Author Archives: Rachel

About Rachel

PR professional and social media enthusiast, blogging about life, marriage, coffee and type 1 diabetes.

15 Things to Ask Me that Aren’t About Diabetes (and 5 that are)

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It’s the holiday season, which means it’s a time when we’re gathering with friends and family. That often means being around people you don’t see often, mainly extended family as well as meeting new people at holiday parties.

For me, it means being asked the very annoying question: How’s your diabetes?

Ummm…. it’s fine I guess? Still there.

I know, I know. When someone blogs, tweets and posts about diabetes as much as I do, they’re kind of bringing it upon themselves because people think Rachel = Diabetes. Imagine that when 8 years ago, you got a bad gash that left you with a scar. When you were first injured, it majorly sucked and there was a lot to say about it. Now, you’re stuck with a scar for the rest of your life. It itches and pulls and you have to apply cream to it regularly, but it’s kind of just part of your life. Would you appreciate people asking you whenever they see you, “How’s your scar?” Probably not.

“How’s your diabetes?” Isn’t really a conversation starter either. In my experience, that question bring so many conversation to a grinding halt.

There are so many other more interesting questions to ask that will actually spark a conversation. Here are a few (in no particular order): Continue reading →

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I’m sick

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I live with a chronic illness, which to some people means that I’m “sick” all the time. Personally, I don’t view my diabetes as a sickness.

However, I AM sick.

Sick of:

  • Living my life by numbers
  • Having to explain the mechanics of diabetes over and over
  • People thinking that my illness prevents me from doing great things
  • People thinking that my illness prevents me from doing normal things
  • People thinking that my illness gets me special treatment
  • People saying “you can’t eat that”
  • People asking what’s beeping or whose phone is that when an alarm or alert sounds
  • Having alarms and alerts sound all. the. time.
  • Sticking needles into my body

Continue reading →

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Diabetes Has Terrible Timing

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I was going to title this blog post simply: UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But that wouldn’t be very explanatory and would do terrible things to the already weak SEO of my site.

Here’s the story:

I’m in charge of the monthly events for the professional organization whose board I sit on. I was hosting the summer networking event one evening. I was at the bar having just been served the Pub Exclusive: Great Lakes Buckin’ Mule Moscow Mule Ale and I pulled out my PDM to take a bolus for the beer and some food. The screen flashed on and then straight to a PDM error message to call customer service.

I knew the PDM would need reset, but was wondering if I could delay a bolus so I glanced at my Dexcom app on my phone. It was apparently the perfect time for a sensor error.

Let’s recap real quick: I’m running an event, I can’t bolus from my insulin pump, I can’t read my CGM and because of the PDM error I have no glucose meter either.

I excuse myself and dig in my diabetes bag for a syringe to take a bolus from my insulin vial. I find no syringes in my bag and have no idea why. So I go to the quietest place I can find (the event was in the bar of a hotel restaurant) and even then it was loud, but I called OmniPod customer service anyway. I spent 20 minutes of the phone with a sympathetic rep who took the information and tried to walk me through a reset using a “paperclip,” since I didn’t have a paperclip or safety pin or anything, I used my earring. The PDM screen blinked off, it went to the restart screen, blinked off again, restart screen, off, restart, off, restart… rinse repeat. We tried the earring reset again. Same result. We removed the batteries, waited, replaced them, and same result. That’s when the rep pronounced my PDM dead. “Okay, I’ll take shots until tomorrow and they’ll overnight me a new one,” I thought.

“Rachel, our records show that your PDM is out of warranty. We won’t be able to replace it, you’ll need to order a new one.”

I deflated. I had forgotten that I willfully allowed myself to run out of warranty in December in the vain hope that OmniPod would be releasing a closed-loop system. I had attempted to get an OmniPod DASH in order to do a review for DiabetesMine, but I couldn’t get my hands on one. It’s a long story.

“Do you have another form of insulin delivery?” He asked me. To which my automatic response was, “Yes.”

But did I? Continue reading →

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I Smell Insulin

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“Hey, hey, wake up,” Brad whispered, gently shaking me. “Come on, wake up.”

My eyelids felt glued shut and my head was heavy with sleep. It’s gotta be 3 in the morning, why is he waking me up? I finally got one eyelid to open and pulled my face barely out of my pillow and groggily asked, “What?”

“I smell insulin and I know your blood sugar is high,” he said. “Do you need to change your pod?” I swear it took me a good 30 seconds to process this.

Continue reading →

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How do you present yourself?

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Earlier this month, I was at an industrial trade show running media meetings for a large, well-known manufacturing client. I was standing in their booth during a particularly busy time in the exhibit hall and pitching in where I could until my next meeting.

A man, who looked a little disheveled and addled came wandering up to the display I was standing near. I said hello and he looked at the company name on the booth and said, “With a name like that, you must not be a Japanese company.” I responded that it’s an American company with a global presence. He was silent, looking at the display and not me, so I offered to get someone to answer questions for him.

“Oh no, I’m not a potential customer,” he told me and fished a business card out of his pocket. “I’m a PR guy, if you want to get more publicity for your products, give me a call.” He handed me the card and walked away. I didn’t even have the opportunity to say thanks, he was gone so fast. I stifled a laugh and turned to the product manager who had overheard the “pitch,” he too was laughing.

I’m not in sales or business development, I’m in marketing communications. For the purposes of that trade show, I was the “PR guy.” Never in a million years would I assume a greeting and closing line like that would be professional or persuasive. And I’d never hand someone a business card without actually introducing myself and getting the other person’s name. Whenever you present yourself to others, regardless of what business you’re in, you should strive to be professional and polite.

Here are a few easy communication tips for making a good first time meeting impression: Continue reading →

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