I got a link to an article from ABC News today about Halle Berry. I was encouraged to see that doctors are equally concerned with her claims that she's cured herself of type 1 diabetes.

"Diabetics quickly took to the blogosphere to condemn Berry for claiming that a change in diet could cure Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas permanently fails to produce insulin, the vital hormone that regulates sugar levels in the blood."
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I went to get the mail today and found a package from Minimed. It wasn't the normal size box for Olivia's pump supplies and we've already received our Care Link doo-hickey (technical term, that - doohickey. The whatsit that you download pump info from. I think. I haven't actually used it yet. I keep forgetting....)

Anyway, inside the box was a brand new One Touch Ultra that beams blood sugar readings directly to Olivia's pump. Yay! I was all happy. I thought it would be great, that Olivia wouldn't forget about putting her blood sugars in, since the meter would do it for her.

Oh, how wrong I was. I gave it to her, all eager to see her reaction, since when the BD meter went away, she was very upset. But no.

"It's not green!" she exclaimed. "And it's not tiny." And she sort of flung it aside, sighing in exasperation.

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This is all over the diabetes online community and may have already been posted about on here, but I'm going to chime in with my 2 cents.

Have you heard? Halle Berry has managed to cure herself of type 1 diabetes and has beaten it down to type 2 and doesn't need insulin any more.

Isn't that a neat trick?

Perez Hilton even has something on it. You know the diabetes online community is really up in arms if it's being reported on Perez Hilton!

It's been talked almost to death, but I don't understand what Halle Berry's problem is with having diabetes. If she has type 1, is she ashamed of that? If it's type 2, shouldn't she be out there saying "Look! It's not a fat disease! Thin people who eat well and exercise a lot can also get type 2!
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So last night, I did the Dumbest Thing Ever. I had a couple of glasses of wine while we had family over, celebrating a birthday, and after they left, I went to bed and turned on the television. And what was on?

Steel freakin' Magnolias.

I haven't watched that movie since about a year after Olivia was diagnosed. I tried watching it then and bawled my eyes out. Well, guess what? I did it again last night. Mark was asleep beside me and I had to hold my hands over my mouth to keep from sobbing out loud. It was awful. I couldn't finish watching it.

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My husband just switched jobs, which is always a headache when it comes to health insurance. If you are lucky enough to be allowed to start right away, with no waiting period, there's still that period of limbo when the old insurance has been cancelled (and man, they don't waste any time doing that) and when your new insurance is in the system.

Of course, Olivia needed insulin while we were in limbo. I went to CVS to pick it up and it was going to cost $335.99 for three bottles of insulin. Needless to say, we can't afford that.

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I've been doing some reading on diabulimia. It's not a recognized eating disorder, but it certainly sounds like it should be.

Diabulimia is a means of weight loss, primarily suffered by young women. In order to lose weight, they use far less, sometimes even no insulin and let their blood sugars run very high. It means they can eat whatever they want without it having any repercussions on their weight. I remember how skinny Olivia was when she was diagnosed, just before her 3rd birthday. She only weighed 24 lbs. Her body was eating itself.
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