November, 2012

I stopped over at Six Until Me and found all the windows boarded up and the rooms were littered with squatters. Tumbleweeds bounced across the yard. "Kerri who?" they said when I asked of her whereabouts.

Things sure have changed since Halle Berry cured diabetes five years ago. The online diabetes community has become a ghost town of inactive blogs and non-updated web sites. Though it's absolutely amazing to have a cure, the blogosphere frankly doesn't know what do with itself. Some have just vanished, never to be seen again. Some are still out there, staring vacuously at Google search screens, not knowing where to go, like long-time prisoners released back into society. Others have had a harder time moving on and have resurfaced under new management.

Carey Potash, who once wrote a blog called Up High, Down Low about his son with diabetes, now peddles a porn site called Up Thigh, Down Slow. Yearly subscriptions start at $19.99.

"I'm not at all surprised that Carey turned to porn," said Shannon of Mom Wants a Cure (previously Mom Wants a Diabetes Cure), an instructional food preparation blog devoted to the practice of curing meats, fish and vegetables. She also now offers a one-stop shop for salt-preserved foods such as anchovy, prosciutto and pickled beets to name a few.

Penny, who once wrote a blog called My Son Has Diabetes has also had a difficult time adjusting since the infamous "Berry Cure." She gets her fix by writing her new blog, My Son Has Freckles, a daily photo gallery and review of her son's freckles. "If you look close enough, this one looks like a fire hydrant," she says in the latest installment.

Though some struggled, others seized the opportunity.

Rub Eyes When Needed became the number one online retailer of conjunctivitis antibiotics in Winnipeg.

Lemonade Life, a blogumentary of a woman who sustains herself on only lemonade for one whole day is getting a tremendous amount of buzz.

Me? I haven't fully recovered. I don't miss diabetes, but I sure miss writing about it. Lately I spend my nights reminiscing with other diabetes expatriates as we toast the five-year anniversary of the cure with whiskey and beer at what has now become our favorite virtual pub, Shot in the Dark.