Let's Get This D Party Called American Diabetes Month Started!!

Writing this post made my head-spin- in a good way!

So November is American Diabetes Month and November 14^th is WORLD DIABETES DAY. That’s the day when the whole world goes batty and celebrates all things and people related to diabetes.

This is the month where Diabetes is supposed to be in the news daily and diabetes myths are supposed to be debunked by the media. OK- lets keep our fingers crossed that the media actually gets the facts of our disease right.

Those of us living with Diabetes everyday are even more vocal during this month. We take our diabetes cause to the street and across the informational highways and byways, talking about a disease that we’ve become both intimate with and an expert at living with.

It’s ironical that BLUE is the color of choice for National Diabetes Month and World Diabetes Day, because like many, National Diabetes Month makes me both happy and sad.

I’m happy that our disease is being recognized and that our voices as both patients and PWDs are being heard. All of us work hard at managing our disease, and it’s given us wisdom and empathy, But It’s still bittersweet.

Our friend Scott Johnson said what many of us were feeling in his post yesterday: It Cuts Both Ways. To quote Scott: "Living with diabetes is no way to live. Yes, things could always be worse. But living the way we have to live is hard, and it is never ending." AMEN BROTHER.

Still- like Scott and many others, I choose to acknowledge the bittersweet and then celebrate all of our lives this month and every month! Each of us has confronted many diabetes battles including; the physical, the mental, and the Idiot factor that diabetes brings to our world daily. We should be celebrated & commended for our fabulousity - DAILY!

Lots of "Diabetesalicious" things are going on this November that celebrate both our disease and community. I plan on mentioning events and sites whose diabetes info lands in my mailbox and hope to participate as well.

Here are a just few events to start your D Party rolling.

The ADA launches a new movement today called STOPDIABETES.COM. The site hopes to engage people whose lives are affected by diabetes (their own or a loved one or family member - or even risk for type 2 diabetes) and ask them to join the movement by taking an action, sharing their story, participating in an event, etc.

For every person who shares their story, $5 will be donated to the American Diabetes Association. Check it out!

On Saturday November 7^th Gold’s Gym is taking the fight for Diabetes global and is hosting a “Burn-a-thon” in every Gold’s Gym location around the world! All locations will be open to the general public to participate in this record-setting calorie-burning event. Gold’s Gym has partnered with the ADA to set a world-record goal of burning 180 million calories in 24 hours, to demonstrate the need to “do a 180” on the diabetes epidemic.

Gold’s and the ADA hope to raise awareness about diabetes, while spreading the world that exercise is KEY in managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Fitness Pros will be on hand to demonstrate the equipment and consumers can utilize calorie-burning charts so they decide how many calories they would like to “pledge.” The ADA’s Burn-a-thon page is HERE.

And FYI- if you’re a PWD, there’s special discounted gym membership for you on the Gold’s Gym website: http://www.goldsgym.com/ada/.

I’m sure by now, everyone has heard about The BIG BLUE TEST On World Diabetes Day.

Eight diabetes communities (TuDiabetes, Children With Diabetes, Diabetes Daily, Diabetic Connect, Diabetic Rockstar, dLife, Juvenation and My Diabetes Central) & Twitter are calling on ALL people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, exercise for 14 minutes, test again and share their results on Nov. 14, 2009. The time is local time, 2 pm wherever YOU live.

This is a chance not only to do something positive for your community- but to do something positive for yourself as well! PLUS- all the cool PWDs are doing it! ;)

Two Bloggers that I know of are raising funds by doing something by doing something as simple as blogging!

After Rachel over at "Tales of My Thirties" saw the success that Hotfessional had at raising money cancer via blog comments for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Rachel ran with the concept and is pledging 0.25¢ (up to $200) for every comment posted on her blog in November and is donating the proceeds to iPump. Read all about it HERE!

For every individual Page View she receives on World Diabetes Day November 14^{th ,} Taking Control of Your Diabetes, she will donate 0.25¢- up to $100. Checkout her Blog Project here!

LeeAnn over at the Butter Compartment has followed Rachel’s lead and for EVERY comment her blog receives in the month of November, LeeAnn will donate 0.25¢ to the Behavioral Diabetes Institute. You can read about LeeAnn’s challenge HERE.

Maybe you've decided to take the diabetes bull by the horns and get YOUR diabetes under control! Maybe part of your plan to make that happen is to find a new Endo but your not sure how.

The Diabetes Resource.com has a Directory where you can find a new Endo HERE.

More Diabetes Month and World Diabetes Day fabulousity to follow!