It's unusual for me to have nightmares — especially nightmares about flying. Mine are usually about family relationships gone completely awry. But facing a World Diabetes Day on which I am working at a place whose uniform does not allow even a touch of blue, having given Nick Jonas my last World Diabetes Day pin (and not having had the money to replenish my stash), and having failed to have the presence of mind to do the Big Blue Test at least once (even though I am bicycling to and from work at least half the time), I feel a bit like a diabetes failure. (READ MORE)

When resources are scarce, it is human nature to try to prioritize and cut back until the situation improves. Usually, these are either short-term or seasonal shortages, giving us some idea of how long we will need to endure -- a sort of "countdown" calendar to work against. When we don't know how long the shortages will last, when necessities such as food, water, and medicine will return, we hunker down into what is called a "siege mentality". The problem with a siege mentality is that it can lead into a downward spiral, with the shortages getting more and more pronounced, until it seems impossible that there will be an outlet or that it will arrive in time... or until the besieged die.

  (READ MORE)

I've been somewhat ambivalent about today's rally surrounding the United Nations Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases. The libertarian "party line" is that the United Nations does little more than abrogate nation-states' sovereignty and forcibly redistribute income from the wealthier nations to the less-wealthy, dampening incentives for innovation and destroying private charity efforts which would otherwise improve the lives of those in need. On the other hand, the prospect of spending time with friends I seldom see in-person is an opportunity not to be missed.

It's a dilemma I'd been wrestling with for a couple of months, and friendship was winning over politics. However, neither friendship nor politics had the choice to decide.

The deciding factor was money.

  (READ MORE)

One more Sunday up bright and early, missing most of the final day of the Tour de France to join the shop ride over at our usual Virginia Beach retailer. I arrived on site with enough time to give a Team Type 1 water bottle and set of team cards a good home with Matt-with-two-"t's", the type 1 rider who wore his 2011 Tour de Cure fundraising jersey last Sunday. It's always good to find swag a good home... and then there was also the surprised-and-very-happy look on Matt's face when I delivered the goods. Then again, several of the regulars thought we were heading home Sunday, rather than today -- so the surprise may have been as much that of me showing up, ready to ride, than anything else.

  (READ MORE)

There has been much heat in the diabetes online community concerning the new Medicaid/Medicare restrictions on paying for blood glucose testing supplies for people with diabetes, including the belief that these limitations will quickly replace current private-insurance coverage policies. We're seeing some of those repercussions here as The Other Half has just been informed that instead of covering testing supplies ad libitum (as many as his doctor writes for, for whichever brand she writes for), they will only cover OneTouch or Accu-Chek strips, to a maximum of 51 strips per month for people with diabetes who do not require injectable insulin, and 204 strips per month for those who do require it. (READ MORE)

When I have checkups with my endo I typically don't have questions. Usually it's more or less an in-and-out-how-are-your-blood-sugars type appointment.

But things are chaning in the world of health insurance and I have tons of questions for my apointment next week. (Which is a follow up from barely two months ago when bloodwork showed that my thyroid had decided to take a vacation. We increased my thyroid meds; bloodwork this Wednesday; actual appointment next week.) I have received three letters in the last month or so from my insurance company telling me that the Novolog I use is now going to be a Tier 3 prescription (i.e, the highest co-pay) and that the number of test strips I can get will now be limited.

  (READ MORE)