Sad news and a plea.

Hey Dad,

I am sorry it's taken me a while to write.  The last thing I wrote about was trying to find public diabetes education and information events.  I did attend the Chicago ADA Diabetes Expo and collected some samples for you and got to talk to folks who do different community-based work, but I've not felt much like writing about it.  You see, just a few hours after I got home from that event, my family got the call that another one of our dads was dying and that we needed to get down to Missouri immediately.  So we packed up the car and arrived in time to sit vigil with even more family for L's last hours.  We were only home for a few days before heading back down for the memorial mass.  It's been a long couple of weeks and I'm just now trying to get back to work.

L was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over 30 years ago and had managed the disease, when he managed it, pretty well with diet and oral medications.  He wasn't a model patient--we toasted him with bourbon, after all--but he did pretty well considering the lack of resources that were available when he was diagnosed.  In fact, it wasn't until the last year that he needed insulin, which only started after he went on dialysis for kidney failure.  L had been investigating transplant options for a kidney when he developed other complications with his gall bladder.  When his recovery from gall bladder surgery became severely complicated by the dialysis, they discovered he had liver cancer.  There was less than a month between diagnosis and his passing, nowhere near enough time to process the reality of the situation before it was time to say goodbye.  L was only 67 and he will be missed dearly.  

You would have liked L and I am so sad that you never had the chance to meet.  He had a generosity of spirit and acceptance that put the people he welcomed into his life at ease and he laughed loudly and easily.  I smiled when I heard his laugh from 3 rooms away the same way I do when I hear you laugh like that.  He reminded me of you.

So, Dad, I am so grateful that you've been doing well with keeping your blood sugar in check.  Please do what you can to spare us from suffering this kind of loss again, even if it means going in for regular checkups when you feel just fine.  Just do it, please.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna do what I can to help improve access to meaningful help for people with diabetes.

I love you.

-Mel

In search of diabetes events.

One of the things I do for my research is I attend conferences and educational programs about diabetes care.  Those meetings are targeted for health care professionals, industry, and researchers and cost quite a bit of money to attend--especially if you are not a member of a big professional organization like the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE).  These folks are really excited to travel to spend several days with people who do the type of work that they do so they can geek out together share ideas about diabetes care.

No joke, I took this picture at the AADE conference in Indianapolis last year.  I swear it was for an opening plenary session around 8:45 a.m. and not an evening rock concert.  I had not had enough coffee for the blaring conference theme song, but now that I've seen the video I kind of wish there had been a big dance number on that stage.

Normal folks would be lulled to sleep by most of the stuff they talk about in these conferences.

I might have been a lot like that woman in the second row who is slouched so far down the seat that she might startle herself awake when she falls off if I weren't studying the audience as much as the stuff they were talking about.

Even so, I have learned a lot about the state of diabetes treatment, new technologies, and information that diabetes educators are using to help their patients bring down their A1Cs and keep them there.

You should have access to this information, too.  The industry assumes that patients will get information from their health care providers and diabetes educators, but if you can't make, keep or afford those appointments, it cuts you off from really important information that coud make a big difference in how you live with diabetes.

So what sorts of educational events do the big diabetes organizations put on for the general public?

So far, the only widely publicized event I have found from the major organizations is the ADA's Diabetes Expo where they do health screenings, activities, cooking demos, product samples, etc.  They even have family activities programming so that folks who wouldn't be able to attend due to child care issues can bring their kids along.  They have these events in various cities throughout the year and I will be attending it in Chicago this Saturday (4/13).

A smaller not-for-profit organization, Taking Control of Your Diabetes also has one-day events in several cities.  These aren't free, but they are pretty inexpensive if you don't have to travel to get to them.  I hope to attend one of these conferences because it looks like their approach is much more tailored to the needs of the attendees by having two different tracks for people with type 1 vs. type 2 diabetes since their experiences are different.

I keep searching for big community health events around diabetes and it leads me back to the ADA and the National Diabetes Education Program at the NIH that offers free resources for community organizations to do diabetes education events in their communities.  So I think this means that if you're looking for a chance to talk about diabetes or to be screened for it free of charge, your best bet is to look for local clinics and health centers to see if they have any upcoming events.  You might also find that your local park district or department of public health has events.

I would suggest doing a Google search on:  diabetes event <city> <year> (fill in the city and year; if there's nothing for your city, try a nearby city, county, or state).  Doing that search for Chicago 2013, I was able to find listings for a few other events that are happening in the area, including Living Well with Diabetes at the University of Chicago Medicine Kovler Diabetes Center.

Also, event organizers often leave fliers at coffee shops, cafes, grocery stores and other public bulletin boards.  If you're looking for an event, just take a moment to read the signs that you see posted. If you can't make it to the event that's advertised or if you just missed it, you might be able to call or email the organizers to find out about other opportunities that will be in your area.

What do you find when you search for diabetes events in your area?