FREE Diabetic Meter

Get your FREE Diabetic Meter

Qualify to receive a Diabetic meter in the color of your choice, and meal planning tools such as our recipe book, meal planner, blood sugar tracker, and more. Yours at no cost when you qualify. 

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Freebies for Diabetics

Do you have diabetes or know someone that does? Here's a list of FREEBIES just for you! One day we will have a cure!!!

• Diabetes Clinical Study
• dLife - Free Diabetic eCookBook
• Free Diabetic Meter
• Free Diabetic Recipe Book for Diabetics
• FREE 28-Day Diabetic Meal Plan
• FREE Diabetic BBQ Recipe Cookbook
• FREE Diabetic Sweets and Treats Recipe

FREEBIES for Diabetics

Do you have diabetes or know someone that does? Here's a list of FREEBIES just for you! One day we will have a cure!!!

• Diabetes Clinical Study
• dLife - Free Diabetic eCookBook
• Free Diabetic Meter
• Free Diabetic Recipe Book for Diabetics
• FREE 28-Day Diabetic Meal Plan
• FREE Diabetic BBQ Recipe Cookbook
• FREE Diabetic Sweets and Treats Recipe

BIG List of FREEBIES for Diabetics

Do you have diabetes or know someone that does? Here's a list of FREEBIES just for you! One day we will have a cure!!!

• Diabetes Clinical Study
• dLife - Free Diabetic eCookBook
• Free Diabetic Meter
• Free Diabetic Recipe Book for Diabetics
• FREE 28-Day Diabetic Meal Plan
• FREE Diabetic BBQ Recipe Cookbook
• FREE Diabetic Sweets and Treats Recipe

BIG List of FREEBIES for Diabetics

Do you have diabetes or know someone that does? Here's a list of FREEBIES just for you! One day we will have a cure!!!

• Diabetes Clinical Study
• dLife - Free Diabetic eCookBook
• Free Diabetic Meter
• Free Diabetic Recipe Book for Diabetics
• FREE 28-Day Diabetic Meal Plan
• FREE Diabetic BBQ Recipe Cookbook
• FREE Diabetic Sweets and Treats Recipe

FREE Diabetic Meter

FREE Diabetic Meter!! Qualify to receive a Diabetic meter in the color of your choice, and meal planning tools such as our recipe book, meal planner, blood sugar tracker, and more. Yours at no cost when you qualify.

Diabetes Clinical Research Study - Enrolling Now

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Diabetes clinical research study enrolling now. The online screening questionnaire helps determine your eligibility to participate in a clinical research study.
Depending on if you qualify for a study, you may receive: 
• Compensation up to $1,000
• Free study-related diabetes medication, and in some cases, FDA-approved medication
• Free, confidential care from a local doctor who specializes in diabetes
• Diet and exercise counseling
 

Looking for people in the following states: MA,RI,NJ,NY,DE,PA,VA,WV,TN,IA,MN,WI,SD,KS,MO,CO,WY,ID,UT,WA,CA,AR,OK,TX,IN,IL,NC 

CVS: FREE One Touch Ultra Mini Meter

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Have you gotten your FREE One Touch Ultra Mini Meter yet at CVS this week? Even if you don't need this, you may know someone that does or it's a GREAT donation item!!

-One Touch Ultra Mini blood glucose monitor $9.99 

Use $10/1 One Touch meter SS 01/08

Final Price: FREE

Diabetes clinical research study enrolling now

Diabetes clinical research study enrolling now. The online screening questionnaire helps determine your eligibility to participate in a clinical research study.
Depending on if you qualify for a study, you may receive: 

• Compensation up to $1,000

• Free study-related diabetes medication, and in some cases, FDA-approved medication

• Free, confidential care from a local doctor who specializes in diabetes

• Diet and exercise counseling

Click here to see if you may qualify. 
A lead is a subject that successfully passes the screening process and agrees to be contacted. 
Looking for people in the following states: MA,RI,NJ,NY,DE,PA,VA,WV,TN,IA,MN,WI,SD,KS,MO,CO,WY,ID,UT,WA,CA,AR,OK,TX,IN,IL,NC 

Diabetes Daily Dose: Thanksgiving Tips

We're days away from Thanksgiving, a time to spend with family, giving thanks, and tons of food!!! 

