A Mile in My Shoes

Sometimes the pieces fall in front of you in a way that shapes your path.

Being a sedentary adult had nothing to do with my diagnosis as a child with Type 1 Diabetes of course, but diabetes with the accompanying fears of hypoglycemia and the stress of managing glycemic control during exercise has everything to do with my being a sedentary adult.

The Diabetes Hands Foundation's community TuDiabetes.org helped me understand that I was not the only one struggling with my diabetes when I joined the social network in 2008 and has much to do with my two successful pregnancies and my outlook on diabetes today.

DHF's program Diabetes Advocates has allowed me to become a voice for patients and those touched by diabetes, and my blog Sweetly Voiced has allowed me to extend my reach and tell my story.

But something has been missing. I've still been afraid of exercise. I make a lot of excuses. I am afraid to do it alone, clueless as to how to accomplish being active while caring for two kids under the age of 4 at home alone all day, and always confused about how to manage the delicate balance of insulin and activity.

DHF has another program though - the Big Blue Test - which has proven to me that just a FEW minutes of activity can lower my blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes is incredibly challenging, sure, but if I could take a little less insulin, I'd have fewer hypo excursions. And if I could make my body just a little more efficient, I could have fewer hyper excursions. Just a little.

And that has taught me a lot.

The final lace in my shoe is that, as an attendee of the DiabetesMine Patient Voices Innovation Summit, I received a complimentary Misfit Shine fitness tracker courtesy of Target. Point taken, universe.

For the next 5 weeks, I commit to walking 10 MILES a week. Though it will likely be a well-worn route to and from a local park with my little ones, it will be an emotional journey, a physical challenge as I avoid hypoglycemia (while pushing a double stroller) and as I learn what does and doesn't work in my planning, and it will be the very first time I've done something else - ask for your support. Yes, you.

As I walk these 50 miles, I'm asking my friends, family, and acquaintances to help me reach my goal of raising $1,000 for the Diabetes Hands Foundation. For every dollar I raise, that's another dollar that we at the Foundation can put toward reaching more people who used to be like I was, helping more people who are just like me, and amplifying the efforts of those who are committed to making the world a better place for people who are struggling.

Will you help me put some miles on these bad boys?

Big Blue Friday

Today's Prompt: If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. What is working well in your community, healthcare, blogs, social media, or your work in particular? What do you like about it?

What works in my community is the UNITY part.

Yesterday, I wrote about the way that many of us come together to chat for an hour every Wednesday on the DSMA chat and I also posted a link to the Blue Circle Campaign that seeks to get diabetes organizations (particularly American ones) on board with the International Diabetes Federation's Blue Circle symbol.

Between Twitter, blogs, youtube, social networks, etc., this is a group of people who can affect change.

We've had a few really amazing initiatives take off recently.

Kim Vlasnik's "You Can Do This" Project

Similar in scope to the "It Gets Better" video campaign, many of us shared our stories on YouTube, letting people know that they are not alone in living with diabetes and facing its challenges. I did a personal video here and was included in a compilation video here when I attended Simonpalooza in Kansas City this last October.

Blue Fridays

If you're my Facebook friend, you already know about this one. Every Friday in November, we're asking people to wear blue in support of Diabetes Awareness.

This one has been pretty challenging for me as the weather has turned colder and all of my blue maternity shirts happen to be very thin t-shirts. So my lips are blue, too.

The Big Blue Test

This test just gets bigger and bigger! :)

In 2009, we encouraged people to test their blood sugar at 2pm (their local time), exercise for 14 minutes, test again, and post it.  Then we compiled the data to show how people's blood sugar levels were reduced when they exercised! We had done a similar test-in on July 14, 2009 on TuDiabetes and gotten about 1,000 people to participate.

In 2010, the Diabetes Hands Foundation secured donations from Roche (the makers of Accu-Check) to the IDF's Life for a Child program (which provides insulin to children in 10 impoverished nations) based on the number of views we received for this video.

THIS year, however, though getting the video views last year was a huge accomplishment, we want to encourage more people to actually participate in the testing and activity portion. Roche has earmarked a donation of up to $75,000 if we can get 8,000 entries into the test. The $75,000 will benefit Life for a Child again, as well as 5 US-based charities that provide diabetes supplies and medications to people here at home.

Please visit the website, watch the video (because it's stellar), and enter AS MANY TIMES AS POSSIBLE between the moment you read this and World Diabetes Day (Monday, November 14). We are about a third of the way to that goal.

For every single entry, whether you have diabetes or not (and you non-D folks don't even have to test your BG), $9.38 goes directly to help someone with diabetes live another day. 8,000 people benefit from these charities, which is why we are asking for 8,000 of the rest of us to offer their participation.

I've completed the Big Blue Test several times already and will do it several more this weekend before Monday's deadline. Here are screenshots from the first two entries I made:

As you can see, we aren't asking for your money. Just asking you to do what you already do - test your blood sugar if you have D (and don't test if you don't), and then do what we all should do - get active.

One of my 14min "walking" experiences started out as "Mommy takes the tot for a trike ride" and ended with "Pregnant lady, panting, running through the neighborhood, pushing an empty trike, chasing a barefoot toddler."

Hey, whatever gets your blood sugar plummeting, right?

This post was written as part of NHBPM - 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J.