was exactly where I started. A full circle.

Today is another important date. Well, to me it is. I started my job one year ago today. I feel a little self-conscious bragging about my job and co-workers because, well, they all apparently read this. (Hello co-workers!) But needless to say, I’ve learned more about social networking and blogs than I ever did in the two years of being a blogger and I’m very, very appreciative that none of the people I work with are psychos. They are a little nuts sometimes but thankfully just the good kind.

Besides growing professionally, I also feel like this was the year I became a full-fledged adult. I pay my own rent. I have my own 401K and health insurance. I have made new friends, including some that don’t rely on artificial insulin! When I wake up in my apartment, or when I get another bill, or when I’m standing in the hallway getting a new reservoir from the closet, I still get a little thrill that this is all mine. I don’t know how long this will last… Maybe I have only a few more months before I think being a grown-up is totally overrated. Okay, occasionally I think being a grown-up is overrated, but mostly I think it’s pretty cool.

I’m excited to see where the next year leads me, especially with my impending move, and seeing how my responsibilities change both professionally and personally. I have added new freelance jobs to my resume in the past few months. In November, I signed on as a writer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and I’m leading the JDRF Blogger Round Table, this spring I’ve been working on a new article for Diabetes Self-Management, and on my trip to Oregon, I met with the founder of SweetSpot.dm and agreed to help with publicity. I continue to enjoy exploring New Jersey, which despite the rumors is actually very nice, and the entire East Coast.

Plus I have this whole list of exciting adventures to complete.

When I moved, I knew my life was going to change dramatically. But I couldn’t imagine just how true that was going to be. Although I am living in New Jersey, a state I never imagined living in (seriously, who grows up saying “I want to move to New Jersey!”) and although I’m working at a PR agency instead of that non-profit I spent five years preparing for, I think “Allison” has still stayed the same. I try to keep the same values that I was raised with. I still hate the humidity. I think sales tax is the most annoying thing in the world. I am still frustrated that my apartment complex doesn’t support recycling. I still wish I could see Mt. Hood, I still think trees are as important as people, and I still think people need to slow down and enjoy life just a little bit more.

You can take the girl out of Oregon, but you can’t take the Oregon out of the girl.

The New Girl.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been on a mission. A mission to find a roommate. The mission began when I realized that I desperately wanted to moved out my apartment in Distant Land Away From NYC (okay, it’s not that far, but it sure feels like it sometimes) and make my way a little bit closer to, well, people who don’t have children. The town I live in is a lot like the town I grew up in, just a lot less wealthy. This town has lots of families, grocery stores, gas stations and two (!) Dunkin Donuts. It has a CVS and it has Catholic churches. It has a couple parks - one of which I live next to - and it’s cute.

What is doesn’t have is any semblance of a downtown or population anywhere close to my age.

I decided I wanted to move to Hoboken, which is this adorable little town across the Hudson from Manhattan. It’s a lot cheaper than living in the city, but it’s just as close to Greenwich or Soho as it would be if I lived on the Upper East Side, plus my apartment will be significantly bigger. I also wanted to stay somewhat close to work. Taking two subways, a NJ Transit train and a shuttle *one way* to get to work is not my idea of a good time.

However, finding a new place to live isn’t so simple. First, I can’t just pick-up and move into an already established apartment. I have a lot of stuff. I have my couch. My ironing board. A flat-screen TV, a dining table, a fully stocked kitchen and a really cute bathroom curtain of colorful butterflies. All of which I don’t want to get rid of. This meant I had to find a roommate who didn’t have any of this stuff who needed a place to live. Maybe she lived with her parents, maybe she was just graduating from college or maybe she was moving across the country.

Basically, I was looking for the me from last year.

I put an ad up on Craiglist. I said I was 22, worked in PR and looking for a roommate. I gave my pricing and a few requirements (no psychos, only nice people need apply). I received a few emails back. A couple people either were in the wrong financial bracket or they had unreasonable requests (such as boyfriend and dog spending every weekend there - uh, no. I’m moving in with you. Not you and your boyfriend.). A couple other girls seemed nice. They had steady jobs and were my age. I wrote them back and told them a little bit more about myself.