For diabetics(or parents of) the holidays can be a more stressful time because there is so much food and so many places to go. In other words blood sugars run higher than normal. Your eating at several different families homes, the timing of eating is more than likely going to off from your normal eating habits. So here are a few tips to keep your sugar in check and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

General Tips

Think about the timing of your meal. Many families eat large meals at odd times on holidays. For example, Thanksgiving dinner may be served in the middle of the afternoon. Plan in advance for how you will handle making changes if your meal does not line up with your regular meal schedule.

If you take insulin injections or a pill that lowers blood glucose, you may need to have a snack at your normal meal time to prevent a low blood glucose reaction. Check with your health care team about this.

Be physically active! The best way to compensate for eating a little more than usual is to be active. Start a new tradition that involves moving around away from the food. Ideas include taking a walk with the whole family or playing Frisbee, soccer, or touch football with your children, grandchildren, or the neighborhood kids.

Have foods to nibble on while you are cooking or waiting to eat. Make sure the foods you choose won't sabotage blood glucose levels before the meal. Bring a platter of raw or blanched veggies with your favorite low-calorie dip or have a few small pieces of low-fat cheese. Don’t indulge on high-calorie or fried appetizers.

Make selective food choices. Many traditional Thanksgiving foods are high in carbohydrates: mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and other desserts. Don't feel like you have to sample everything on the table.

Have a reasonable portion of your favorites and pass on the rest. For example, if stuffing is your favorite, pass on rolls. Choose either sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes. If you really want to try everything, make your portions smaller.

Eat smaller portions. Because high carbohydrate foods are plentiful at most Thanksgiving feasts, watch your portion sizes. If you can't decide on one or two carbohydrate foods to eat, take very small portions or "samples" of several dishes.

Overall, try to keep your total carbohydrate intake like a regular day.

Thanks to American Diabetes Association for these wonderful tips

Diabetes Daily Dose: Siblings

How siblings deal with Diabetes. 

It's obvious that diabetes is hard for the child that has it, but how do the siblings involved take it?

 When my daughter was first diagnosed with diabetes I never once thought it would affect my other children. One day about two weeks after the diagnosis my oldest daughter said "Your paying more attention to Hailey than you are me"! (Keep in mind at the time my children were only 3,7 and 9). Oh did that ever break my heart into a million pieces. I felt like a horrible mother, a failure! I hadn't realized how much time was being spent towards learning the ropes of diabetes and caring for Hailey. I didn't have a clue how to respond, I was froze, lost for words because NEVER had she announced to me that pretty much I was favoring one kid over the other. Thankfully Chad stepped up and told Katelyn, "Yes we have paid a little more attention to Hailey, not that we were intentionally trying to leave you out or make you feel that way". He also went on to tell her that all of this was new to all of us and we were adjusting as time went on. We reassured her that we would balance things out to were she wouldn't feel this way anymore. 

Not that we were totally ignoring our other kids but it was at first Hailey this or Hailey has to do this for her diabetes, so on and so on. So to involve the other kids a little more we started asking for their help. We'd ask Katelyn if she could figure up the amount of insulin Hailey needed based on the carbs she ate. Not only did this involve her more it helped her math skills as well. Now not every time we asked did she want to do this but it raised her confidence up and gave her the choice. As for Chase well at three he hadn't quite mastered all math skills so we did things a little different with him. Hailey use to like to hold her bear Rufus (the bear with Diabetes) while we gave her a shot. So we would ask Chase to go get the bear for her, he use to say  "I'll go get Rufus Hailey so your shot won't hurt". Cutest thing around!! Other things we would try with him is if Hailey was ok with it he would sit very quietly and watch her take a shot.

There are a ton of different things we did with the kids. We'd take a kid at a time and kinda make it their day, or play a board game with just them, stuff like that. Something to say hey even though things have changed a little YOU ARE still important and YOU ARE still very much loved!

Two years has passed since that time and things have settled down and the kids have gotten older and used to Hailey having Diabetes. Katelyn is now Hailey's "2nd Mother" she watches out for her like a hawk. She's always asking what her sugar was or telling Hailey you need to check your sugar before we eat. She meets Hailey every afternoon at the Nurse's office and walks with her to the school pick up line. Hailey may not like it to much right now but she'll appreciate it when she grows up. As for Chase - which is 5 now, isn't to much concerned with it as long as Hailey plays with him! :-) He's learned not to play to rough with her now since she has a pump. My favorite thing that Chase does - he doesn't call it her Diabetes he calls it her SUGAR! 

