The Diabetes Talkfest Blog

Today: My d-versary

WDD post # 2: My Dad is Awesome!

I went to work today and when I came home my dad made the house look like this!

HAPPY WORLD DIABETES DAY EVERYONE!

World Diabetes Day 08 — New Grassroots Project

Today, the diabetes community is rallying for World Diabetes Day (WDD). We are Lighting up buildings, houses, and even National Landmarks in blue to create Diabetes Awareness. Today is the day the whole world comes together to unite for diabetes.

I am happy that we all are coming together to fight for awareness. But, saddened by what I see in the world around us. On my way to work everyday I walk through Grand Central Station and everyday see a bunch of people sitting on the benches. They look like you and I, except they are homeless. As every day passes I wonder, How many of them have diabetes? How many of them are close to dying because of their situation at hand? This is happening all over the United States, and also all around the World.

We as americans can do better than this. How can we all still lend a hand to those in need even as our economy is in crisis. We need to help our children and adults with Type 1 diabetes all over the world.

This past July ‘08, I started the CGM Anti-Denial Petition for people that have been continuously denied by insurance companies for Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems. The goal was to get at least 2000 signatures by World Diabetes Day.

Here we are on World Diabetes Day I am happy to announce that we have 2,430 signatures we surpassed our goal! I am working with the JDRF to get the petition in the right hands. I will let you all know the progress on that in the coming weeks. This turned out to be an incredible success, and for this I am grateful for each and every signature.

Please note: that I will not be ending the CGM-Anti Denial Campaign, I urge you all to keep sending the petition link to everyone you know to get insurance to mandate this. You can also join the CGM-Anti Denial Website for updates.

New Grassroots Project
This November for World Diabetes Day 2008, I would like the community to come together to start an ongoing grassroots project to help Diabetic Rockstar’s Non-Profit — Fight It!, a charity dedicated to uninsured, financially struggling and newly diagnosed diabetics.

Do you need financial help?
If you need help there is a Request Aid button on the website where someone will contact you personally from Fight and will review it on a case-by-case basis.

What can YOU do?
All i’m asking for you to do is try and donate one bottle of strips, lancets, a poking device, or meter. We all have extra supplies we don’t use. (Please nothing expired)  Why not help a person in need? They also have a donate button on their website if you wish to monetarily donate.

No man, woman or child should die of diabetes. Let’s help anyway we can!

Contact information for sending supplies to Fight It
Diabetic Rockstar
PO Box 20503
New York, NY 10021

For more information on how to help Diabetic Rockstar go to www.diabeticrockstar.com

Special Invitation for Young Adults with Type 1

I am really happy to announce that I have recently joined the JDRF to help launch a new social network called Juvenation.org. I came on board as the site leader and moderator. So please behave! Just Kidding, I know you will! (I think?) Juvenation.org is the first-ever online destination geared toward Young Adults with Type 1 diabetes. That is what makes it so special. I know there are a lot of social sites out there already but this is going to be a niche.

This is an exclusive invitation for all of you D-Bloggers to come and check out the beta version of Juvenation.org

So please join me at  juvenation.org and sign up for  one of our  many groups tailored to your interests. If you can’t find a group that you want? Create your own! Participate in the discussion and help us build this community through groups, blogs, video and more!

Please note: Juvenation.org is not open to the general public just yet, and the team that is building the site is working hard and will be making changes and updates over the next couple of weeks. So if you come across an occasional bug, just know that they’re still working on it, and you can post any bugs in the group called SITE BUGS (http://juvenation.org/groups/site_bugs/default.aspx) and they will take care of it for you.

Thanks everyone!

I hope to see you soon at Juvenation.org.

PS. I created the invite above!

Happy D-Blog Day!

I had an emotional roller coaster of a diabetes year.

I  took over The Diabetes OC in July and had some amazing scheduled chats in the DTF Chat room. I was asked to start blogging over at MyDiabetesCentral.

Last winter, I tried to get a CGM and continually got denied for it.  After hearing tons of denial stories I decided, Hey! we can do something about this. Why should we all have to sit back and just keep getting denied? So, I started the CGM Anti-Denial Petition that will be sent to all major health insurance medical directors in November 2008. It was acknowledged by Minimed, JDRF, and all major diabetes social  networks, Tudiabetes, Diabetes Daily, Children with Diabetes just to name a few. We all came together as a community to help fight. I finally was approved two weeks ago.

I then saw more happenings of community involvement between Tudiabetes and Diabetes Daily trying to get a Diabetes Doodle on google, and Diabetic Rockstar fighting to help people get diabetes supplies, we also saw the parents of Children with Diabetes raise their voices to get a Hannah Montana episode pulled. And the community at Islet.org started an email campaign that went around to help the researchers at  Living Cell Technologies get New Zealand  to agree to allow human clinical trials of Xenotransplantation which is a huge milestone in diabetes research.

We also came together offline/real-time lol to meet at the DRI Update in New York City…

Fran Carpentier,  Amy Tenderich, Allison Blass, Scott Strumello, Bernard Farrell,Kelly Kunik, Lee Ann Thill, Karen (forgot her last name) The Self Taught Knitter,  Val Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Low 

...and at the JDRF Promise Ball at the Waldorf Astoria.

Fran Carpentier, Kerri Morrone, Gina Capone

Kerri Morrone, Gina Capone,  Allison Blass

This year was a special one. Our voices are getting louder as our community continues to grow.

We stand together, We stand proud. 

It has been an honor to be a part of community that makes things happen.