November is National Diabetes Month

Check out this blog post from Kelly Kunik in honor of Type 1 diabetes day (November 1st) and National Diabetes Month: Diabetesaliciousness™: Dear People Living A Non -Diabetes Life::

I like what she wrote - it's a letter addressed to people who do not live with Type 1 - but am not sure I agree with the need for writing it in the first place. Is the general public obligated to care and know about diabetes?

Back from CWD; Now I really need to unpack

At CWD with Sam Talbot, who has Type 1 diabetes and was the runner-up on season 2 of "Top Chef." He gave a cooking demo at a reception on the final night of the conference.

      I am exhausted. After getting back from California on July 2nd, Mom and I had just a few days before getting on another airplane - this time to Orlando, FL for the Children with Diabetes Friends for Life conference (often abbreviated as CWD FFL). This yearly event is always fun but energy-draining, with over a thousand families affected by Type 1 diabetes descending on Disney World during a hot & humid week in July. 
      This was a business trip, in a sense, because Mom had to attend the conference on behalf of the company she works for and I was there to help represent Insulindependence. We just got back home yesterday, and fortunately we're not traveling any more until August, when we go to Rye, NH for a true vacation.
       I've got lots of stuff to catch up on over the next few weeks, including preparations for my Insulindependence fundraising dinner and getting started on that Swenson family history project. First thing, though, will be cleaning up my room, which is littered with diabetes supplies, clothes (I've decided I'm not buying any more clothes for the next 12 months), and books/things from my college dorm.

San Diego, Yosemite, and Big Sur

I'm still recovering/unpacking after an amazing two weeks in California.

The first stop was San Diego for "University of Insulindependence," a retreat-like leadership training program for volunteers, like me, who will be working for Insulindependence from 2011-2012.  It was awesome to spend time with Type 1s from all over the country who are involved in Insulindependence's different clubs: the Triabetes team, the Glucomotive team, and Testing Limits. UofIN was held at UC-San Diego, and most of the adults commented on how strange it felt "to be on a college campus again, after all these years..."! I was the exception, since I'm much younger than most of the other volunteers and am the only one who is still in college. Our days were chock full of educational sessions and presentations by leading experts in the diabetes field. It's great to attend a program like this and realize that yes, there is still more to learn about diabetes management! We also had plenty of hands-on learning experiences, and just plain fun, each morning and afternoon with group runs along the beach, surfing, yoga, pilates-style workouts, rock climbing, and snorkeling. We even did a lactate-threshold testing workout on the UCSD track one morning, with the famed Type 1 triathlete and coach Cliff Scherb.

After a few days of sessions in San Diego, each club headed out for a weekend "practicum" that was directly related to triathlon, running, or outdoor exploration. Exploring the great outdoors is the domain of my club, Testing Limits, and our practicum was a trip to Yosemite, where we spent three days/two nights hiking and camping in the Hetch Hetchy region of this national park. 

The Testing Limits group in Yosemite, June 2011. From left: Joanna Gerry, me, Carla Cox, Ben Meyerhoff, Ben Clements, Erin Clarke, and Jerry Nairn.

We spotted a bear on our second night in the park.

Me, with the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in the background

All in all, my time with IN was fun, challenging, and educational. Loved meeting new people, learning more about diabetes management strategies and practicing those strategies in the wilderness!

After Yosemite, I went back to San Diego to rendezvous with my mom, who had traveled there to attend the American Diabetes Association's annual conference. So began my second week in the golden state, as mom and I rented a car and began driving north with the goal of going sea kayaking in Big Sur. This was a whole 'nother adventure that I'll never forget!

Downtown Santa Barbara

driving on the San Marco pass (rt 154)

Our destination was Treebones Resort, with accomodations that I'd describe as "luxury camping" (or "glamping," which my mom likes to say because it's glamorous camping). Whatever you wanna call it, it's awesome. We stayed in a yurt one night, and a big round tent the second night.

Yurts are cool.

inside the yurt

I highly recommend Treebones as a place to visit/stay if/when you want to see this beautiful part of the California coast.

the tent we stayed in on night two. smaller than the yurt (and devoid of all creature comforts), but big enough to sleep nine people!

Mom in front of the tent, right before we walk up to the main lodge for dinner. The main lodge was where you went to use the bathroom/shower, eat meals, and sit by the fireplace to play cards or board games, or read.

nice campsite, huh?

