September 25th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Humor, Opinion, Research, True Stories
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At TCOYD [Taking Control Of Your Diabetes], one of the sessions I attended was about Diabetes Police (Healthcare Providers) and Diabetes Criminals (People With Diabetes). And I was a little taken aback by the title of the session, but we used it to our advantage when we walked into the session a few minutes after it had already started.
“Okay, we see a few late stragglers in here. It’s not like they had to be on time or anything,” Dr. Edelman quipped from the front of the room, giving us a smirk.
“I’m sorry we’re late. But what do you expect? We’re the criminals, man!” I shot back at him. And the crew of us “criminals” took up the last few rows, our smartphones at the ready to Tweet out the best of the session. (We were the total nerd row.
The charismatic team of Dr. Bill Polansky and Dr. Steve Edelman were running this session, and it was packed with both PWDs [people with diabetes], caregivers, and medical professionals. Bill and Steve took to the white board, asking first for complaints that PWDs have about healthcare providers. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
November 10th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Humor
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Dear Pancreas,
I’m not sure what the hell happened to you, but you’ve taken it upon yourself to stop working. You did have that job for about six years, where you got up early every day and produced my insulin, but apparently that was too much for you. You were laid off or fired or something. Don’t blame it on that virus again. I think you just slept through the alarm and were let go and you just don’t want to admit it.
All you do is sit around, hiding out behind my stomach, reading smut novels and watching reruns of The Facts of Life. Sure, you push out the occasional juices and you can sound important when you talk about “trypsinogen” and “chymotrypsinogen,” but you and I both know that you don’t do much. It’s not even like you empty the dishwasher or anything. The least you could do, after I’ve been testing blood sugar levels and bolusing all day long, is have dinner on the table when I come home. Is that too much to ask? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
October 24th, 2009 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, True Stories
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Do you know how hard it was to not tell you guys I am pregnant? Sitting on that information for three months was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done. There were SO MANY questions I wanted to ask, and so many stories I wanted to share, but I knew it was best to keep my mouth shut until we were past a certain point. And it is still early in our pregnancy, all things considered, so I shared our news with hopeful optimism and in hopes of some positive thoughts being sent our way.
And holy crap do you guys deliver. I’ve read every comment on the Dear Baby post, even though I’ve had to take breaks to grab tissues because you made me tear up quite a bit. My husband, my mom, and my mother-in-law are reading the comments, too. And they say thanks for the support as well. 🙂
So now you know. And now I can talk about what the past three months have been like. (Video to come this afternoon.) Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
January 16th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Friday Funny, Humor
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Thanks for the many entries in Better Health’s first cartoon caption contest. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted some of them several days after they’d been submitted (I was too aggressive with my anti-spam efforts). But they were all included in the contest. Our judges really struggled with choosing a winner… so they narrowed it to 2 and made them both winners!
Would you agree that it’s a toss up? Both authors will receive a Better Health t-shirt. I hope it makes them as happy as this guy. Thanks for participating!
Winner #1: Kerri Morrone Sparling “Please sign here and here and then I can write about you on my blog.”
Winner #2: Rob Falconer “Yes, we do normally weigh patients naked, Miss Saggar, but I think we’ll make an exception in your case.”
And just for a bit of trivia – the artist’s (Dr. Val’s) original caption read: “Mrs. Chen’s medical questionnaire was unremarkable except for her fine print at the end of page 3: ‘allergic to geodon.'”
January 9th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs, Medical Art
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My friend and fellow blogger Kerri Morrone Sparling has created a photo montage (one photo taken each day for 365 consecutive days) of her life with diabetes. It is a fascinating pictorial experience that somehow captures the reality of the disease – and living life to the fullest despite daily blood sugar monitoring.
Please take the time to experience it here.
