As an informed person with diabetes and an active member of several online diabetes communities, it's important for me to "get out into the real world" and make connections with other people with diabetes and with people and associations whose purpose is to support us medically, psychologically, and socially. In addition to real-life meet-ups with members of my various diabetes online networks, I go to health fairs and community events to make contact, inquire about the state of diabetes-care support and diabetes advocacy programs, and have even given a presentation about how diabetes online communities positively effect the lives and health levels of people living with all types of diabetes. 

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With all the blood that diabetes care involves, it's no wonder the "vampire" image keeps coming into play. A former T2 co-worker referred to going for blood work as "seeing the Vampire". Kerri's Diabetes Terms of Endearment list includes the entry, "Vampire cannula". For those who live in fear of (fictional) vampires, every time we prick our fingers to test... has to include the scary thought, "Am I inviting a vampire to bite me?"

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I wrote recently about my first fast. I loved the experience and I hope you decide to look into it for yourself to see if it’s something you’re interested in doing. But now that a few days have past, and I’m back to eating, “normal” again, I wanted to let everyone know how things are going.

Since the fast I have had a few highs, some mild depression (psychological, as well as physiological), but overall some WONDERFUL blood sugars!

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I just finished a fast a few days ago. It was one of the single most awesome things that I have ever done. I’ve been reading a very interesting book lately – it talks in length about many things in life – but one thing that I really wanted to try was a fast.

After I started reading this book, and I began to learn a lot about fasting, I decided to do a bit more research for myself online and by asking friends. I got a lot of mixed reviews. Some people were very anti-fast and some people raved about it. So I dug a little deeper and decided this was something that was going to be a very PERSONAL EXPERIENCE and I figured I would try it out for myself (just like you should do if your ever curious about something).

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I think God has a sick sense of humor. You see, I have this terrible love of sweets. My favorite things are cheesecake, biscuits, cookies, cakes, muffins, and all things carb-filled.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes at age 4, they told me and my family that I couldn't eat any sugar. So my life turned into a sugar-free terror. The cookies and candies were always different than what my brothers ate. I was told when and what to eat in every excruciating detail.

Then we started counting carbs when I was about 11. No more nasty sugar-free foods. I could drink real soda for once. I could eat my own birthday cake. I could eat anything!

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Things have been good these past couple of days. I have been working, working out, and overall my blood sugars seem to be pretty stable. Life is not too bad at the moment. Just as many of you, I have my good and bad days. I wanted to take the chance today to write about the good. Work is, well, work. At times it plays havoc with my sugar and it can be very stressful, but overall I am satisfied. At the end of the day or the end of the work week life gets instantly better. As soon as I walk out the door and I'm on my way to doing something non-work related, the problems I had disappear. Which leads me to my ultimate stress relief time - my workouts.
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