Here's Haileys Rufus and Rufus Junior. If you'd like to receive Rufus and a "Bag of Hope" for free please visit JDRF 

Diabetes Daily Dose: Understanding

Today I wanted to get a little more personal with this post. I know some of you who are following my Diabetes Daily Dose post are parents to T1 children, and more than likely you have other children in the house as well. I want to talk more about either what the child is feeling or the sibling of the T1 is,has or may feel and of course how us the moms feels.

When Hailey was first diagnosed we were all a little scatter brained to say the least for probably a month or longer. If you've never dealt with Diabetes you really just don't know how to deal with it at first. Taking so much knowledge in at once and fearing on a daily basis that you might forget to do this one step, and if you forget what will happen. In the beginning I think that was my worst fear, "What if I forget her shot"? And when her sugar was higher than suppose to be I was telling myself how bad of a mother I was.

Even though it's hard on us parents of course I think it's hardest on the child, especially when the child is so young.  Hailey as I've mentioned was diagnosed at 7 years old.  It took us a week or more to get Hailey back into school. She would go and an hour later she would call for us to pick her up. She felt different, she felt out of place. Nothing breaks a mothers heart more than her child to feel different than other kids. After much consoling, long talks and her own will power she was back to school. Hailey is a VERY independent person and she wasn't going to let it get her down. 

Hailey understands now that she has to check her sugar before she can eat the cupcakes someone brought to her school classroom, or before and after each classroom party. She has to check it before and after lunch, P.E, recess, etc. Just because she understands these things doesn't mean it isn't HARD on her, that she LIKES it or WANTS to do it. I think we take for granted that our child goes to school, eats, plays with no interruption into the daily routine. I know before she was diagnosed I did. She can NEVER just decide to sit down and eat a piece of cake like I can without first having to check her sugar and then after take insulin to cover it. She can NEVER just run out on the ball field with her teammates like they can without first checking her sugar, removing her pump(her choice). She gets woken up in the middle of the night because I checked her sugar and it was low so she must eat something right then! Some nights she never gets a full good nights rest!

My advice today is never take for granted the small steps in your life, steps so small you probably don't even realize you take them. 

Diabetes Daily Dose: Newly Discovered Blood Test May Help Identify Type 1 Diabetes Before Symptoms Appear??

Today's Diabetes Daily Dose is a look into what research is going into finding a cure.

As new cases of type 1 diabetes (T1D) increase worldwide, JDRF has continued to focus on preventing T1D in those at risk.  By the time symptoms of T1D appear, however, the destruction of insulin producing beta cells may have already been occurring for some time.  In order to effectively prevent the disease, researchers first need to understand when and how T1D begins, even before symptoms appear.  They also need a way to determine whether potential interventions to prevent T1D are working properly.

Researchers involved in a study at Yale University, funded by JDRF and the Lilly Foundation, have announced a breakthrough that may, for the first time, help identify the beginnings of T1D and test new treatments to prevent the disease.  In new findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the research team, led by Dr. Kevan Herold, reports the discovery of a new blood test that may be able to detect the loss of pancreatic beta cells in those at risk of developing T1D prior to disease diagnosis.

In this study conducted in mice, the researchers developed a non-invasive method to detect beta cell loss by looking for the appearance of DNA released by dying beta cells into the blood.  Specifically, they looked for the portion of DNA containing the insulin gene, which they distinguished from DNA released by sources other than dying beta cells.   When they used this test to analyze the blood of mice as they developed diabetes, the researchers found that they could detect the beta cell insulin DNA as soon as beta cells began to die, even before blood sugar began to rise and the mice developed symptoms of diabetes. Initial data using human blood samples demonstrated that the same type of test may detect beta cell loss in people with recent-onset type 1 diabetes before symptoms begin to appear.

These promising results suggest that one day this test could be used to monitor beta cell loss in individuals at risk for and in the early stages of type 1 diabetes, although more work will be required to develop a test that can be used in a physician’s office.   In addition to diagnosing and monitoring T1D, this method could help test new drugs aimed at protecting beta cells and preventing T1D’s onset.