Treebones' organic garden. This is why their food was so delicious! We did not mind at all that we were limited to eating all our meals in the main lodge, for the most part (since there wasn't anything else around for miles...)

yummy spinach and kale

The "human nest" - a very popular accommodation for two at Treebones.

The water was such a gorgeous clear azure color!

sporting my Insulindependence (IN) captain's shirt at the beach

 We were fortunate to be able to go sea kayaking at San Simeon Cove, right across from the famous Hearst Castle. Below, Mom and I with "Cubby," our guide.

Cubby knew everything about the tides, ecology and history of the cove. Although the background of this picture shows a pier, most of our kayaking excursion was spent in the company of otters, starfish and gulls, in and around caves and under cliffs. Our time on the water was unreal... I felt like I had stepped into the pages of National Geographic's Adventure magazine or something!

 After sea kayaking, we drove south towards Los Angeles, where we would spend our last night before flying out of San Diego the next day. Just a few miles from San Simeon, we stopped to look at Elephant Seals...

That night, we had dinner at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Los Angeles. My mom used to work at this restaurant when she lived in LA many years ago.

Very new age-y. It's in a place called Topanga Canyon, which reminds me of that TV show "Boy Meets World," because one of the main characters was named Topanga and I always thought that was the most ridiculous-sounding thing!


And that was it.... my trip to California. I expect to be back in January 2012, to run the Carlsbad marathon with Insulindependence.

Intro: Diabetes and Exercise (or, why I started this blog)

You could say that diabetes and running have been my main extracurricular activities for the past several years. Succeeding in both of these areas demands a lot of hard work, with great rewards as well as disappointments. Sports and chronic illnesses can, on their own, teach individuals about discipline, dedication, and persistence. For me, trying to make distance running and diabetes mix has been the biggest lesson of all. 

Type 1 Diabetes is primarily a problem with balance – the balance of food, exercise, and insulin in the body, which is easily maintained in most people with healthy pancreases.  It’s sort of like an equation. Actually, having to think about everything I eat, test my blood sugar constantly and fine-tune my insulin doses might not be so bad if only there was some perfect mathematical formula. Unlike equations from algebra class, though, diabetes cannot be solved or balanced. There are tons of variables to throw into this one, and anytime I factor in running, my favorite activity, I end up with an inequality. Different types of workouts require different amounts of insulin; the number of carbs I eat before a workout depends on how many miles I plan to run; for hours after exercise my body might be more or less sensitive to insulin than it usually is. 

I will always believe that joining the cross country team as a high school freshman was the best decision I’ve ever made; distance running, while not always easy, is incredibly rewarding. There were many times when I thought that diabetes was a good reason for me to abandon the sport, though. One of my favorite phrases throughout high school was “diabetes and distance running don’t mix!” It’s true that balancing blood sugars and insulin, hard enough on its own, seems to become exponentially more difficult when sports are added to the equation. But finally I have decided that the extra work required to train and race safely with diabetes is worth it. There will be no more questioning or wavering on this issue for me, mainly because of the many amateur and professional diabetic athletes I have come to know and admire over the past few years.  

I’ve met diabetics who’ve climbed Mount Everest and diabetics who’ve completed Ironman triathlons. I’ve met a whole community of people with Type 1 who not only refuse to let this disease stop them from being active, but actually encourage regular exercise and outdoor adventuring as a way to make life with diabetes better. This is where Insulindependence comes in. Insulindependence, or "iD," facilitates and strengthens this community of athletes with diabetes, and this community inspires me in a way that my high school running coach never could: it acknowledges my everyday struggles with diabetes but insists that it is possible to achieve peak performance as an athlete if I just struggle a little harder sometimes. Insulindependence has pioneered the concept of “experiential diabetes education,” which is learning and practicing diabetes management skills through sport. The idea that sport can actually improve the quality of life with diabetes, and can be an important educational tool for individuals with diabetes, is truly revolutionary. 

Insulindependence is, I guess, the reason I started this blog. Being selected as a 2011-2012 Captain for iD's Testing Limits program has given me a year-long task through which I will have the opportunity to help others in a meaningful way and learn more about myself at the same time. Seeing how many other iD Captains maintain blogs made me realize that this experience is something worth chronicling. This blog may only last until next summer, when my formal assignment as a TL Captain ends, but we'll see... maybe I'll enjoy blogging so much that I'll stick with it long afterward. 

Thanks for reading!