I am sorry I went for so long without blogging. Life has been kind of crazy lately. I know, NO EXCUSE. All kinds of stress will come and go, but diabetes is forever and it does not take time off just because life gets crazy.
This past Saturday I went to the Taking Control Of Your Diabetes conference in Sacramento, Ca. It was fantastic. I don't even know where to start. I could develop a year's worth of blog posts from all the wonderful information I learned from the conference. This conference, put on by TCOYD (Taking Control of Your Diabetes), was the 133rd conference put on by them, and was the 2nd one to take place in Sacramento. I am sad to say that I had never heard about TCOYD until I received a flier for the conference in the mail.
TCOYD was founded by Steven V. Edelmen, MD who is an Endocrinologist and a type 1 diabetic, as well as the author of several publications.
Dr. Edelman.
Founder and Director of TCOYD
The day began with a speech, "Knowledge Gives You the Power to Take Control of Your Diabetes" by Dr. Edelman himself. The speech was very informative and although he discussed a lot of things I already knew, it was great listening to a diabetic speak who I could relate to. He was saying things in his examples that I have heard myself say countless times. One of my favorite examples was, when you test your blood and its 95, you are extremely proud of yourself and you show everyone around you, "hey look my blood is perfect!" But when your blood is 250 and you quickly put your blood machine away and when someone asks how your blood was, you respond, "its fine..." Although most of the information was not new, it energized me to tackle my diabetes again and it gave me new motivation, which I'm sure we all need every now and then.
The second speaker was William Polonsky, PhD, CDE and author of Diabetes Burn Out. I was so excited when he got on stage and I realized who we was. I have read Diabetes Burn Out! It was like listening to a diabetic celebrity.
After that we had our morning break and we were able to explore the health fair. Of course in attendance was the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) as well as some insulin pump companies and pharmaceutical companies, but there were also a lot of other great groups there. Some of my favorites were Diabetes Lifestyle Apparel who sold special shorts to wear under your clothing to hold your pump. I am going to have to invest in a pair in the future because I can imagine it would make wearing a dress or skirt a lot easier. Also there was Sacramento Walking Sticks, a local walking club, and Team Type 1, a national group make up of diabetic athletes including cycling teams, triathlon teams and running teams. I was also able to buy diabetic cookbooks by diabetic chef Robert Lewis, AND he was there to sign them for me. Not only that, but he gave a cooking presentation to the conference on how to cook a healthy yummy meal. AND on top of that, our lunch (with was included in our $25 ticket) was one of his personal recipes.
The special Guest Speaker during lunch was Urban Miyares, a blinded Veteran, Entrepreneur, and Motivational Speaker living well with type 1 diabetes. His speech was titled, "Diabetes Saved My Life." He is an amazing man and gave an amazing speech that brought me to tears a few times.
Urban Miyares
After lunch I actually didn't make it back to any of the break out sessions because I was too busy trying to do and see everything at the health fair. I was able to speak to a Podiatrists and a Dietitian. The Podiatrist actually examined my feet. He told me my circulation was good and that I had no gross deformities to my feet (yay!) He also gave me tips on how to heal my cracked heels. (I will blog about this soon). The Dietitian gave me some great tips about eating and exercise (which I'll also blog about soon).
Overall this conference and health fair was a great experience and I would highly recommend going to any event put on by TCOYD. Thank you for letting me ramble on about my experience and I promise not to be a stranger.
