This was the first thing I read when I woke up this morning (as I treated a nagging low BG). I have read it a few times throughout the day, and have read it 3 more times as I’m getting ready for bed tonight. I hope to absorb this message, let it really sink in. Let it soak through and weigh heavy in my heart. I’d like to live more like this. It’s a quote too good to keep to myself. You are already naked. How beautiful.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. ”

—Steve Jobs (1955-2011)
Co Founder Apple Inc.

This is from my Thank You Supporters email, however TODAY ASC reached a flabbergasting milestone and based on yesterday’s news, the final paragraph needed to be updated too:

Wow!  We did it!  We raised an astounding $40,714.55 and we still have donations and sweepstakes ticket sales rolling in.  We have achieved a fundraising level far beyond my greatest hopes.  Thank you!

We had Walkers this year from NY, NJ, PA, IL, VA and MN.  We had our largest Walk team ever.  We had friends and family from the very first Alecia’s Stem Cells team in 2001 and first time walkers who’d never been across the Brooklyn Bridge.  We had a grandmother who’s T1D, a 40-something T1D (me), a 20-something T1D and a 8-year old T1D.  The team may carry my name, but we were walking for ALL of us. Alecia’s Stem Cells was announced as one of the top 5 fundraising teams for JDRF NYC.  We ran out of yellow ASC team ONE to NONE shirts and even had some walkers in the grey shirts from our online fundraising sale last month.  Simply put, it was AMAZING adventure this year.

At our post Walk lunch, I finally got to announce what I’d been waiting 2 months to say, this year I was saying good-bye to Alecia’s Stem Cells.  Sunday 9/28 was the end of a HUGE part of my life with JDRF and the Walk program.  This team has walked 15 JDRF walks;  13 in NYC, 1 in Boston and 1 in LA.  Sunday wasn’t just an end though, it was a step for me in the next level of my involvement with JDRF, and a new adventure.  I am now joining JDRF’s endurance sports program, specifically I am looking to participate in 2015’s “The Ride” which is a 100 mile bike ride held in various spots across the United States (including Death Valley which sounds like a place I’d like to avoid).  I am excited and scared silly to train for something like this, not just as a T1D navigating low and high blood sugars in an endurance sport, but as someone training on a bike via Manhattan streets (yikes… well for now).  My next “step” is less about stepping and more about pedaling.

To the Walkers, the fundraisers, the donors, and everyone who sold/bought our online shirts and Mercedes raffle tickets, I thank you.  Whether you walked or cheered us on, you are indeed part of the ASC team.  Thank you to everyone who supported my fellow walkers too.  We had many walkers who reached V1P status by raising over $1000 for our team.  Thank you for supporting my dream, a dream shared by so many others involved with JDRF, that there IS a future where T1D simply doesn’t exist.

As all this Walk stuff has been going on, I have been involved in another project that has been a rollercoaster (since June 2013).  On Friday, I had my final screening at Mt. Sinai for the next step as a hopeful participant in an artificial pancreas clinical trial.  As I have mentioned, this is just ONE program that is happening because of a grant from JDRF.  The Artificial Pancreas is not a CURE, but it is an incredible advancement in diabetes care and management.  The Artificial Pancreas Project is JDRF money at work.  This is happening because of YOU.

Yesterday I got my results.  I am no longer a candidate.  I have PARTICIPANT status.

Thank you for helping JDRF turn Type One into Type None.

Now, I need to get a bike (don’t worry, I do have a helmet).

Love and gratitude. xo

Here are some D travel pointers and PLEASE add to them.

There is enough information out there regarding insulin pumps and being on a plane that you could stay busy reading for days. All sorts of info about the affects of altitude, cabin pressure and the pressure in our own bodies. Here’s what I know (for myself). Be prepared to do a pump site change once you get where you’re going. Traveling with extra supplies is a given, so add an extra, to your extra set of supplies, for that change.

You are allowed 2 carry-ons. Do not put your D supplies in the larger of the the 2. I repeat DO NOT. Your roller board may be small and fit perfectly in the overhead BUT that does not mean, with all the other passengers, there will be room for YOUR bag above your seat. If it comes down to checking your bag at the gate or at the door of the plane, frantically pulling out Dexcom and pump supplies with your undies falling out of your bag is no fun. Nope. No fun. Unless you have silly undies.

Insulin pumper? Yes? Bring a back-up pump. You could live your whole life and never have a pump problem. You will go someplace unfamiliar and your pump will be so excited, it will go cuckoo. Lots of companies have pump loaner programs. Did you have a pump BEFORE the one you have now? Bring it. It may be just something else to lug around and if that’s the case, consider yourself lucky. If you are in another country over a major holiday and discover a crack in your pump, no matter how great the pump company is, customs is a biatch and you will really really really be glad you have a back up.

Carry quick sugars that don’t melt. Glucose tabs are my go to. Glucolifts are my current fave but who doesn’t want a Starburst from time to time? They melt. Treating a low while eating the Starburst rapper because it was all melted together is simply not the ideal. Maybe the paper is a source of fiber? Doubtful. No melting treatments for lows. Do it.

Take a photo of your pump settings. Let’s say that awful scenario of having to use your back up pump OR simply something goes wonky with your current pump…. Do you have any idea what your basal rates are off the top of your head? I do not. Having a pic on your phone can be a true game changer. Also this takes maybe 20 seconds to do, so do it.

We all know a zillion horrible D stories of people going through security. I have a few incidents myself which were full-on “oh no you didn’t”. Here’s what I try to do. I try to be pleasant. I smile. I make jokes. I am courteous. Why? Because why the hell not? I want to get on the damn plane, not cause a scene. I engage in conversation. Don’t get me wrong, I actually was in tears once with a bunch of security BS and then flew across country being upset the entire time BUT for the most part, I lay on the charm. Flies, honey, vinegar. You chose.

If all else fails and you’re away from home, and perhaps you’ve traveled all over the damn place and yet THIS is the trip where you forgot a supply, reach out to the DOC. The diabetes online community is a bunch of doers and helpers. It’s amazing and heartwarming. Social media can really be your BFF. When my Dexcom sensor went bananas on a trip to Dallas (and I didn’t bring a spare), I was amazed at people’s willingness to either send me a sensor OR contact Texans they knew to try to help. Amazing. Dexcom Fedexed me a new sensor to my hotel. All worked out but would have loved to have skipped that stress.

I’m off and running! Travel safe.

So many memories.

“Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.”
—R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983)
Archtiect, Engineer, Inventor

No explanation needed. Self reminder. Blog is sounding like diary. Better than sounding like dairy. Oops.

You see this?

Do you know what it is? It’s the clip for an Animas Ping pump. When I came home tonight I changed my clothing and took my pump out of my pocket to clip it to my shirt. Where’s the clip? From start to finish (with a break I’m not counting to eat), I spent 30+ minutes looking for the clip. I don’t have much space (I MAY be a little messy). I definitely had the clip this morning when I was getting dressed.
Based on the photo, you’d think I found the clip right? You would be wrong. Shortly after I passed the 30 minute mark I decided to start looking for the emergency back-up clip. I found that in about 2 minutes.
This is why one of the greatest gifts ever is an extra pump clip. One might also think this is why I should be cleaning-up instead of typing this story. That one is probably correct but should mind their own business.