Today is the first day of Diabetes Blog Week and the first prompt is all about sharing blogs that we think others may not know about and introducing them to the community.

The majority of the blogs that I read on a regular basis are well established and have been known to the community for quite some time.  There are some blogs, however, that have been around for a while that don’t get the attention that I believe they deserve.  Two of them come to mind immediately.

Joy Benchmarks is the blog of friend and fellow DOC member, Marie Smith.  Marie was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in July 2011, and has lived with myasthenia gravis and thymoma cancer since 1998.  Despite all of the challenges she’s faced, Marie has maintained a great attitude about all of it and has an awesome sense of humor.  I had the pleasure of meeting Marie at the Chicago Diabetes EXPO last month.  It was great experiencing her positive energy and sense of humor in person.  So, take the time to visit her blog and get to know her story.  You’ll be glad you did.

Tales of SWAGing is the blog of my dear friend, Ashley.  Ashley’s blog started as an annoying assignment for an annoying college writing course, and it probably wouldn’t be around today had it not been for the inspiration Ashley found during Diabetes Blog Week.  It’s been a joy to watch the development of Tales of SWAGing over the last 2 years, and it has definitely helped being able to read the experiences of a friend who also takes lizard spit (byetta). Thanks for sticking with it, Ash!

In short, if you’re not already reading these blogs, you should be.

Diabetes Blog Week: Day 1 Prompt: It seems the most popular thing about Diabetes Blog Week is that it helps us find blogs we weren’t reading yet and connect with some new blog friends. With that in mind, let’s kick off Diabetes Blog Week by making some new connections. Think about the d-blogs you read that you think we may not know about and introduce us to one that you love!! Let’s all find a new friend today! (Special thanks to Gina, everybody’s Diabetes BFF, for helping me title this post!)

This morning I woke to the little chirping sound my droid makes every time an email is received.  Normally, I turn that off before going to bed, but didn’t get that done before I passed out last night.  I reached for the phone, checked the email and found it was a DM from my buddy Mike Hoskins.  He had a favor to ask and wondered if I’d be around during the day.  I replied, “yeah, what’s up?”

Turns out he was heading north to Detroit for a JDRF function and couldn’t find a particular diabetes accessory that he really wanted for the outfit he planned to wear.  And he knew that I had one because he saw me wearing it during the trip to Chicago last month.  Since he was going to be driving through Fort Wayne any way, he figured it was worth a chance to ask if he could borrow mine.

But what was this accessory you ask?  The Blue Circle pin.

Yes, as April put it, Mike sent me a message from 100+ miles away asking “dude, can I borrow your pin?”  And,  of course, I said “Absolutely!”

So, Mike and Riley the D-Dog made a stop here in Fort Wayne for a brief D-Meetup.  We met at Panera Bread, of course, and had a nice chat about a lot of different things.  It’s great being able to sit down with dear friends and catch up like that.

And before we went our separate ways, I removed my pin from the collar of my shirt and gave it to him.  And that was that.

Mike has a Blue Circle pin for his outfit, I have a funny story about a friend who drove 100+ miles to borrow a pin, and we both have the memory of another d-meetup.

Good times!

The 3rd annual Diabetes Blog Week is quickly approaching and I’ve signed up to participate once again.  For more information and to sign up, click the link below and head over to Karen’s Bitter-Sweet Diabetes blog.

Click for more info.

Many thanks to Karen for organizing this great event for our community again this year.

Today is the day after I completed the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and there’s one last thing to do: Recap HAWMC.

Recap HAWMC. You did it! 30 posts in 30 days. Which was your favorite prompt? Which was the most difficult? Which ideas will you reuse? Who was your favorite fellow blogger?

HAWMC ended yesterday and I’m proud to say that I completed it this time around.  I had 30 posts in 30 days.  Granted, I didn’t follow all of the prompts and had to play catch up a few times, but I took no passes.  And I’m feeling quite accomplished.

I like about half of the posts that I wrote and think most of them are worth another look.  Some were written on catch up days, so I know they were missed by some.  So, I’ve listed them below.  Take a few minutes to check them out.

Favorites

Day 3: The Ability to Control Time

Day 4: It Helps Someone

Day 5: Learning to Fly Again

Day 7: There’s More to Life

Day 9: Keep Calm

Day 10: Dear Mike

Day 11: A Theme Song

Day 14: A Pretty Cool Day

Day 16: Take This Pin and Blog It!

Day 17: Good Things Come from Bad Situations

Day 20: Chicago Diabetes Expo 2012

Day 24: A Recipe for a Mascot

Day 25: The Day We Met

Day 26: A Little Heart

As for favorite bloggers? Well, I’ve enjoyed all of the posts that I’ve read.  It would be unfair to choose any one over another.  Kudos to everyone who participated in HAWMC and congrats to everyone who made it through all 30 days.