Feeling a little uneasy about the whole diabetes thing (said in a hushed voice), I quickly added at the end of the email that I wanted to let them know I had type 1 diabetes, but was fully in control (whatever, they don’t need to know the details) and that I had never had any issues whatsoever.

And guess what happened.

I never heard from them again.

Now, I know I shouldn’t be surprised or insulted by the disappearing acts of these girls. I mean, if I didn’t have diabetes and could choose to not live with a perfect stranger who had a scary chronic illness, yeah, I probably wouldn’t have written back either. But it still hurt my feelings. I debated whether or not that was really such a smart move on my part. I decided it probably wasn’t a great idea to be that up front about the diabetes especially since it didn’t give us a chance to really discuss it before they made a decision.

Finally, I received another email from a girl who lives with her parents but works in finance not too far from Hoboken. She seemed nice and we agreed to meet for dinner at Applebee’s. But I didn’t tell her about the diabetes. I figured I could eventually bring it up in conversation.

Well, it’s a lot harder to spring something like that on someone that I thought. Typically with friends and co-workers, them finding out I have diabetes never really seemed like a deal-breaker but with a roommate all of a sudden I went into panic mode.

We met for dinner during a horrible thunderstorm. Torrential downpour, lightening just miles away from us, and booming thunder that freaked me out. I came straight from work and only had my laptop bag, so I had to test my blood sugar in the car. I slipped my license and debit card into my back pocket and ran from my car inside Applebee’s using the United Nations umbrella from World Diabetes Day to shield me from becoming a wet rat (yeah, I still have it in case of emergencies - it’s nice and big).

When we sat down for dinner, we talked first about the apartment. What we liked, what we didn’t like. We talked about where we lived and what we did for a living. We talked a little bit about hobbies and what we liked to do on the weekends.

Then the Potential Roomie mentioned drinking.

“Do you like to go out and drink?” she asked.

This seemed like as good a time as any to bring up the Big D. I explained that I did drink and liked to go out, but that I didn’t drink a lot because I have type 1 diabetes. She didn’t know that much about it, so I explained that I like to keep my blood sugars pretty much under control and that I didn’t want to my roommates to feel like they had to take care of me.

“I like to be self-sufficient,” I said.

Potential Roomie didn’t know that much about diabetes, so I just explained that my body didn’t make insulin anymore that I had to take it myself. She asked me if I had that “thing” and motioned to her abdomen. A pump! She knows what a pump is! I told her I had one, and she said a girl she went to college had one too. Okay, so the girl has some experience with this. That’s good. We talked a little bit about our eating habits - turns out, she’s a vegan and probably has more restrictions than me!

After that, we talked about her dog, our favorite movies and books we were reading, and as we signed the receipts, I asked what our next steps were.

“Do you want to take some time to think about this?” I asked.

“Not really,” she said and with that, she went from Potential Roomie to The Roommate.

Sigh of relief.

Get to Know The Other Me

I don’t talk about my “real job” very much on this blog, and by “real” I mean the one that gives me a salary, a 401k and full benefits. I very much consider diabetes advocacy as my job, but I get paid only for specific jobs, and it doesn’t have any of those necessary perks like health insurance.

Earlier this week I conducted my first non-diabetes interview for a blog about public relations and social media called Social Media Explorer. The interview is about my double life: one as a PR professional who pitches bloggers, and the other as a blogger who gets pitched by PR professionals.

The interview does touch on my life with diabetes, but not in the typical fashion where I talk about finger pricks and insulin pumps and low blood sugars. This interview is more about our community and how as a blogger who happens to write about diabetes, I feel about being pitched and some of the tactics that PR professionals are starting to take in order to build relationships with bloggers. I hope you’ll check it out. Also, if you have been emailed by PR people, I invite you to share your thoughts about what they do and don’t do well. I often feel that I am in an echo chamber of proper blogger relations, so it would be great to hear from a new audience of bloggers who may not have had a chance to share their opinions on being pitched to promote a product or event on their blog.

Edit: Hello to all the new people coming from Social Media Explorer! Welcome, welcome.