Methods to detect beta cell loss, such as the one discovered by Dr. Herald’s team, are critical, according to Dr. Andrew Rakeman, Senior Scientific Program Manager at JDRF.  “Dr. Herold’s work has the potential to develop a tool that will not only allow us to better understand the fate of beta cells in type 1 diabetes,” explains Dr. Rakeman.  “It will also help guide the development of clinical trials aimed at protecting or preserving beta cells in T1D by allowing us to select the most appropriate patient population and providing a marker for whether the therapy is working.”

To read more visit JDRF

Diabetes Daily Dose: Stories from Fans

Today's Diabetes Daily Dose I wanted to share a couple of short stories from my fans.

Sabrina S. Story:

I have a six year old niece who has lived with diabetes since she was three. It has been three long and hard years. But that little girl is still full of life. She hasn't let this stop her. She is my hero for if this tiny baby can go through so much, I feel as if i can do anything. My family and I have had a hard three years. But her smile makes it worth the fight. Diabetes has not slowed her down. She is a wonderful and bright child and with live her life to the fullest. 
Thanks for letting me share Sabrina

This story comes from Sue Ann

I have a story of diabetes, however it is not a very happy story.

My brother was diagnosed when he was 4 years old...He passed away when he was 20.

He was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, he was the first person in our state to have laser beam treatment to his eyes. He was legally blind in the right eye and partially blinded in the left eye. He was waiting for a kidney transplant and family members were being tested, however he developed a bleeding ulcer and was started on dialysis shortly there after. He was admitted to the hospital on December 23 and passed away March 7.

That was 33 years ago and I am so grateful that they have had so much advancement in the treatment of diabetes.

My thoughts, prayers go out to you and your daughter. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for letting me tell my story.

Sue Ann 

**I want to thank you both for sharing your story with us. Watching someone suffer with Diabetes is the hardest thing. You wish you could take it all away for them, but the only thing you can do is give them all the support and love you can. Have hope that a cure will be found SOON! Stay strong even though you want to cry! Never stop praying!

Thank you again ladies for sharing your stories with everyone. 

Diabetes Daily Dose: Diabetic Recipes

Today I wanted to share some Diabetic Recipes thanks to Mayo Clinic. And if you have any recipes yourself feel free to share them with us. Remember T1's CAN EAT SUGAR but just like anyone else it's healthier to take it in small doses.

Apples with Dip

Serves 4

Ingredients

8 ounces fat-free cream cheese
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
1/2 cup orange juice
4 apples, cored and sliced

Directions

Place the cream cheese on the counter to allow it to soften, about 5 minutes.

To make the dip, combine the brown sugar, vanilla and cream cheese in a small bowl. Mix until smooth. Stir in the chopped peanuts.

Place the apples in another bowl. Drizzle orange juice over the apples to prevent browning. Serve the sliced apples with the dip.

Nutritional Analysis

 (per serving)

Calories	177	Cholesterol	4 mg
Protein	10 g	Sodium	326 mg
Carbohydrate	28 g	Fiber	4 g
Total fat	3 g	Potassium	305 mg
Saturated fat	1 g	Calcium	121 mg
Monounsaturated fat	1 g

Diabetes Daily Dose: Resources

For today's Diabetes Daily Dose I wanted to share a couple of resources that are very helpful for those interested. I'd also like to thank some of my blogger friends for pointing these out to me, Mommy Coupon Swappers and Spend with Pennies, and taking the time to share with us.

dLife is a dedicated online resource were you can find all kinds of information, get freebies and chat with others like yourself! 

If you sign up for their FREE membership you will also get a FREE Diabetes eCookbook

Diabetic Connect is also a great resource site for information to freebies to supplies. They also are offering a FREE Diabetes Cookbook when you sign up.

Head on over to Bayer Diabetes Care and answer a few short questions to receive your FREE Contour Meter!!

I'm loving the CVS Minute Clinic deal they have going on, to bad we don't have one in my area. Get a FREE diabetic organizer ($9.99 value) with a diabetes monitoring visit. Service includes A1c test, foot exam, kidney function test and more!! These are all things that diabetics need to check yearly so why not get it them all checked and get a FREE gift!!??

Diabetes Daily Dose: Diabetes Videos You May Enjoy

Today is Friday which means we all should be wearing our blue to support Diabetes. Today I wanted to share some videos with you guys that I found and I really liked. 

I love this video and I love all her Diabetes video's. You can find her YouTube page HERE

Wearing Blue Fridays to support Diabetes

Nick Jonas if you guys didn't know also has Diabetes. Hailey of course being 9 really loves the Jonas Brothers but being able to relate to Nick really shows her she can do anything. 

