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Dear Diabetes – A Letter to a Friend

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

Dear Diabetes,

I know you can’t read this because you are obviously not a person, but can we pretend for today that you are because there are some things that I want to to tell you.  We have a love-hate relationship for sure.  We have our highs and we have our lows, especially when it comes to my blood sugar.  There are times that I curse the moment that I met you.  On the flip side, there are also times where I am so happy to have met you because you have changed my life.

No matter what anybody else says about you or thinks about you, you are here to stay.  You can either be my life long nemesis or you can be a life long friend.  I choose to have a life long friend by my side to get through life.  When I sit down and think about it, I owe my life to you.  Let’s look at some of the things that have happened that would not have if I did not meet you.  Good and Bad.  We will start with the bad so we can end on a good note.

I may have still been playing football.  I stopped playing football in college because I did not know what was wrong with me and I had no energy and no drive to continue to go through winter and spring workouts.  I would have a lot more money because I wouldn’t have to spend so much on you.  You are more spoiled then one of those Real Housewives of New Jersey ( kind of viscous like them at times as well!)  I wouldn’t be testing my blood sugar and inserting a needle into me constantly.  I also wouldn’t be waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat and light headed wondering where I can get my next fix of sugar.  But diabetes, like I said we have some good things as well.

First, I would never have moved to Florida if it wasn’t for you because I would have finished college back up North and probably stayed in that area.  That obviously means that I would not have met Amanda (girlfriend of almost 5 years).  Which by the way, I am glad that you and her are able to get along and play well with each other because if you couldn’t, then I don’t know where I would be.  If it wasn’t for meeting you Diabetes, I would not have a blog, which means I would never have gotten to know all these wonderful, caring people.  You have given me a whole new outlook on life and showed me that there is still good in this world and not everybody is just out for themselves.  Finally, if it wasn’t for you, then I would not own my own business.  I would not be doing the things that I love to do if it wasn’t for you.  I may not even have loved the things that I now love because of you.

In ending this letter, let me just say a few more things.  Diabetes, you are my friend.  When we have a bad moment, let’s just fix it and move on and not think back and hold grudges.

Sincerly,

Chris – The Life of a Diabetic

Finally Cutting Back on Caffeine Intake

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I spoke before on here about the fact that I need to cut back on my caffeine intake.  It was made very clear to me at my last doctor’s visit, that I must do this.  Mainly, my doctor felt that it could be one of the main facts of my blood pressure being high.  I was drinking anywhere from 8-10 cups of coffee a day, plus 1-2 energy drinks a day.  Some days was less, and some times even more than that.

Lately, I have been following the rules.  I have cut back my coffee to scary levels.  I drink a large coffee in the morning or 1-2 mugs of coffee and then 1-2 after lunch and then that is it.  Every so often there will be more caffeine in there, like an energy drink late at night to keep me going to finish some projects that I am working on.

Now that I know that I can cut back on coffee, I also know that I can cut back on the amount of food that I intake at every meal which means an easy way to lose weight.  Losing weight is the next big step in my life.  I have turned to quotes from Joel Osteen to help me reach these goals, more on that in a post tomorrow.

Until then, have a great day.

Very Short, Very Very Short Post Today

Chris Stocker

Normally on Mondays I give a quick little update of the weekend.  Well this weekend was very busy.  I fished, fished, fished and watched the boxing match.

This post is being done late at night right now, and I don’t really have too much to say……sorry.  I’ll have something good tomorrow, I promise, I think.

How Do You Explain Diabetes to a 4 Year Old?

Chris Stocker 7 Comments

Last week when I was home, one of the most important things that I wanted to do was spend time with my 4 “nieces” and also my niece.  Let me explain that in detail quickly.  My “nieces” are actually my cousins, but my aunt was more like a sister to me because of our closeness in age so her 4 daughters have always called me uncle.  My actual niece is almost 6 months and she is my brother’s daughter.  Ok, that is clarified.  My “nieces” are 10, 8 and the twins are 4.  The 10 year old knows that I have diabetes, but doesn’t totally get it (but I’m 25 and I don’t either).  The 8 year old knows I have something, but not really sure, she used to just say that “Uncle Chris is sick.”

Well one day that I was there I took my pump out to bolus and one of the twins saw it and she said, “what is that?”  So I thought, should I say, “it’s an insulin pump” or should I say something that it is medication for me. I decided to tell her that it was an insulin pump for my diabetes and that it keeps me healthy.  I didn’t know exactly how to explain it that it would make sense.  I thought about coming up with a way to use a Disney movie or something that she liked to have it make more sense for her, but the question never came back up again while I was home.

How do you explain it?  I know there are mothers out there that read the blog, and fathers as well.  How are you able to explain diabetes to small children, especially your children that are not diabetic.

