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Category: Diabetes OC

Some Pretty Damn Big Life Changes

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Today is February 1, 2012.  Not only is today about flipping over those calendars to the next month and doing a drumroll before seeing what the next picture or phrase or which cheerleader is going to be on the next month (or am I the only one that does that?).  Today is a very serious day for me.  A day of change.

As some of you may know, I own my own business, CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC.  Also, as some of you may know, I have been working at an agency for about 18 months.  This digital agency is voted best place to work just about every year and received hundreds of other awards a year.  It truly is an amazing place to work.  However, I have had a few opportunities come up over the past few weeks or months that requires a lot more of my time.  So, I have made the decision, starting today, to go back to running my business full time.

Before making this decision, there were so many different things that went through my head.  How am I going to pay rent?  How am I going to make my car payment?  How can I afford anything?  And most importantly, how am I going to get health insurance?  Then I started playing the what-if game.  What if I don’t have enough clients and I don’t make enough money to pay my bills and then I lose everything I have.  A good friend of mine said, “..you can’t play the what if game.  For every negative what if you come up with, there’s a positive what if on the other side. So you can go all night on the what if’s.”

I also felt that by making this decision to be able to make my own hours I can get more things in life accomplished.  For one, I can now go to the gym at lunch time or in the morning and begin to get back into shape and lose weight again.  Next, I no longer have an hour long commute each way, so I can be home earlier and I can eat dinner and be ready for bed earlier.  I can also spend more time being more involved in the DOC.

So, let me quickly get into the health insurance issue.  I am entitled to COBRA for 18 months, and the costs of it are about 1/3 of what I thought it was going to be, so I am extremely happy about that.

So, that is where I am.  Moral of the story?  If you want something, do it.  Stop thinking about it constantly and stressing about it and going back and forth.  Weigh your options, and make the best choice for yourself.

New Diabetes Movie: The Longest Swim

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

I was sent a link to check out this movie from somebody else who has diabetes.  The movie right now is looking for funding, which is why it is listed on Kick Starter.  I know that I am very critical of any movie that is based around diabetes because we all want them to get it right.  This is based on a true story, and the person with diabetes in the movie was involved in the process of the movie making.  I have embedded it below, also will include a link.

Here is the quick synopsis.  Two guys, best friends, one diabetic, one not.  They are out at a cabin.  Friend with diabetes has a high blood sugar before he goes to bed and takes insulin to correct.  Non-diabetic friend finds him having a seizure because his sugar went too low in the middle of the night.  There’s only one way to get help…. swim across the lake.

Let me know your thoughts, opinions, feedback, etc.  If you feel it’s a good movie, I encourage you to support and share the video.

Here is the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224084921/the-longest-swim-movie

Here is the video:

Blogging Taking a Back Seat

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Obviously one of my main goals for 2012 has not been accomplished.  I wanted to try and post something every day for the entire year.  I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn’t think it was going to be this hard.  I also didn’t expect as many distractions as I have had over the last couple of weeks.  There’s been carnivals, fairs, festivals, sporting events, work, and just about anything else other than time to sit down and write.  A lot of my time lately has been spent planning.  My home office now has 4 whiteboards that are completely filled and each one is filled with ideas for it’s own project.  I have a bad habit of jumping into things without planning them out properly, so I wanted to make sure that I plan my moves a little better in 2012, so that’s what I have been doing.

I haven’t been very active on Twitter or blog reading either, so I feel so damn out of it.  It’s almost impossible to get through my Google reader anymore, but hey I am trying.  I am back to reading books again, so that takes away most of my time for reading blog posts.  I am trying to stay up to date with everybody, so if you receive an e-mail from me trying to catch up, it’s because I just want to be able to catch up with you and have not really had a chance to read every blog post.

Unfortunately, my diabetes has been taking a back seat to my business life and financial life.  I have not been blogging and tweeting about diabetes, but have been financial planning, business planning, and life planning.  It has also led me to not test as much and not put on a new Dexcom.  Ya know, because it takes a whole 30 seconds to do it!

I am about to go through a total life changing event, so I have been stressed the hell out, which is one of the reasons for the massive planning, but I am beginning to feel comfortable enough with the change and am getting back to this blogging stuff.

I hope every one else has been having a great time.

DOC Help Needed – Diabetes and Dialysis

Chris Stocker

From time to time we all get e-mails or comments from our blogs.  This is one that I received the other day and I really had no idea how to answer it.  I responded and asked if I had their permission to post the e-mail to my blog.  I am not going to include their name or e-mail address, but if you have any information, than please comment or e-mail me directly so I can put you in touch with them.

This is what the DOC is all about, so let’s help somebody out.

Thanks in advance.

 

Message body:

Both my brother and I are diabeatic. Howver, my brother lost the use of his kidneys and is on dyalsis three (3) per week.  It makes him sick for those three days.

The Endro is recommending (pushing) him to use the home dyalsis machine (I don’t know tghe correct term) that cleans the blood while he sleeps.

What do you know about this method?  Have you tried it?  Have your friends tried it?  Would you recommend.

Calling All Ohio-ans

Chris Stocker

Well, DOC, I received an e-mail the other day from a reader and I want to reach out to all of you, particularly the ones that live in Ohio, near Dayton.  Please read the e-mail below that I received.  I would love to help them get local help and possibly a meet up with somebody in that area:

 

“I was told In April of 2010 I had type 2 diabetes.  I lost insurance right after that.  I have never taken any medication.  I have meters but I dont take my readings.  Although I am a smart person I am acting ignorant toward this disease.  I am having visual problems now and stifness in fingers when I lay down.  I dont know how to change my mindset.  I want to live but i have no motivation to face this desease like I should. Plus having no insurance does not help..”

