Expo

Oct. 11, I went to the Diabetes Expo. I was a little hesitant to go, worried that the information offered might be too basic, that the crowds would bug me, that the give-aways of diabetic friendly "foods" would send me into a rant. I'm glad I went. There was some really good information and evidence of support (see sketch above) always gives me hope.

I only went to two seminars. The first was about eye health. The first half was so-so, focused on encouraging everyone to get annual eye exams; I do that anyway. The second half was more interesting. The doctor showed images of healthy retinas and those affected by diabetic retinopathy. I like the nerdy science stuff and the understanding of what that really looks like.

The other seminar was about Continuous Glucose Monitoring, which I now think is a really good idea, despite the extra bit to jab under my skin. I'd been to the Animas/One Touch booth in the exhibit hall and learned that the latest available model is the Ping, which links the meter and the pump wirelessly and looks very cool. But, even better, they're working on also linking to the Dexcom7 continuous sensors. That set should be available mid-2009. So, a meter, a continuous sensor and a pump that talk to each other. I'm hoping my current pump holds up past waranty and the insurance battle doesn't get too ugly. Maybe I'll start the war now. Can you even ask for something that's not available?

The exhibit hall was, like most conventions, a mixed bag. The lines for 'food' were very long and there was a lot of stuff I didn't care about. But, I got a tip from one rep about trying a different format for my pump back-up insulin (get a pen instead of a vial). And, in addition to hearing about the new Animas products out and coming, I learned that there's new software, now compatible with my meter and with Mac. No more need to split my hard drive to run a program in Windows! (see above, I'm a nerd.) Still waiting to hear back on getting that upgrade, but I have a little time before next endo appt....