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Monthly Archives: May 2012

DSMA Live with Amy Tenderich on 5/31/2012

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Cherise Shockley

Amy Tenderich, Founder and Editor DiabetesMine

Amy Tenderich is a journalist / patient blogger who started DiabetesMine.com after her diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2003. Her site has become a leading online destination for people with Diabetes and one of the top health blogs around the country and the world. In 2006, she won the LillyforLife Achievement Award for Diabetes journalism from Eli Lilly & Company.

She is the co-author, along with Dr. Richard Jackson of Joslin Diabetes Center, of Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes – a unique motivational guide to the 5 key medial tests that everyone with Diabetes should have and monitor regularly.

Amy is also community manager of DiabeticConnect.com, the fastest-growing and most successful social networking site for people with Diabetes, with 400,000 registered members to date.

She recently joined DiabeticConnect’s parent company Alliance Health Networks, creators of social networks for people living with chronic conditions, as VP of Patient Advocacy. She’s totally passionate about patient empowerment, and has become a well-known advocate for all people
with Diabetes and all engaged “e-patients” everywhere.

Amy lives on the fringes of San Francisco, CA, with her husband, three daughters, and a calico cat.

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After Thoughts: Sara Nicastro

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Scott K. Johnson

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I’m totally going to catch some flack for using this picture, but C’mon…. it is pretty awesome, isn’t it? I just couldn’t resist.

Huge thanks to Sara for helping us out at the last second. Our scheduled guest had a very valid excuse (something about a hospital stay) and couldn’t make the show. Sara responded to our cry for help, and I’m so glad she did! We had a really fun time talking about a million different things.

Sara is already planning her 10-year diabetes anniversary party, and everyone is invited! We heard about making new connections through twitter and how she is recruiting new D-folk into the twitter fold everywhere she goes. Sara talked a bit about some of the fun activities her local JDRF chapter have organized for adults living with type 1.

We spent a lot of time talking about clinical trials, and one study she enrolled for (but didn’t qualify). It was fascinating to hear about all of the steps involved. It was also good to talk about clinical studies in general. JDRF has a Clinical Trials page that you can check out if you’d like to investigate some studies. There are also companies, such as Corengi, that specialize in helping people find clinical studies (Corengi currently has information on type 2 diabetes only, but I’m told they are working to include type 1 studies too).

Next we talked about the Friends for Life conferences (Sara is a pro!), and it was a great opportunity to share the magic of these conferences with our listeners.

We also covered a lot of ground around depression and diabetes. It’s a hard thing to talk about, and Sara being so open about her life with depression, and how it relates to diabetes (as well as everything else), is a testament to her desire to help people who are also living with it. She has graciously offered to be a resource if you need someone to talk to about depression, you can e-mail her at Sara (at) MomentsOfWonderful (dot) com. Thank you Sara.

We quickly ran out of time, and could have chatted with Sara for the rest of the evening. It was a great show, and I sure hope you’ll share some of your time with us and check it out.

– Stream the show, Download the MP3 (~15MB), grab the podcast via iTunes, or listen below.

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Categories: DSMA Live: After Thoughts | Tags: ASPIRE Study, Clinical Trials, Depression, Friends for Life, JDRF, Sara

After Thoughts: Caroline Sheehan

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Scott K. Johnson

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This week we got to hear all about Caroline! I had such a fun time because Caroline is overflowing with joy and happiness, and you could absolutely hear it as she shared with us.

When she’s not working, she stays busy helping ACT1 Diabetes (Adults Coping With Type 1 Diabetes), an incredible group in the New York area whose mission is all about helping the most vulnerable populations within their community. Though the group is local to the New York area, their help and service spans the nation.

We also heard about their non-prescription supply exchange program, and how there is an overwhelming demand for help and donations. If you are able to help, please do reach out to them.

Caroline also mentioned a website, RxAssist.org, a comprehensive database of patient assistance programs, that may help people and providers find assistance programs.

We talked about running, cycling, triathlons, and marathons. Both George and I were SO impressed, and the messages that Caroline shared were so inspirational.

We hope you’ll check out the show and get a little slice of joy from Caroline! We sure enjoyed it!

Be sure to check out Caroline’s Blog too.

– Stream the show, Download the MP3 (~15MB), grab the podcast via iTunes, or listen below.

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Categories: DSMA Live: After Thoughts | Tags: ACT1 Diabetes, Caroline Sheehan, Donations, Exercise, Inspiration, Patient Assistance, Support

After Thoughts: Charles Mattocks

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Scott K. Johnson

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In perhaps my favorite show ever, we chatted with Charles Mattocks, an amazing man on an amazing journey. He says he wants to be the biggest thing in the world of diabetes, and he’s well on his way.

After a frustrating and eye-opening (in a scary way) diagnosis, Charles decided that he needed to do something to help others going through similar situations.

And boy, did he ever. In fact, Charles has so much going on that I can’t understand how he keeps it all moving.

He is filming a documentary about life with diabetes, traveling the world to tell the story of diabetes on a global scale. In one part of the show he talks about how the number of people with diabetes is growing so fast that he can’t keep his movie trailers up to date fast enough. The documentary project is called “The Diabetic You“, and I’m really looking forward to watching it evolve. He started the project to capture his life with diabetes, but shortly after starting, he started to see a much bigger picture, and took the idea to the next level.
He continues to passionately share great and affordable cooking info from “The Poor Chef“, and you can see him all over the TV screen, and grab the book “Eat Cheap but Eat Well“.
He’s working with a number of companies to hit the streets! He’s getting out there where the people are and doing diabetes screening and spreading reliable information in a positive and fun way. At their first ever Diabetes Mall Testing event they screened over 350 people. This is taking big ideas down to where the action is needed. Action, information, education, out in the streets where the people need it.

You would think that a person’s passion could only be spread so thin, but when you listen to Charles talk about each of these ideas, you can literally hear the passion in him about ALL of them. Above and beyond these, you can hear his passion working on even more ideas to make a difference in more people’s lives.

Charles and his team made a real impact on the DSMA Live team, and we encourage you to check out the show to get in on the action. He needs our help, and it’s the least we can do to offer our support.

You can catch both Charles and his manager, Nina, on twitter. They’d love to hear from you!

– Stream the show, Download the MP3 (~15MB), grab the podcast via iTunes, or listen below.

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Categories: DSMA Live: After Thoughts | Tags: Charles Mattocks, Diabetic Mall Testing, Eat Cheap but Eat Well, The Diabetic You, The Poor Chef