Get Ready for a Stress Less Back to School Week!

For those of us with kids, Labor Day Weekend is a time of preparation and making the transition from lazy days of summer to gearing up for school days and after school schedules. Make things easier on yourself and your children by putting a little extra effort into planning.

• Stay home this weekend & don't plan any business trips next week: it's a good time to stock up on school supplies, make sure the kids have the outfits they want for that all important First Day of School Dress to Impress and a couple pairs of shoes for feet that are no doubt a few sizes bigger than they were last Spring
• Clean out bedrooms; get rid of clothes that no longer fit or are ripped and torn. Get the study area prepared and show the kids you mean business about those grades this year!
• Take walks or play sports together to relieve stress and anxiety
• Make sure everyone eats well and gets plenty of rest

Thank you macwagen for use of image.

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Thank You Kerri, at Six Until Me for Grand Rounds 4.48

Kerri hosted Grand Rounds again and did a great job using a Dewey Decimal theme. Thanks for including my post Can You Help Jenny? along with some other enlightening summer reading!

Kerri is another diabetic blogger, like Manny Hernandez, founder of tudiabetes.com. What's great about them is they write about living with the illness...day to day.

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Interview with TuDiabetes.com founder Manny Hernandez

The CDC estimates that almost 24 million people in the US have diabetes. The total costs to the US in terms of both medical care and disability are $174 billion. Millions have it, but according to Manny Hernandez, founder of the popular website tudiabetes.com , it is a "closet condition". I had the pleasure of interviewing Manny last week about the communities he created for people touched by diabetes. "In the early stage, people with diabetes don't look different. Some people with type 2 diabetes feel guilty - feel they have inflicted this on themselves. They may be in denial - "Oh I have just a touch of diabetes" - but their fasting blood sugar is 150. The fact is, one in four people walking around has diabetes. That means there is a good chance a lot of people you know have diabetes."

Hernandez was diagnosed with diabetes in 2002 - misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes when actually, he is a "LADA" or type 1.5. LADA is latent autoimmune diabetes in adults, a form of type 1 diabetes that is seen in adults over age 25 years. The oral medications he was initially treated with didn't work for him and a year later he was on insulin to control his blood sugars. In 2005 he started using an insulin pump and the following year went to his first insulin pumpers club. "That was an enlightening experience for me because I hadn't met so many people at different stages of their lives with diabetes before. It was great to be surrounded by groups of people I could relate to on this level. It was powerful to meet other people with diabetes."

"I had been in web product management for ten years and 2006 was when Myspace and Facebook were really catching on - fun tools for socialization. I was reading Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat and started thinking about applying social networking to diabetes. I wanted to create a social network for people who were touched by diabetes. Because in my life, everyone around me was affected by my diabetes. My 5 year old son knows when we play together he has to be careful of my pump. My wife has been very supportive.

So in March 2007 we launched tudiabetes.com as the first social network for people with diabetes. First, some of the most prominent diabetes bloggers came on board and helped build the momentum. We had members join by word of mouth. Later, we found there were important language barriers for people who only spoke Spanish. So we launched estudiabetes.com a sister community in Spanish. Now we have 4000 members for tudiabetes.com and 1000 + members for estudiabetes.com. We also have a presence on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook ,as a way to help get the word out about the communities.

Our goals are simple: 1. Help connect people with diabetes. 2. Raise diabetes awareness. The turning point for us was the Word In Your Hand project we did for World Diabetes Day last year. LifeScan, the makers of the OneTouch glucose meters, licensed Word In Your Hand, allowing us to get my wife and myself started full time on the Diabetes Hands Foundation, a nonprofit we formed to help manage the communities and the diabetes awareness programs.

Our message for people touched by diabetes is 'You are not alone.' When you connect with others you get emotional support plus you get questions answered, something to get you through between your 15 minute office visits with your doctor every three months. You get trust. The future for tudiabetes.com is to continue to spread the word and grow our roots. We recently launched two more awareness programs - Drawing Diabetes - children in the community drew how diabetes affected their lives and the Diabetes Supplies Art Contest."

If your life has been touched by diabetes - join tudiabetes.com or follow tudiabetes on twitter.

Thank you tudiabetes.com for use of photo by Kseniya.

Labels: diabetes, insulin pumps, social networking

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August 10-16 is National Community Health Center Week

The second week of August is dedicated to recognizing the outstanding contributions of Community, Migrant and Homeless Health Centers. They do an outstanding job of providing needed services for America's 44 million uninsured and to those who live in areas without good health care services. Facts about the homeless and health:

1. Homeless people are 3 x more likely to die than the general population. The average age of the homeless is 50 years will people with homes usually live to age 78 years.
   
2. Poor access to quality health care reduces recovery from injury and illnesses.
3. Homeless people have an 8 x higher risk of dying from exposure to the cold than those who have homes.
   
4. Homeless people have a 3-6 x higher rate of illness than those who have homes.
   

Medicaid represents about 40% of the revenue for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) but 40% of the population they serve are uninsured or self-pay. These centers provide health care services for those who would not otherwise have access to primary care and preventive care services - services we take for granted like immunizations, mammograms, pap smears and blood pressure checks. Health centers provide effective case management of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and save taxpayers money by avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits.

Over 90.000 people are employed at health centers around our nation, providing quality health care services to the indigent every day. We are grateful for their contributions to the health of our communities!


Thank You Congressman Ellison for use of your photo of meeting w. Minnesota Association of Community Health Center members.

Labels: community health centers, homeless

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Give Your Kids a Boost - Teens Need Immunizations Too!

Teens are gearing up to return to high school. With all of the academic and social pressures on them these days, they don't need to be worrying about their health. The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) wants us to Give Kids a Boost and get our preteens and teens the booster shots and immunizations recommended to prevent serious communicable diseases.

1. Tetanus, Diptheria and Pertussis (Whooping Cough): Beginning at age 11, all kids need a booster shot, yet less than 15% of kids are getting it.
   
2. Meningococcal: MCV4 is recommended at age 11
3. HPV: Adolescent girls may want to consider this vaccine to prevent cervical cancer
4. Hepatitis A: Ask your school nurse or health care provider about providing this vaccination - almost everyone should have it.

Thank you hoyasmeg for use of picture Girls Waiting.

Labels: back to school, immunizations, vaccinations

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Can You Help Jenny?

A friend reached out to Healthline and requested our help in getting the word out about Jenny, a 14 year old girl from Northern California with atypical motor neuron disease. Motor neuron diseases, like Lou Gehrig's Disease, are progressive muscle weakness disorders.

Mysteriously, over the course of one year, Jenny has gone from being a healthy, active teenager to being nearly completely paralyzed. She began showing symptoms of weakness in spring of 2007, shortly after receiving her third dose of the Gardasil vaccine, however, there is no clear causal relation. In fact, Jenny's father has stated “The FDA and CIDC have been helpful at a personal level in responding to my queries about Gardasil, especially the specific lot that was administered to Jenny. However, the current reporting regulations for pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies are simply inadequate at being able to identify whether a particular vaccine has a higher than normal risk factor.” By March 2008, Jenny was wheelchair bound.

She has had a comprehensive medical work-up and at this point, Jenny, her family and the medical community are asking for your help in finding people with comparable medical histories.

Labels: atypical motor neuron disease, Gardasil vaccine, juvenile ALS

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