The new math: 11 roses is greater-than 12

Valentine’s Day used to be about adults who are romantically involved, adults trying to rekindle the romance, or teenagers who thought what they felt were really in love.

Six years ago, Valentine’s Day began to represent something new to me: children. February 14, 2007 is the day my first son was born, and the day that my priorities in life changed forever.

Imagine seeing your child suffering — dying — because they life-saving treatments he or she needs are not within your reach. Can you imagine it? I can’t. I can’t even bring myself to think about it. But to some, it is a reality.

That’s what the Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign is all about. The whole idea is beautiful in its simplicity. You’ve probably heard of it already, but previous attempts to reach you were misdirected to your Spam folder (as Kerri’s email to me was), here’s the scoop: (you can read the description in long-form, including how to spread the word, here)

We want to help the Life for a Child program, sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation, which aims to take “contributions from donors [to] go to established diabetes centers enabling them to provide the ongoing clinical care and diabetes education these children need to stay alive.” Our idea was to take the typical “dozen roses,” so popular on Valentine’s Day, and save just one rose to spare the life of a child. “Spare a Rose, Save a Child” is simple: buy one less rose this Valentine’s Day and share the value of that flower with a child with diabetes in the developing world. Your loved one at home still gets flowers, and you both show some love to someone who needs it.

You can share the value of that 12th rose by using the shortlink to the IDF website set up as part of this campaign: http://bit.ly/SpareRoseSaveChild.  This program runs through Saturday the 16th although contributions, of course, will be accepted at any time.

If you’re like most guys — myself included — you won’t even think about buying your loved one a gift until 5:30pm on Thursday (I still get heat for not getting my wife anything six Valentine’s Days ago… hey, I was distracted!), so it’s not too late.  And if you’re not a guy, well, you can participate too.

I hope you will.

#sparearose

It’s mine, and I’m not sharing

When we ask people for their impressions of the Diabetes Online Community, there are certain phrases that come up all the time:  Emotional and moral support.  They understand me.  Learning new techniques. Knowing that’m not alone.

For the most part, I agree with those — but there is something about that last one, the feeling-alone one, that the DOC has a way of reinforcing.  Something that makes my diabetes, or more accurately: my life with diabetes, different than everyone else’s.

Why I support JDRF

On Thursday evening, I attended the JDRF Type-1 Adult Meetup in New York City.  It was a great chance to meet some of the friends I’ve made online, but now in real life.  It was also a chance to meet others who I’d not known previously: like the woman who was diagnosed fifty years ago, the mother whose infant son had T1 before she did, and the twentysomething who learned of his insulin-dependence just a few years ago.

To many, JDRF is all about finding a cure.  Or at least it should be about that, they say.  I’ve read and heard the criticisms: that they throw too much support towards the Artificial Pancreas, that they are negligent in not supporting Dr. Faustman’s research, that that they’re a sell-out to big Pharma and big business, and pretty much any other conspiracy theory you can come up with.

I don’t believe it.

In memoriam

I hate this kind of news.  I don’t know of the circumstances, but it doesn’t much matter anyway. Elizabeth is one of us.

A prayer for Ryan

See the end of this post for the story of this image

Fellow D-Blogger Meri from Our Diabetic Life, still needs our support as her husband continues his battle with cancer.  After reading the latest update, I felt compelled me to write this.

For the latest info, please click on this GiveForward site or visit the Schuhmacher Family Miracle Facebook page. On the GiveForward site, you can also make a donation to help the family with the financial burden due to the ongoing medical treatment.

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Dear God,