Thank you in advance.

Guest Post Week and Press Contact Info

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Let’s first start off with the press contact info portion of this post.  We all get those e-mails from different PR companies or diabetes companies that are looking to have us write a review or give us free products.  That is all fine and dandy with me and I don’t mind doing it, but just know a few things.  By you giving me free product, I am not going to automatically write a good review, so don’t send me an e-mail after I told you what is wrong with the product and tell me that you don’t appreciate it when you sent it to me for free.  Yeah, I actually received that e-mail.  If you need to contact me, just use the contact form on this blog or send me an e-mail cstocker at chrisstockerinc dot com.  Now, moving on.

Starting the week of May 10 I will be doing a guest post week.  The length of the guest posting will depend on how many posts that I receive from all of you.  If you would like to submit a guest post, please just send me an e-mail or use the contact form and @ reply me on Twitter.  You know how to get a hold of me.  Guest posting is fun.  I love doing it.  I don’t do it as much with this blog, but I guest post a lot on other small business / social media business sites from my other blog.

Quick post today, but just wanted to let you all know about the guest post opportunities.  No specific post, you come up with the post and I post it, simple as that.

Aetna RX Home Delivery Major Failure!

Chris Stocker 16 Comments

My test strips woes of the last month or so have been well documented between my blog and Twitter.  The CVS fiasco being the worst part of it.  The chapter has ended, but it seems that the book is continuing.  Let me explain.

I contacted Aetna RX Home Delivery because I have to use them because of the insurance that I have.  I contacted them on Tuesday April 13 and gave them my credit card number to ship my testing strips.  I explained that I would need them by Friday, so I will pay the additional $20 to ship them overnight to me.  I hear nothing on Wednesday, nothing on Thursday and nothing on Friday.  I called them back and asked if the supplies had shipped yet, and they said no, the order hasn’t even processed.  Well that right now makes me feel good that I needed them rushed and 3 days later the order hasn’t processed.

Since I was leaving to go up north, I had the address changed to my PA address.  Well Thursday of the next week, after I came home from New York, my strips still weren’t there so I called Aetna once again.  They proceeded to tell me that the strips were already delivered, to my Florida address.  By this time I am pissed because I explained that I needed them in PA.  The customer service rep agreed with me that it was Aetna’s fault because she saw the notes in the system.  I asked them to overnight the strips to me in PA and when I got to Florida I would send back the other box.  She said that I couldn’t return them and if they did reship them since it was their fault,  that I would still have to pay the copay of $90 for them.  That is when I lost it.  Why would I have to pay for a whole other shipment and not be able to return something because you made a mistake?  That makes no sense to me what so ever!

I didn’t hear anything back from them on Friday or Saturday, so I had to call them again this morning.  They still haven’t shipped out the re-order they said they were still reviewing the case.  I told them that there is no reason to review the case because I am no longer in PA, so that rush delivery is no longer needed, but I’m glad that my emergency means 4 days to them.  I finally received my strips, but I wanted my $20 refunded back for the overnight shipping because they shipped them to the wrong address and they just sat in my FL mailbox for a week, so why should I pay for overnight shipping?

I was told that customer service can’t do anything about it, but document it, and it is up to the reship department to make the decision on whether I will receive my $20 back for overnight shipping.  I don’t know what kind of investigation is needed, you charged me for something that you did not provide, so give me my damn money back!

Aetna RX Home Delivery, you have just made the list.  You can join CVS in customer service hell!

Vacation Over Means Back to Blogging

Chris Stocker 3 Comments

What is this thing called a WordPress dashboard that I just logged into?  Luckily my password was saved in Firefox or I may have not remembered what the password was.  Hello everybody again.  It has been a while since my last blog post and that was a decision that I made several weeks ago.  I was beginning to spread myself too thin between a million different projects that I had going on, plus my personal life was very busy as well.  I just got back from a nice trip back north and have some good things to talk about.

First, I had decided to go to the 140 Conference in New York, so since I was going up there I may as well make a trip out of it and visit family.  I flew into Allentown on Saturday and spent 2 days in PA with my family before taking the bus up to NYC for a few days.  NYC was awesome!  I have been there before, but only stayed over night there one time.  This was Amanda’s second time in NYC and first time staying over night, so she was beyond excited.  I think the million photos and over 20 minutes of Flip cam video we have proves that.  I just finished editing the video last night to make a 15 minute movie, so I will cut down some of that into clips and post online soon.

