By Request

From dLife Community member JasonJayhawk, in response to the most recent episode of dLifeTV:

"My wife and I were rolling on the couch in laughter during the interview sequence with random people on the street. The man's response to the question about intimacy problems was something I would have expected to see on Dr. Drew's shows, but on dLife, it just had us laughing! I think that clip should make it to YOUTUBE!"

Well, your wish is our command, Jason. Check out the never-before-broadcast, uncut version of this segment here. And make sure you stick around for the guy at the end - he's priceless.

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Hospitals No Place for Sick People?

S.N. has had type 1 diabetes for 46 years, since the age of two, and she manages her diabetes carefully with good results. Yet during a recent hospitalization in a facility that is known worldwide for its cutting-edge medical care, she found that attitudes towards inpatient diabetes management leave a lot to be desired. She writes:

"The protocol was to test blood sugars every four hours or so and make adjustments. While not a bad idea, it never allowed for meals. If a meal came and your blood sugars were 120 they would not allow for the meal. I kept asking and asking for insulin. Finally I just ate the meal to prove my point. Later, when it was testing time and the sugars were 400, instead of seeing that I was right, I would get comments like "you sure are brittle." So from then on whenever food was placed in front of me I took my own insulin to compensate for the carbs. I can look at any plate of food and know exactly how much insulin to take. Later, with comments like "see how good your sugars are," I confessed to taking my life in my own hands. I was severely scolded for having a "stash" of insulin as though it was a narcotic or something...I feel that not matter how hard I try, the medical system doesn't try for me..."

Unfortunately, S.N.'s experience is not an isolated one. Despite the evidence that controlling high blood sugars in hospitalized patients with and without diabetes saves lives and shortens hospital stays, patients often have to push their inpatient care providers for aggressive blood glucose management.

The good news is that several major healthcare organizations have now brought the issue into the spotlight. Last month, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) jointly issued a new position statement recommending more aggressive management of diabetes for hospitalized patients. The guidelines suggest an upper limit of 110 mg/dl for patients in ICU, and a preprandial (fasting) upper limit of 110 mg/dl for patients in non-critical-care units (the recommended postprandial, or after meal, upper limit for non-critical-care patients is 180 mg/dl).

RELATED: Avoiding Hospital Jeopardy

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Diabetes Anniversaries

How do you observe your "diabetes anniversary," or the day you were diagnosed, each year? dLife's Jim Turner shares his ritual with you.

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