Today is Day Two of Diabetes Blog Week.  Today’s blog prompt is:

Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let’s pretend to write our own. Tell us who you would write the petition to – a person, an organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) – get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change? (Thanks to Briley of inDpendence for this topic suggestion.)

I am writing a petition to all diabetes technology companies.  As with anything that I write, it’s going to be short and to the point.  There are a lot of us PWD’s that only use Mac products.  I converted several years ago, and I cringe at the site of a Windows based machine.  However, I have to turn on the dinosaur that I call my old Windows laptop in order to export some of my diabetes data from all of my diabetes gadgets.

So, to all of you out there that are decision makers behind diabetes technology, please, I am begging you, that any software that you develop, please make it Mac compatible.

Sincerely,

Mac Users

If you haven’t heard of Diabetes Blog Week, then click the link and read all about it.  Today’s prompt is:

Often our health care team only sees us for about 15 minutes several times a year, and they might not have a sense of what our lives are really like. Today, let’s pretend our medical team is reading our blogs. What do you wish they could see about your and/or your loved one’s daily life with diabetes? On the other hand, what do you hope they don’t see?  (Thanks to Melissa Lee of Sweetly Voiced for this topic suggestion.)

I have blogged before that I am very lucky to have the medical team that I have. My previous endo was type 1 herself and wore a pump and knew the daily struggles that I was going through, so I never had to feel like I was making excuses for things.  She totally understood, but would push me to be better.

That endo left the office, but the person that I see now, actually reads my blog from time to time, is just as amazing.  What I want to say to her and want her to see is, me saying thank you.  Thank you for not judging me or looking at me as just a patient ID number and giving me your time even when you are busy.  I don’t mind waiting in the waiting room for an extra 15 minutes because I know that you are spending an extra 15 minutes with another patient and know that you will do the same for me if it is needed during this visit.

I share with my endo personal items about my life and my job and reasons for highs and lows, and what I am doing wrong and how I am trying to improve that.  Like I said, from the horror stories that I hear, I am lucky to have a medical team like this.  I am lucky that I really don’t need to write this post to let them know these things because they take the time to ask these questions and learn more about my life other than just my numbers.

To my medical team, thank you.

Please check out more of the blog posts for day one here.

I am excited to be joining Blogabetes on dLife as one of their new Diabetes Technology Blogger.

Look out for the first blog post shortly.

This is something that I have written about before in a couple of my other blogs that I write, but I thought it was a good fit to write about here.

The ROI of social media in general has always been difficult to calculate, especially when it’s not defined at the very beginning what the goal is. Typically, the C-Suiters need to see numbers like this. I spent $10, we made $20 from that $10, that means we made a profit.  How can you tell exactly how much money you made by somebody building trust and a relationship with your company?  Trust me, I own a business, it’s difficult to see that connection.  However, a lot of businesses are able to see that connection, at least are starting to.

Take for example companies that host events for bloggers and advocates to attend.  The one I will use as an example because I’ve been there a couple of times, is Roche.  When Roche hosts their annual Diabetes Social Media Summit, how are they able to calculate every year what the return was on that large expense?  I’ve been invited to this thing for 3 years in a row and I still don’t use a single Roche product, but yet I’ve been invited back several times.  Why?

Because they see the return that comes from having somebody willing to blog about their new products or sponsorships that they announce.  They have worked with Diabetes Hands Foundation, Living Vertical, and many others, and I think I have written about all of those partnerships and sponsorships.  Why? Because they are doing good for the diabetes community.

Now, let’s be real, they and other companies, need to make a profit or else they won’t be in business.  I completely understand that they need to make their money back from putting on these awesome events.  And for the most part, I think the companies are understanding that the ones they are directly reaching out to in order to help reach the larger community are not the ones they will directly make a profit from, but from all of the people indirectly effected by their social good.

So, that is my thoughts on the larger companies and social good.  There were some other great comments about how we, as a community can do social good and help the community as whole, especially those offline.  I’m sure there will be several posts about this from around the DOC.

Once I was “kicked off” of my parents health insurance at the age of 25, I faced the harsh reality of knowing that I can’t get my own personal health insurance.  The only way that I could do it is by working for somebody else, something I had no intentions of doing the rest of the my life.

One thing led to another and I was without a job and was on COBRA.  For the first time, I had health insurance and didn’t have to work for somebody else. This was 2009 and that’s when CSI Marketing Solutions was created.  Sidebar, CSI has nothing to do with one of my favorite TV shows, CSI stands for Chris Stocker Inc.  I own and manage about 10-15 other affiliate based websites and they are all under the CSI name.  Ok, back to the story.

CSI Marketing Solutions was born and it was more of a one person freelance gig than anything else.  After about a year of doing this, I realized that COBRA was becoming way too expensive, and it would be running out in a few months, and I had to take an opportunity to go work for somebody else again.  That job lasted for about 18 months, meanwhile I was still doing freelance work at night. Basically, until I just could not work for others anymore and I had to get back to running CSI Marketing Solutions full time.

I went back on COBRA and left the job and have been running CSI Marketing Solutions full time again for well over a year.  Within that time I, well now I can say we, have been able to grow from just a one person show and to a few employees that create an excellent team.

So, now that I have given the “short” story, I want to give some advice to those out there who have diabetes and want to own their company but have the fear of health insurance holding them back.  You will hear most entrepreneurs say the number one factor from holding them back is the fear of failure.  I think this is true for most, but as someone with type 1 diabetes, the fear of not having insurance or not affording your supplies is even scarier.

So here are a few things that I’ve learned over time.