I went to NYC with only 3 testing strips, more on that in tomorrow’s post.  On Wednesday, we took a bus back home and it was more time with the family until this past Saturday when we had to fly back home.  Anytime I go up north and see family, it really puts things into a totally different perspective for me.  Down here in Florida I am constantly on the go, whether it is writing 5 blog posts right after each other, then jumping into Photoshop, then heading to Starbucks for a meeting, then desiging a new web page and before you know it, it’s 2:00 a.m.  Up there, everything slows down.  I only check mail a few times throughout the day on my phone, if it’s not an emergency, then it can wait.  Seeing my 5-month old niece for only the 2nd time since she was born is a bittersweet moment as well.  It’s great to see her, but also realize how much you miss by living down here.

Then comes the diabetes part.  Every family member that I visit is asking me about my diabetes and sometimes I wish I just had a recorder to give the same answer to everybody.  But all in all, it is good to be back, mainly because I don’t receive paychecks up north, ha.  And I’m back to getting up at 7 and starting my new diet (going to beach in July with parents and brother’s family, so I can’t weigh more than my brother!).

Have a great Monday everybody and I look forward to talking with you all on Twitter again.

I’m Still Alive, Just Away

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I haven’t been  blogging lately or have I been on Twitter.  I’ve been really busy around here with camping last weekend, traveling up north next week, losing my dog, and purchasing my first ever Mac.

I just wanted to post quickly, this is my first post using my Mac and I absolutely love it.  I am now trying to get this thing ready to be my full time machine by switching over a lot of stuff.  The number one thing that I am missing is my Adobe CS4, which I might just have to get the full CS5 package!

Well, until next time, have a great day.

Non-Diabetic Post – More Info about my career

Chris Stocker

This post is a little less on the diabetic side and more on the business side of things.  So if you don’t want to hear about marketing then today’s post is not for you, come back tomorrow for Fired Up Friday.  My career is internet marketing.  That is just the general aspect of it, but there is a lot more detailed things I do, but that is a good generalization.  One of the things that I do is affiliate management.  Here is a quick explanation of affiliate marketing.  You have a blog or website.  You put a banner or ad on your website.  If somebody clicks on that ad and then proceeds to buy something from the company, you receive a commission for it.  That is one form, the other form is being paid every time somebody clicks on the ad, like Google Ad Sense.

Why am I talking about this?  Because there has been a new online community that has come about over the past few months that I am part of and think it is an excellent idea for anybody who wants to start making money from their current website or websites that they have always thought about building.  I know a lot of people in the diabetes community don’t want to put ads on their sites and that is perfectly fine.  I think that having ads on your site is a great thing.  As long as you are staying true to yourself and not just promoting things because it makes you money, then you are doing it right.  For example, if you use Freestyle Lite test strips and would never use any other because you think they are the best, why not put a Freestyle ad on your site?

Or maybe you own another site.  I own over 30 domains, some active, some are not.  I write 3 blogs, some daily and some weekly.  I make a lot of money off of those sites.  Why?  Because I am straight forward from the very beginning.  I don’t hide things, I don’t write reviews I don’t believe.  I don’t talk about products if I don’t truly believe in what I am saying about them.  It is called transparency (link to post about transparency on another blog I write).

Anyway, onto the community.  It is called Third Tribe Marketing.  It is not free, there is a monthly membership.  If you are interested in making money off of a blog or website, then trust me, you will quickly make your money back from the things that you learn on this site.  That link that I have put there is an affiliate link.  So like I said earlier, I am always up front.  By you clicking on that link and you signing up as a member I will receive a commission for it.  I am a member of this community as well and paying for it, so obviously I believe in it.

If you would like more information about it before you sign up, feel free to e-mail me.

MMM Insulin

Chris Stocker 2 Comments

There is nothing better than opening up a box full of insulin.  It’s a huge relief when you open it and you see 16 boxes of vials of insulin.  This is the earliest that I re-ordered my insulin, because I am going to be travel a lot over the next few weeks, so I wanted to make sure that I had it before I started to travel.

This upcoming weekend I am going to the Keys to go camping.  I have only been camping once or twice since I’ve had diabetes.  It is a lot different of a vacation to be camping than it is to be at a hotel or visiting home because you are constantly outside.  We aren’t doing the “camping” where you have running water and electricity, and fans and all the stuff that you shouldn’t have when you are camping.  We have a tent, a small grill, fishing poles, sleeping bags, lanterns and some fire wood.

I am taking 3 vials of insulin, a whole box of infusion sets, 3 reservoirs, 2 site injectors and 50 test strips.  I think that should be enough for Friday-Sunday.

The following Saturday I am leaving to fly home to PA for a few days and then I am going to NYC for a conference on the 19-21.  Anytime that I go to a conference somewhere up north, I like to try and take a trip to PA as well to visit family, especially since I have a new little niece up there as well.

Well, this is a short post, but I am trying to get a lot of things done in the next few days before I go on the camping trip.  I hope I don’t run into any pythons or Gambian pouch rats, if you don’t know what they are, read this!