Winners Winners Winners . . . .

Just a quick post today to announce the winners of the six pairs of blue circle #LaceUp4Diabetes laces that Novo Nordisk was kind enough to provide for me to give away.  Yay!

Over all, between Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Bitter~Sweet, there were 36 entries.  I wish I had a pair for each and every one of you.  But the six people I do have pairs for are . . . . . .

Briley Boisvert
Liz Wedward
Aliza Chana Zaleon
Martin Wood
Stacey Divone
Tarra Robinson

Congratulations to you all!!  I will message or email each of you to collect your addresses and send your laces out next week.

#LaceUp4Diabetes . . . .

Humor me for a minute as we flash back to my college years.  (Disclosure:  This time period may involve any and all of the following: big hair, day-glo colors, large geometric prints, piles and piles of black rubber bracelets, and guy-liner long before it was known as such.)  A young version of me is late for class and frantically tying my Keds when a lace snaps.  In a hurry, I pull out both laces, throw them away and rush off the class.  And I decide I like these new slip-on Keds I’ve created.  And since then, each time I buy a new pair of Keds, the first thing I do is take out the laces.  I used to throw them away, but now they get hung on a hook to be used as K.C.’s cat toy of choice  (She loves a good string to swat at and it keeps her away from my yarn.)

So why are we strolling down memory lane (in our lace-less Keds)?  Because I now have a reason to put laces back in my sneakers, thanks to Novo Nordisk’s #LaceUp4Diabetes campaign and these lovely blue circle laces.



When these laces started popping up around the DOC a few years ago, I longed for a pair.  And last year I was fortunate to score them from Scott Benner.  And this year, I’m thrilled that Novo Nordisk has sent me the 6 pairs you see above to give away!

Why is this important to me?  Well, because exercise motivation is probably the portion of diabetes management I struggle with the most.  But when I actually do exercise, it’s so easy to see the benefits to my blood sugar,  my mood and my energy level.  And seeing the blue circle laces helps with motivation.  They remind me of those health benefits, but more importantly they remind me of all my friends in the DOC who have a regular exercise regime that I admire.  And although we aren’t actually exercising together, we kind of are in a virtual way.  And that helps get me moving.

So, would you like a pair of these laces to help get you moving too?  Simply leave me a comment and I’ll enter you into a random drawing.  I’ve also been taking entries from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, so I’ll gather them all together and pick six winners on Friday.  Good luck!

What I Don’t Know CAN Hurt Me . . . .

"Ignorance is bliss." "What you don't know can't hurt you."  I suppose in some instances these statements may be true, but mostly I don't agree with them. And I especially don't agree with them when it comes to my life with diabetes.

Over the past decade or so, I’ve become increasingly hypoglycemic unaware.  Not every single time, but more often than not.  As a rule, by the time I feel any low symptoms I am pretty damn low, like in the 50’s or below.  And that’s why I depend on my Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM).

It’s scary to think about living without a CGM.  I’ve heard that if you run your blood sugars higher for a while, you can get back some of the sensitivity to lows.  But that’s not  a great trade off because high blood sugars can come with terrible consequences as well.  So I depend on my CGM to let me know that I’m heading into a potentially dangerous blood sugar situation.  It often helps me correct the plunge before things get scary.  And it not only helps the dangerous lows, but it alerts me to highs as well.  My CGM helps me correct out of range blood sugars, when without it they might stay too high or too low for far too long, causing damage to my body.

I am 47 years old and I’m lucky that my insurance covers my CGM.  Those who have aged into Medicare aren’t as lucky.  I find this ridiculous and scary, because I know just how vital a CGM is to my diabetes management ( and I’d guess the diabetes management of many others as well). 



Why doesn’t Medicare cover CGMs??  Honestly, I have no idea.  It doesn’t make sense.  And I’ve been part of the JDRF movement to try and change that.  At Government Day last spring, I joined my fellow Advocacy Team Chair volunteers from around the country and we spoke to leaders and staff on Capital Hill about this issue.  I believe it was discussed again at Children’s Congress in July.  Action alerts continue to go out about the bills aiming to facilitate Medicare coverage of this vital technology.




We’re getting there, but we have a long way to go.  Please, if your Representative hasn’t signed on to HR1427 yet, email them and urge them to do so.  Even if you’ve sent an email in the past, now is a great time to send another!




And the same goes for the Senate and S804.  If your state isn’t colored dark greenish (teal??) on the map above, click here and email your Senator.

People on Medicare need access to CGMs.  Because what we don’t know can hurt us.  #MedicareCoverCGM

**  I hope that by the time you read this post and click the graphics above, the sponsorship numbers will be higher than shown here.  Because I hope new cosponsors are signing on every day! **