Over the weekend Diane and I where fortunate enough to finally be able to meet Michelle Litchman face to face in the Brookline neighborhood of Boston, MA.  Michelle, and other D movers and shakers, where in town for a diabetes conference and was gracious enough to spent some of her free time with us.

Most of you already know Michelle from her work as the author of the Sweet Advice blog, and as a very active and outstpoken member of the DOC.

Michelle is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Utah, and, as part of her work there, is conducting a very important survey about diabetes.

I wanted to share the survey in hopes that others would be interested in taking part, and helping Michelle to learn more specifics about the disease we battle each and everyday.

Follow this link to take the survey:

http://www.tudiabetes.org/m/discussion?id=583967%3ATopic%3A2784644
or contact Michelle directly with questions:

michelle.litchman@gmail.com

Have a great day everyone!!!

When D-Mommas meet up!

The other day I had a chance to meet up with a fellow D-Momma! We were already facebook friends and she was moving into my area and was able to make a handful of Ohio D-Mommas before she even moved to the state. I tried to think of a place to meet...kept going between a bar (because, truly, I need a stiff drink with this summer I am having) or a restaurant that has killer dessert. Dessert won because I had to drive home and of course I'm always leering of drinking just one too many in case of low blood sugar checks through the night and yada, yada, you all know!! We met at Cheesecake Factory (how could you go wrong there?!?) and you would've thought we've known each other forever!! But meeting other D-Mommas are kinda like that. We had a 50 minute wait...I know, long wait but we talked the entire time and it didn't even seem like 50 minutes. We ordered our meals, desserts and CLOSED the place down. I kid you not! I had my phone out because Nora was at a sleepover and wanted to make sure I was available if she needed me. I happened to look at the clock and couldn't believe it!! What fun!! The nice thing, well, there are several nice things:

1. I got out of the house!!! 

2. We talked about our kids and their diabetes (but only a little bit) 

3. We had a NORMAL conversation!!! 

4. I felt like Jen, the Jen before diabetes took over our life.

For as much as I love to talk about Diabetes, it's nice to just BE. D will ALWAYS be there. But to share a night out with a fellow D-Momma who just gets all of it is truly priceless! So welcome to Ohio, Kristen, I'm so glad we met up and I'm glad to call you my friend! (Next time I may need a DD-designated driver! Funny how DD had different meanings for us in the DOC!!)

What would we ever do without...

TECHNOLOGY!

I'm not even talking about diabetic technology...shocking isn't it!? Can't believe I'm NOT talking about something that doesn't have to do with pumps, CGM's or blood glucose meters. I'm talking about iPod technology! Yea, yea...iPod's are great but let me tell you why I'm super excited today about iPod's.

Nora has this friend of hers who happens to be her age and also has diabetes. I met her lovely mum on a diabetic facebook group. She had posted a pic of her daughter and I knew that our daughter's would be instant friends, diabetic Pen Pals! Oh, and did I mention she lives in Canada and we live in Southern Ohio? No chance for a meet up anytime soon.

So, they traded e-mail address and eventually started iMessaging and then today they had Facetime!! For those who don't know what that is it's like Skype for iPod's. They can have a conversation while looking at each other. Soooo Cool!!! They chatted for what seemed like forever, took a break for dinner and then chatted again!

I'm just amazed (and really I shouldn't be) at how far technology has come and something so simple...the iPod, has turned into something amazing and therapeutic for my daughter. (Now, before someone goes all crazy on me, we have known stipulations on usage and she knows its a privilege NOT a right to use her iPod. We control settings etc and have an open conversation about contacts and whom she is allowed to talk with and whom she isn't. I'm not a perfect parent, nor am I naive but trust has to start somewhere. This is the end of my PSA!)

Back to my excitement!

 Snail mail is great (who doesn't love getting a special card in the mail), e-mails are great too but the fact that my daughter can talk to and see her girlfriend in the same room whose hundreds of miles away is pretty darn cool!! So today D can stick it  because technology wins and D friends can talk, share and be SEEN!!

Facetime!