I joked that I am like Superman, which is why the picture of me with Superman is featured. Now if only I had a cape…

One-Fifth

Last Saturday, I watched Number Twenty on my 101 movies in 1,001 days challenge. That means I am one-fifth of the way done with that challenge and I still have more than two years until the challenge is over. Although two years sounds like a long time, if you look at my list, you’ll see that there is a lot of other stuff on my list that I still need to finish!

I finally got around to updating my NYC Restaurant list, though I’m pretty sure I’m leaving one or two out. There is also a Thai place I went to in Queens with Scott and Jon but I don’t remember what it’s called (Scott! Help!). It was yummy, too. The 101 movie list is still sorely outdated as I have way too much catching up to do, and with all those movie links to do… it might take me awhile. I also have three movies from Netflicks waiting for me at home.

As far as the other items on my list, we all know that I’m now going to London. Then there’s the upcoming CWD conference (one goal is to go to a CWD conference once a year) and I have more blogger meet-ups planned throughout the summer. I might actually reach my goal of meeting ten bloggers by Labor Day! I’ve also found a church that I like, so I’m two weeks into my (at least) six month stint there. I’ve also begun downloading the sermons from my old church, Imago Dei Community Church, off of iTunes and I’m about a month into that.

I would love to hear suggestions from you at home about what I should work on next or how to accomplish them. Do you know of a cool art gallery (#36) or restaurant in NYC (#42) I should check out? How about a place to get a massage (#20)? Are you a diabetes blogger who is in the NYC area who wants to meet me? Just send me an email (#5). If anyone want to surprise me with tickets to the NYC Ballet (#40) or a live taping of a TV show (#47), hook a sister up!

As you can see, I’ll definitely need the next two years to get everything done. But it sure is fun!

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.

We Have All The Time In The World To Find A Cure For Diabetes

Did you know that diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.? Seventh. That’s really not that bad. Cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s–now those are bad. But diabetes is not exactly a disease we need to race against the clock to cure.

Every day in this country, thousands of diabetes sufferers die of this disease and its complications. Of course, the vast majority of sufferers do not. All in all, we’re only talking about 65,000 deaths per year, tops. Not 65 million, but 65,000. With the total U.S. population approaching 300 million, diabetes can hardly be called a national crisis.

There is no huge rush.

As director of the American Diabetes Foundation, I know all too well that diabetes isn’t going anywhere. So when you consider making a financial contribution to ADF, think again. That money might be better spent on a more pressing ailment. After all, why panic over a disease that’s not even in the top five? Our time and resources would certainly be better spent curing the number-one killer, heart disease, or even improving vehicle safety.

Diabetes can be serious. It can cause heart disease, high blood pressure, blindness, and kidney failure. Luckily, these complications occur in just a small percentage of diabetes sufferers. Not only that, if you’re suffering from these complications, chances are you’re probably not following the treatment plan outlined by your doctor. So is it really fair to force a team of top medical researchers to skip their summer vacations to help a bunch of people who are irresponsible about their own health?

Diabetes is a problem, but it’s a problem most of us can live with. And while it’s true that diabetes cases are rising, they’re doing so in accordance with rising levels of obesity–exactly what we thought would happen. This definitely isn’t AIDS. Diabetes is not contagious or mysterious. It’s not like we need to hold some major world conference or sew a diabetes quilt or anything.

They say slow and steady wins the race. That’s why our goal is to eradicate this semi-dread disease by 2340. Top medical professionals across the nation will be working on it, but they certainly shouldn’t feel any huge pressure. We must forge ahead in search of a cure for diabetes, but we must remember that diabetes researchers have lives and families, too.

You may not have diabetes, but, chances are, you know someone who does. Or, at least, you know someone who knows someone who does. Not that you’d ever ask around to find that out. That would be weird. But let’s just assume there’s some friend of a friend out there with diabetes. That person, assuming he or she is under the care of a qualified physician, really doesn’t need your help. As long as that person takes insulin, minds his or her health and diet, and visits the doctor regularly, he or she should be able to lead a normal life. No need to panic there.

