Whirlwind of Awesome (& Strip Safely)

Whew! It has been an amazing couple of months for me. I have so much I’d like to say about so many things, but I’m short on time (seems to be a theme of mine lately). I’m heading off to the YMCA for some afternoon basketball, which I’m hoping buys me some slack from you guys.

In the meantime, let’s round things up with some bullet points and I’ll expand on each of these with posts in the coming days.

• June brought the ADA Scientific Sessions in Chicago. It was an intense week of learning, meetings, and nurturing relationships. Roche Diabetes Care helped Cherise and the Diabetes Community Advocacy Foundation put together a live meetup and DSMA Live broadcast. It went well, but was nothing compared to our next one (more to come on that in a second).
• In July I was honored to receive CWD’s Friends for Life Award alongside Kerri. We were recognized for our work in helping Friends for Life develop meaningful sessions for the growing audience of adults with type 1. It was a once in a lifetime moment, and one that I’ll remember forever. I was given a beautiful framed certificate surrounded by a bunch of great photos from past conferences. The photos around my award were customized, and appropriately, two of the three pictures I’m in have Kerri in them too. We make a good team, and I don’t think we could have done it without each other.  More importantly, we couldn’t have done it without the support of you guys. Thank you! I hope we’ll continue to have your support and your help in shaping the adults with type 1 track.
• Early August was AADE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. This was another week of incredible sessions, learning, exhibitors, meetings, and more. Roche Diabetes Care brought together a live meetup with a broadcast of DSMA Live. It was a huge success! The room was overflowing with people from the community, many who drove for hours specifically for the event. I’m honored to have been a part of it.
• Last weekend was the 14th North American Conference on Diabetes and Exercise put together by insulindependence. It was an amazing conference with a bunch of top-notch speakers and educators. The participants were superheroes in their own right, and are people I read about in my diabetes superhero comic books (there’s no such thing, but if there were it would be full of these people). It was a life-changing experience just to be in the same room as these incredible people.  Topping the trip off was my surprising win of the 2013 Athletic Achievement Award – thanks to all of the incredible support and help from you guys. The DOC really pulled me through, and I can’t thank you enough. I’m hoping to go bike shopping soon and get in a few rides before it starts getting cold here in Minnesota.
• Strip Safely “Tweet-In” tonight! Kerri wrote a great post about this today that I encourage you to check out. There is also a post up at Strip Safely that talks about the campaign and goal for tonight. Our mission is to hit our Senate and House leadership with a message via twitter about our concern over inaccurate test strips on the market. We’re looking to jump on this an hour before #DSMA. Let’s handle some business before we handle our business, M’Kay?