Marriage and Insurance

If you are married and are looking to make the leap into becoming an entrepreneur, do some investigation into your spouse’s health insurance (if they are employed).  Currently, this is not an option for me, because Amanda and I will not be married until July of this year.  If your spouse does not have insurance either, or you are not married, then verify that you will qualify for COBRA even if you leave your current job.  Find out from your current employer how much approximately, the COBRA will be.  This will allow you to begin your planning and budgeting process.

Save for Supplies (and taxes)

One of the perks of being an entrepreneur and running your own business is that you can control, to a point, how much of a monthly income you have.  Let’s say for example you are a graphic designer and you make approximately $500 per project.  If your monthly budget (we will get to that next), is $3,500, then you know that you need to take on 7 projects this month.  When you work for somebody else, you can’t just tell them you want more money this month.  So, that is where a budget comes into play.  Write out a budget that includes everything, including your supplies that you may need in 3 months.  Having this budget will allow you to know exactly how much money, and time, you need to earn in any given month.  Also, don’t forget to save for your taxes!

Get Moving

This applies to not just entrepreneurs, but pretty much anyone who works in an office environment or sits during their job for most of the day.  As somebody who works from home and is in front of a computer for nearly 12-14 hours a day, I have become a master of the Pomodoro Technique, where I take a 5 minute break every 25 minutes. I walk around, channel my inner future stay-at-home dad and do laundry or dishes or house chores.  If taking a break every 25 minutes is not an option, you may want to invest in a standing desk.  You may find yourself working non-stop and hustling your way to success, but always remember, you still need to test, rest, and eat.

I could go on and on about everything that I learned in this time of growing a business while having type 1 diabetes, but I think I have gone on long enough.

The final thing I want to say is, don’t let diabetes hold you back from doing it.  In this particular situation, it’s not the diabetes holding you back, but the health insurance that is.  There are ways to make it work.  Don’t just outright quit one day, plan it out and then work the plan.

For more information please visit - http://www.swingfordiabetesauburn.com/

I am not able to attend this outing, but I love golf and I love helping those with diabetes and I know you all do. If you’re in the area, please contact them to find out what you can do to help. Volunteers are always needed for events like this.

I knew that once I was able to get back into a real gym that I would become more motivated than using the at home exercise equipment that I have.  It’s tough to focus on exercising like a beast when your bike is in the same room as your home office, which you spend about 8-10 hours a day in working from.

I also know that the weight loss isn’t going to come from just exercising, but the calorie intake needs to be lowered as well.  Last night’s dinner was a Tombstone oven baked pizza.  The pizza has 4 servings, typically, Amanda will eat one serving, and I will eat the remainder of the pizza.  Well, last night I decided that I will only eat 1.5 servings and eat a salad along with it and drink a few more glasses of water.  I must say, I felt fine after eating half of the portion that I would normally eat.

It is amazing how much better you feel, how much more energy, and how much more motivation you have just from a few days of working out and eating better.  The past few months I have been going to bed at 10:30 – 11 and several of my side projects have been effected by this….not to mention this blog.

I am strong believer that you don’t learn from failures, you learn from successes.  When you fail, you just learn what not to do, but you still haven’t learned what to do yet.  However, when you succeed, you learn what it takes to succeed, so you continue to do it.  That is how the past couple of days have felt with the diet and exercise.

Learn from your success and continue with it.

I have taken insulin 10 minutes before meal time, 20 minutes before, even 30 minutes before meal time!  None of them seem to work.  My average spike is about 75-100 higher.  I’ll go from 125 to 200 easily after a meal and then it takes a while to come down.

I have tried different sites, even “virgin sites” as my endo referred to them.  To make sure that after 7 years on a pump that it’s not the site areas that are giving me the problems.  That is another topic for another day.

I am using Apidra with a pump.

Anybody have any advice?

Back in the day, I would have no care in the world how crowded it was or what kind of people were there, but that’s when I was about 210 with a six (ok, maybe only a 4 pack) and was lifting like a champ and running 2 miles without breaking a sweat. I now break a sweat just thinking about going to the gym.

I am getting married on July 13 of this year, so I obviously want to lose weight for that, but I don’t want to stop going to the gym once the wedding is over because I know the weight will come right back off. I have a very intense weight loss goal and I think that I can reach it within 90 days, but it’s going to be tough. I am going to be doing two-a-days, which I haven’t done since high school. The reason that I am doing this is because Amanda likes to just get a little treadmill in and that’s really it. I will walk on the treadmill for an hour when I go with her, and when I go in the mroning times, I will do my more intense workouts. That’s the plan, but sticking to it is always the issue.

I must admit, there is not much better than being in a gym, working out and taking a look at the Dexcom and seeing your blood sugar come down from an all day higher than goal number. It’s also amazing how much more energy I have after just one day of going to the gym. Coming home and writing a blog post here, and doing some copy editing for a few of my other sites, and getting a fair amount of additional work done.

Day one was a success, but let’s see how long I can keep the success rates up.

P.S. – I am looking for an SEO / PPPC Specialist to join our team at CSI Marketing Solutions. If you know of anybody who would be interested in this position, please let me know or have them contact me.

Without being able to run my reports for my Dexcom on my MBP, I could only get reports when I went to the endo, and that usually only consisted of the last 7 days.

I have an old laptop from my Windows days that I have been wanting to re-install Windows, clean it up and be able to run my Dexcom reporting on there.  After about a year, I finally got around to it and I installed the Dexcom software and ran my own Dexcom reports at home for the first time since I’ve had a Dexcom.

As much as I hated working with Windows again, I was just as excited to finally have access to data that I’ve always wanted.