And in the words of Porky Pig, “That’s all folks!”

It’s day 30 of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and the prompt is: Word Cloud.

Word Cloud. Make a word cloud or tree with a list of words that come to mind when you think about your blog, health, or interests. Use a thesaurus to make the branches of your “tree” extend further. http://www.wordle.net/

The word cloud generated by Wordle.net using the RSS feed for my blog.

It’s day 29 of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and today’s prompt is: Six Sentence Story.

Six Sentence Story. In this day of micro-blogging – brevity is a skill worth honing. Can you tell a story and make it short and sweet? What can you say in six sentences. Check out some here: http://sixsentences.blogspot.com/

I thought that I’d take a practical approach to this prompt today and come up with something that might be helpful in the future.  Like an elevator speech.  You know, a quick introduction speech for those times when you only have a minute or so to tell someone who you are, what you do, and how to find more information about and get in touch with you.  So, here goes.

Hi, I’m Mike Durbin and I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure in December 2008 at age 24.  I write a blog about living with those issues as a 20-something. It’s called My Diabetic Heart and can be found at www.mydiabeticheart.com. The website contains my diagnosis story, posts on daily life, and various resources have helped me along the way.  Let me give you a business card with the web address and contact information so you can check it out when you have a chance and reach out with any questions you may have.  It’s nice meeting you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

It’s day 28 of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and I’m in the process of catching up on some of the prompts.
In the mean time, here are some photos from my trip to the zoo yesterday.  This was the first time visiting the zoo since I bought the new camera.  Enjoy.

As always, if you like what you see, let me know. 

It’s day 27 of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and the prompt is: 5 Challenges & 5 Small Victories.

5 Challenges & 5 Small Victories. Make a list of the 5 most difficult parts of your health focus. Make another top 5 list for the little, good things (small victories) that keep you going.

Challenges

1) The Expense – The monthly co-pays for 12 medications, testing supplies and related stuff, as well as the mountain of hospital bills that I’m trying to pay off are the constitute the biggest challenge I have in living with type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure.

2) Mental Exhaustion – The stress of trying to deal with the expenses, the daily maintenance routine, crazy work schedules, and family issues is exhausting.  Extremely exhausting.  And that leads to other problems.

3) Exercise – Maintaining an exercise regimen is something that I’ve always struggled with doing.  It’s a work in progress.

4) Diet – No one is perfect.

5) Keeping my health from being center stage all the time.

Victories

1) Seeing the numbers 100, 111, and 123 on my meter.  It makes sense if you have diabetes.

2) Realizing that my love of nature photography and the simple act of walking can be combined for a great exercise opportunity.

3) Writing this blog helps with the mental aspects of diabetes and CHF.

4) Finding the Diabetes Online Community.

5) Carbe Diem, in Moderation!

It’s day 26 of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and the prompt is: Health tagline.
Health tagline. Give yourself, your blog, your condition, or some aspect of your health a tagline. Make sure it’s catchy!

I’ve given a lot of thought to this prompt and have come up with several taglines that would work.  This one, however, seems to fit the best.  When I look at how far I’ve come in the last few years and the things I’ve been able to accomplish,  I can’t help but think:

“A little heart can do big things.”

]]> http://www.mydiabeticheart.com/2012/04/26/a-little-heart/feed/ 1 http://www.mydiabeticheart.com/2012/04/25/the-day-we-met/ http://www.mydiabeticheart.com/2012/04/25/the-day-we-met/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:00:00 +0000 Mike http://www.mydiabeticheart.com/?p=3301 Hot:

It’s day 25 of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge and the prompt is: Third person post.

Write about a memory you have but describe it using the third person. Use as many sensory images (sights, sounds, textures, etc) as you can. Don’t use “I” or “me” unless you include dialogue.

They met on “move-in day” their first year of college.   One of the deans held an annual cookout at his home to kickoff each school year and they both attended.

April attended the cookout with her father and Mike was with his roommates, the only people he knew at the time.   And, somehow, they all ended up sitting in the same area at the cookout.

The usual where are you from and what will you be studying kinds of questions were exchanged.  She was originally from Jackson, Tennessee but had lived in Fort Wayne for many years and was to study mechanical engineering.  He was from Louisville, Kentucky and would study computer information systems.

Both of them were drawn by the fact that they were both southerners of sorts, had some of the same interests, and liked the same music.  April’s dad had been a DJ at a southern gospel radio station years earlier so, naturally, April knew a lot of the artists that Mike mentioned that he liked.  All three thought that was pretty cool.

After a few hours of chatting  during the cookout, each walked away intrigued by the other.  He saw April as someone he’d like to get to know better.  April was certain there was an interesting story behind the sullen and withdrawn fellow she saw that day.

Over the next couple of months, they got to know each other better. And eventually decided to start dating.

And the rest, as they say, is history.  Nearly 10 years worth.