All Americans should be aware of the serious complications of diabetes. Or at least those Americans who actually have diabetes. Luckily, clinics and hospitals already have tons of informational pamphlets and brochures that can be distributed to diabetics. So there really isn’t much to do in the awareness-raising arena, either.

As ADF director, I care a great deal about diabetes. But, keeping things in perspective, I realize that diabetes isn’t important to every person in the country. That would be selfish of me to expect others to care about diabetes as much as I do just because it’s my particular field. It certainly wouldn’t mean much to me if I were, say, an electrician. And I certainly wouldn’t like it if some electrician were constantly hassling me about wire safety or something.

At this very moment, scientists are exploring numerous possible cures for diabetes. They’re experimenting with pancreas transplants and artificial pancreases. Other researchers are attempting to cure diabetes through genetic manipulation. But that kind of cure is way off. Way, way off. Besides, if medical science ever does master genetic manipulation, we’d certainly be better off using it to eliminate something like multiple sclerosis. The important thing to remember, though, is that no matter what diabetes cure lies ahead, it can happen without your help.

Well, who knows what the future holds in store? Let’s hope it brings a cure, you know, sooner or later.

Original Article

I’m Famous! … Again! … Kind of!

Well, I’m not exactly on my deathbed today, but I still woke up with a sore ache and those body aches that come with having your body run over by the Fever Truck. Oy. I’ve managed to do a few hours of work fortunately, which means I’ll have less catch-up work to do tomorrow (assuming I’ll make it to work).

However, on the flip side, I’ve got some good news! I am in the spring issue of Better Homes and Garden’s quarterly publication Diabetic Living. It’s a pretty standard diabetes magazine. It has a three or four feature articles, a number of healthy recipes and a spread of profiles of people with diabetes. In this issue, I’m one of them!

This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a magazine, but luckily my media appearances have been few and far between enough that I still get a little thrill out of seeing my name in print, whether I’ve written the article or not. Another first is the fact that this is the only magazine I’ve been in that is actually on newsstands where, you know, normal people look for magazines. It’s a quarterly magazine, so it’ll be around for awhile, so there’s no need to rush out but I bought my copy at a local Stop & Shop and I also saw some copies at the Borders at Columbus Circle in the city, so I’m guessing they are sold pretty much everywhere.

And on a completely unrelated note, I’m moderating the chat with Dr. Bill Polonsky (the “diabetes burnout” guy) tomorrow night on Diabetes Talkfest at 9pm EST/6pm PST. Please join! It’ll be a great time and you’ll learn a lot. I’ve interviewed Bill a couple of times and he always has some very insightful things to say.

Hope to see you there!

So Much For That.

This week’s Weight Watchers didn’t go so well.

I gained two pounds, which didn’t at all surprise me consider I made cookies over the weekend and ate quite a few of them. I also wasn’t able to make it to the gym as much and went low a few times, so I added all the calories from the juice.

Anyway, I’m okay with it because I’ve just started and the amount of weight I lost last week kind of surprised me, so I don’t know if maybe that was just water weight I lost or what happened. But I’ve still lost a pound and a half, so that’s good. As the leader said, at least you’re still below you’re starting weight.

So I have that.

Oh, and if you haven’t heard, the Giants won. Yes, I watched the game. That was actually why I made the cookies. I brought them off to a little gathering that I went to.

While I am glad we won, it once again reinforced why I don’t watch football. I’m sorry but four hours is way to long to sit around and watch nothing happen. Okay, okay, I know the game was supposedly good, but for someone who is uneducated and unenthusiastic, it was dull. They had the same score for three hours! THREE! The last quarter was great because that’s when people actually started scoring and, like, doing stuff. I just can’t get into this whole throwing, catching, tackling, STOP thing that football has. Too slow. Move it along.

But, uh, yeah. Go Giants. Woot woot.

Farewell, Heath…

Some sad news out of New York today:

Heath Ledger was found dead in his Soho apartment this afternoon. Just found out about it fifteen minutes ago when a co-worker saw it on the news.

Not much information is given about the cause of death, other than there were some suspicious pills found in the apartment.

Details can be found at The Associated Press.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Ledger. You were pretty kick-ass for a dashing young Hollywood actor.