Diabetes Daily Dose: Ashley from Fashionably Sweet

Today's Diabetes Daily Dose comes from Ashley over at Fashionably Sweet. I just accidently ran across her blog one day and I love her writing. It's so real and honest. 

Here's Ashley's story:

My name is Ashley.  I’m 23 years old, a 2009 graduate of Texas Tech University, and have been married to a wonderful man for almost two years now.  In late January or early February, we’ll be welcoming our first child (a girl!) into the world, and couldn’t be more excited.  All of this describes who I am, but there is one more thing that factors into my life in a big way: type 1 diabetes.  I was diagnosed last August on my seven month wedding “anniversary”, and my life changed dramatically in that instant.  I never dreamed that diabetes was something I’d have to deal with firsthand.  Even though my younger sister was diagnosed at 16 with type 1 (in DKA) and my dad a few years ago with type 2, diabetes was something that happened to “other people” in my mind.

Because of my family history, however, I was at least familiar with the symptoms of the disease…So when I started having to get up a million times a night to go to the bathroom (then drink more water, then go to the bathroom again), and was extremely exhausted all the time, I knew deep down what was going on--even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself at first.  I borrowed my dad’s meter one weekend and started testing my blood sugar, and was shocked when I was getting numbers like 247 after a meal.  After that, I couldn’t deny what was going on anymore.  Even though my mom kept telling me (hoping) that maybe it was something else, I knew.  She went to the doctor with me on Monday since I didn’t want my husband to miss work in case it was nothing, but so I would have some emotional support if something was going on.  When the doctor came back with the news, though, she was the one that started crying…She said she just didn’t want another of her kids to have to deal with this disease. 

The first few weeks were just as rough for me…I’d go through periods of acceptance followed by the predictable “why me?”’s; I’d be optimistic one moment and in tears the next thinking about what my life was going to be like from now on.  The thing that bothered me most was worrying how this disease would affect my ability to have children (since my only point of reference for diabetes and pregnancy at the time was “Steel Magnolias”), as well as our future.  We had always planned for me to stay at home with the kids once we started our family, but I knew that that would no longer be possible, because there was no way we could manage without insurance—and my husband’s job doesn’t provide any, which meant that I would be forced to continue working full time after we had kids.  Over a year later, that’s the thing that hurts me the most about this disease…not only do you have to live with a chronic illness and all it entails, which is challenging enough; but you also have to pay for it, very literally. My supplies cost us about $250/month out of pocket with insurance (not including premiums), but would be more than twice as much without it…not to mention doctor’s visits and other medical expenses.

Originally I was diagnosed as type 2, and started to manage the disease with diet and exercise.  As time went on, however, my blood sugars kept rising despite my efforts to keep them under control.  My endocrinologist put me on an oral medication that helped for a while, but it wasn’t long before my numbers started creeping up again.  He did more testing and discovered that I was a slow-onset type 1 rather than type 2—something that came as no surprise to my Diabetes Educator and others in the field that I’d talked to, since I never fit the “typical” profile for a type 2 (I was young, normal weight, etc.).  After that, I told my endo that I wanted to start on insulin right away, even though he was content to keep me on the oral meds and see what happened.  I knew that I needed to get my numbers into the normal range to prepare for pregnancy, and that insulin was the only way I’d get that level of control.  Soon after that, I got my insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor, and the rest is history.  Because I caught my diabetes early on and likely still had some level of pancreatic function, managing the disease with insulin brought my numbers down very quickly.  Four months after I started, I brought my A1c down from 6.5% to 5.7%--well within the normal person’s normal range of 4.0-6.0%, which is the recommended level prior to conception.  Shortly thereafter, I found out that I was expecting, and it made all of my hard work worth it.

