Category: Body

Disaster preparedness with diabetes, are you ready?

Revisiting disaster prep with diabetes

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It was about five years ago that I wrote my first article about the importance of disaster preparedness when living with diabetes. Looking back, the advice I gave then seems almost quaint. It was all about making sure your devices were charged up and you had a backup battery. These days disaster prep requires so much more.  Every place I’ve ever lived has had the potential for a disaster or emergency. In California there were earthquakes. But they don’t happen very often and are generally small. Then, in Hawaii there were hurricanes, tropical storms, tsunami warnings, and lava flows. Those give more warning and need more active preparation. And now that I’m back on the mainland, wildfires have become very common. This summer in the Pacific Northwest I don’t think we’ve had a week without an active wildfire in either Washington or Oregon. And though the flames have been miles

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800K souls lost to COVID-19

800,000 souls lost to COVID-19

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2021 was bookended by COVID. We started the year hoping that the pandemic would end and we could get back to some kind of normalcy. But, here we are. Not only does COVID remain at the forefront, with the Omicron variant it looks like the pandemic will continue to disrupt our lives well into 2022. People are tired of living their restricted life and with all the uncertainty. They want it to end. They want to return to normal, even if it’s a “new” normal. They question how much longer they can continue keeping their distance and wearing masks. Maybe they should ask their friends and family how they got through World War II. Oh yeah, the 1940s are now barely at the edge of living memory. How soon we forget.

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500,000 people dead due to COVID-29

500,000 souls lost to COVID-19

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The news today reported that half-a-million Americans have died from COVID-19. That’s more Americans dead from COVID-19 than died in WWI, WWII, and the Vietnam War put together. That’s enough dead to fill Arlington Cemetery. Perhaps if we keep talking about the dead in terms of numerical comparisons we don’t have to feel the pain and sadness of the pandemic. Perhaps if we focus on a headcount we don’t have to think about how our government failed to address the crisis. But every soul lost has left an empty spot behind on the hearts of all who knew them. No amount of counting will erase that.

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You Are Your Own Best Health Advocate

Excerpt: You Are Your Own Best Health Advocate

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“I’ve learned a lot from living with type 2 diabetes, but no lesson rings truer than this: no one knows you better than you. “No one else understands what you are experiencing as you manage life with type 2 diabetes. Your medical team will go over your numbers. Friends and family might mention they’ve noticed changes. But 99.999% of the time, you are managing your diabetes on your own. That puts you in a unique–and powerful–position. …” Read the full article on Healthgrades.

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Rejecting the Biggest Insulin Myths With Type 2 Diabetes

Excerpt: Rejecting the Biggest Insulin Myths With Type 2 Diabetes

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“In my experience, there’s a misconception that people with type 2 diabetes who use insulin have somehow failed. “As someone who’s lived with type 2 diabetes for more than a decade, and who uses insulin to manage it, this can be frustrating to hear. More than 4 million Americans use insulin as part of their effective management of type 2 diabetes, and it’s nothing to feel bad about. In fact, these opinions are both wrong-headed and dangerous: they ignore the fact that diabetes is a degenerative condition, and the misinformation can prevent people with type 2 diabetes from getting the treatment they need. …” Read the full article on Healthgrades.

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