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February 9th, 2010
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Brenda Bell

Known to some online as her half-Vulcan counterpart “T`Mana”, Brenda was diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes in July 2002 – and sent away from the doctor’s office with nothing more than two conflicting diet sheets, a warning that she’d never be able to chart a way between the two of them, and a couple of prescriptions – both of which had intolerable side effects.



Given this challenge, a degree in engineering, and years of professional online searching and indexing experience, Brenda put her training to work to find a way between the low-sodium and diabetic diet sheets and away from the unknown long-term side effects of maintenance drugs. Her diabetes has been diet-controlled since January 2004 and she hopes to keep it that way for as long as possible.



Brenda’s first experience with an online diabetes community was a mailing list for members of STARFLEET: The International STAR TREK Fan Association, an organization with which she has been active since 1985. In addition to TREK fandom, Brenda enjoys historical costuming (mostly 16th-Century Elizabethan) and hanging out at Renaissance Faires and Highland Games.



Brenda’s real-life diabetes circle includes her mother, her boyfriend, and several members of her boyfriend’s family (all Type 2). Her diabetes role models (both deceased) are her childhood orthopedist and her stepmother’s father.


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Back in November, Christopher Thomas of Diabetic Rockstar suggested that one of the reasons diabetes doesn't get the attention it deserves is that there are so many different diabetes-related organizations which seem to be so much at odds with each other that "they can't even decide on a color". By this, he was referring to the American Diabetes Association's (ADA's) use of red as its primary color rather than World Diabetes Day Blue, which is close to the blue used by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and not too far off the blue used by dLife® on its Web site and in the screens on dLifeTV®.

 

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One underlying theme of diabetes blogs and complaints is the difference of our daily routines from those of people who have never known a blood glucose test, never chosen foods based on specific ingredients or an organization's endorsement, never had to dress in a manner different from those around them, and never had to follow a ritual not of the mainstream. Yet we see, meet with, and talk to people who do this on a daily basis, who could never think of not doing this (or who would never consider it)... who do not have diabetes, nor are they housemates of people with diabetes. (READ MORE)




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Several prominent dBloggers have posted this week about issues related to Driving While Low (DWL) and premature death. The subjects of these posts were people with Type 1 diabetes, which is the group with which we normally associate rapid-onset dissociative hypoglycemia. While this sort of hypoglycemia is certainly most common in Type 1 diabetes, it is occasionally seen in insulin-dependent Type 2. Most of the time, these lows would seem to be related to insulin activity peaking early or late -- or at least not in synch with one's food and drink.

 

Unfortunately, insulin is not always the culprit.

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A man is not dead until he is forgotten. -- African proverb

 

Saturday night, the vice-president of our Friends of Faire group delivered a well-worded "toast to the immortal memory", in which he named Robert Burns "the Bard of Scotland"  in the way that Shakespeare is "the Bard of England" (not to mention most of the rest of the English-speaking world!). As our festivities were dedicated to a member who had recently and unexpectedly died, her life was also celebrated in this toast, and her passing, mourned.

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"Pot luck" has been on my mind as my Friends of Faire group prepares for its annual Burns Night, and with it, the close of the winter holiday season.

 

While most of the United States population assumes that "the holiday season" starts with Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and lasts until New Year's Day (or if New Year's is on a Sunday, January 2nd), for some of us the season may begin as early as Samhain (Hallowe'en), or last until Epiphany, Eastern Orthodox Epiphany, Imbolc (Groundhog Day)... or Burns Night.

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It's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just because I don't have to take a pill to control my Type 2 diabetes, I'm "cured". After all, that's what so many people in my condition were told, so many times, over the past half-century. Some are still told that today. And given that most of the time, my blood glucose levels stay between 85 and 120, with the occasional high postprandial excursion (which occasionally -- like, when I'm low and having dinner at a restaurant -- will lead to a high fasting reading the next morning), there's nothing to alarm the unsuspecting practitioner that back in 2002, at fifty pounds heavier than I am today, the doctor's meter read 170 mg/dl after a ten-hour fast, with an HbA1c of 7.8. Or in lay terms, "I had diabeetus".

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George Simmons
George SimmonsGeorge Simmons is a father and husband living with type 1 diabetes. A self proclaimed "born again diabetic," George began blogging as a way to meet other people living with diabetes and learn more about managing his disease. (Read More)
Kim Doty
Kim DotyKim is a computer systems administrator for a major food manufacturer and lives in Colorado with her husband, Steve, and their children. She currently battles the bulge and tries to develop an exercise habit to better manage her blood sugars. (Read More)
Our Other Bloggers: Lindsey Guerin, Michelle Kowalski, Brenda Bell, Carey Potash, Julia, Nicole Purcell, Scott Marvel, Kerri Sparling,