Of course, since I have type 1 diabetes, I’m automatically labeled “high risk”; however, I made a point to find an obstetrician who was willing to look past the disease and treat me as an individual patient.  I knew way before I got pregnant that I would never get along with a doctor who refused to budge from the blanket policies and procedures for “diabetic” pregnant women just because I feel strongly that if I’m able to keep my blood sugar averages in the normal range, I should be treated like a normal person.  I’m not saying that I don’t understand or reject the proper precautions involved in a high risk pregnancy; I simply wanted a doctor who realized that just as all women are different, so are all people with diabetes.  Therefore, I see no reason why I should be held under the same standards as someone whose disease is uncontrolled, and vice versa.  I was grateful to find a doctor who recognized my efforts and reassured me that as long as I continued along the path I’d started, I should have a relatively normal and easy pregnancy with a healthy baby in the end.  He always reminds me of what could happen, but I also know that he is confident in my ability to manage this disease in a way that will allow me to have the lowest potential level of risk.  Last month I saw my endocrinologist again, and this time my A1c was 4.9%--something that I definitely didn’t expect given the crazy numbers and insulin changes I’d been dealing with.  My OB was so happy with that number that he said he’d give me a sticker if he had one!

Looking back on the past year and all I’ve dealt with, I see my diabetes in a completely different light than I did in the beginning.  Yes, it is an incredibly challenging (and sometimes maddening) disease to live with, but it’s definitely manageable with hard work and determination.  It does take a lot of work to keep everything in balance, and an insane level of determination is sometimes required to make sure it doesn’t completely take over your life.  Some days, I don’t want to deal with diabetes.  I’d rather just eat without having the “carb content staring contest” with my food, playing the insulin dosage guessing game (because yes, there is a mathematical formula for it, but as we all know, life doesn’t follow formulas well), and wondering what number my decisions are going to lead to in a couple of hours.  I would rather be able to enjoy my pregnancy without worrying how my body is affecting my baby, even with my near-superhuman efforts to keep this disease under control.  Some days, I would rather just be a normal person with a working pancreas.  But, as my husband sometimes has to remind me, I don’t have that option—so I just have to do it.  And even though I don’t want to, I always do…because I refuse to give in to diabetes.  It’s challenging every day in different ways, but dealing with all of this has also made me a stronger person.  When you have to face one of your biggest fears, I’ve discovered that you find a strength deep within yourself that you never knew existed, mostly because when you have a chronic illness, being strong is the only choice you have…otherwise, the disease wins.  One thing I am quick to admit, though, is that even on the best day I don’t claim to have conquered my diabetes, because just as you think you have things under control, this disease throws you for a loop again…I just refuse to ever give it the opportunity to conquer me!

Some good has come from all of this also.  Not only was I able to lose 10-15 lbs after I was diagnosed (pre-pregnancy), I also became motivated to make a permanent choice to eat healthier (most of the time) and exercise on a consistent basis.  I even started running several months ago, a fact that would shock my junior high and high school coaches!  Aside from my own health benefits, though, having diabetes has also led me to an awesome thing that has happened in my life recently, which is being asked to be a board member for the local branch of the JDRF.  After I was diagnosed, I wished that I could become a CDE in order to help people around my small town manage their diabetes; however, I knew that would probably not be possible because you have to have been a nurse/doctor/psychologist/dietician/etc. for two years before you can apply to become a CDE…and I’m a CAD drawing technician by trade, Anthropology major and Psychology minor by degree!  Being a JDRF board member will allow me to help educate and raise awareness and funds for diabetes while still keeping my “day job,” something I never imagined would be possible.  I’m so incredibly thankful for the opportunity, and look forward to working with such an incredible organization and a cause that is so dear and near to my heart.

In closing, my advice to someone dealing with diabetes (of any kind) is this:  Be your own advocate.  You know yourself and your body better than anyone else.  Learn as much as you can, because knowledge is truly power with this disease.  Allow yourself to feel and deal with any emotions you have, positive and negative—don’t hold them in.  If you need help managing your disease, get it!  My CDE has been a lifesaver and an incredible resource, and I don’t know what I’d do without her.  Speaking of information, always be careful about believing things you hear or read about managing diabetes—especially when the words “reverse” and “cure” and/or money are involved…There are plenty of people who will take advantage of your hope, but their “solutions” are useless at best and dangerous at worst.  There will be plenty of days when you don’t want to deal with diabetes, but do it anyway.  Find a goal or focus that gives you the motivation to manage this disease on the days that are the toughest—mine has always been my future children, and they’re what keep me pushing myself ahead.  Have a center that you can always rely on—yours may be a spouse, relative, or friend, but mine is my faith.  As much as I hate diabetes, I know that it somehow fits into God’s plan for me, and that helps me more than anything on the days when things seem so out of control.  Even when you feel overwhelmed, refuse to give in to diabetes…Yes, it’s tough, but you CAN do it!

Fashionably Sweet