Well, DOC, do what you do best.  Please comment or e-mail me your contact info so I can pass along.

Thanks in advance.

World Diabetes Day Post Card Exchange

Chris Stocker

If you are reading this blog and you haven’t read a post from Lee Ann Thill yet, then you need to go right now.  One of her latest great ideas is the World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange, link included there.  Basically, here are the rules and the concept.  You e-mail Lee Ann your postal address and then you will receive an e-mail with the recipients address that you are to send the postcard too.  You then add the blue WDD circle to the post card and any other fancy artwork you can come up with and then you mail to the recipient.

Lee Ann can explain it better over at her blog.  Go…..NOW!

 

JDRF Not Giving Me the Time I’m Requesting

Chris Stocker

JDRF not being responsiveI have been mentioning lately that my local chapters of the ADA and JDRF have not been very responsive to me. I have been sending emails and tweeting to them trying to get their attention. My local JDRF chapter is usually pretty good with responding to me but not much gets done because things have to be approved by the area manager and it seems to stop there every time. It makes me mad because I know that Jeffrey Brewer is receptive to the ideas that I and others share because I have spoken with him directly about it. This is one of the obstacles of taking the online world offline.

I would really like to work with them for World Diabetes Day but it’s tough to plan things when it is a one way conversation. At times I just think that people don’t see or get the big picture.

Don’t even get me started on the Diabetes Hero video. I emailed them multiple times about it and no response. They could get a $10,000 donation and no response. I know that a lot of chapters just don’t have the resources because they have 2-3 people trying to do the job on 10-15. I’ve offered to help them with some of their social strategies and outreach but no response. This is what I do for a living and I’m willing to help them for free, it’s almost like a donation. But like I said before, I don’t think that they get it.

Maybe there needs to be some form of communication from the top down explaining to all the local chapters that there will be some people contacting them and talking about the DOC and they should listen to what they have to say.

Luckily, there are a few others in this area that are as passionate about this as I am and hopefully we can all work together to get things done.  Mike Hoskins has provided me with some great details and information on ways that him and his area have been able to form a great relationship with their local JDRF chapter.  I would love to hear from everybody on what has worked and has not worked in getting more done with your local chapter.

Have a great day everybody.

Disconnecting from the Diabetes Online Community

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Disconnecting from the community is not something that I like to do, but it is something that I think we all must do from time to time.  I don’t mean that we should just stop talking to everybody in the online community for a certain period of time, but getting away from tweeting all day, and writing long blog posts and reading all the long posts.  These are things that can help you come back refreshed and even better than ever.  Grant it, disconnection does not always work for everybody, so what works for me, may be useless to you.  I recently took two disconnection breaks from the community and it gave me a better perspective and drive for what I am trying to accomplish.

I made a new goal for myself that there is one day a week that I am going to disconnect myself from the online community and focus that time and effort on establishing a better relationship and foundation with my local offline communities.  I have been reaching out to several different local groups and chapters and you will see in an upcoming post, that it hasn’t been very successful of late.  I refuse to be turned down by the local chapters, I will continue to fight.  The only way that I can seem to have this strength to continue to fight hard, day in and day out, is to have this little time of disconnection.

I love my diabetes online community, even if we’re discussing things that we feel differently about, we all have the same goal or goals.  If you are not doing many things in your local communities for advocacy and education and support, than I encourage you to take some of the time you spend with the online community and put that towards your offline.  If you still have the time to do both, than that’s even better.

Diabetes Events in 2012

Chris Stocker

I started thinking about some of my goals for 2012, diabetes and professional goals.  One of my goals is to attend more diabetes events and shows.  This year I went to the JDRF Walk in Boca Raton, the ADA walk in Fort Lauderdale, the Roche Social Media Summit and that was it.  Next year I want to go to ADA Scientific Sessions, Friends for Life, Roche Social Summit again, AADE, and many others.  If I could go to 1 a month, that would be AWESOME.  There are so many different events that it is tough for me to keep up with all the dates, the costs and just to know about the ones that are out there.

There are events going on that I don’t even know about, and if they are things that I could possibly attend, then I would love to know.  So here is my question.  Is there currently a list of diabetes related events taking place in 2012?  If there is not currently a place, then please, let’s use this as a resource for the DOC and add in the comments below the event and date (at last the month), and then we can have a one-stop collection of all events.

Please pass along and share.  Hope to meet more of you wonderful people in 2012.

Please Help My Co Worker’s Cousin – Diagnosed at Age 7

Chris Stocker

I wrote last week how my company was nice enough to give my blog a shot out in the company newsletter that goes out every Friday. If people didn’t know I was diabetic, then they do now. It is great to hear so many people telling me that they were inspired by the blog and that they didn’t know these things about diabetes. I respond with thanks and thats why I do this.

Yesterday I was having a conversation with one of my co workers and diabetes got brought and she said, “My 7 year old cousin just found out he is diabetic 🙁 “. Of course there is going to be that sad face at first, but I know that we can all help turn that frown upside down and help out his family.

I asked her to share my blog and email with them so they can get introduced to the DOC and learn all the great information and support that is online. I am going to ask my co worker to share this post with her family so I would greatly appreciate if you could please leave some words of encouragement and share and have others leave comments as well. I want to make sure that they get all the infomation they need. I was diagnosed at 19 and I dont have a child with diabetes so I would appreciate if would leave comments.

Thanks again everybody.