(For full effect, the tune ‘50 ways to leave your lover’ should be going through your head by now and you might possibly hum this for the rest of the day, sorry.)

We’re putting together an ad campaign to promote use of the GlucoMON real-time wireless monitoring system at school and we think a great message for this year is focused around leaving your logbook in the dust. So, here is your opportunity to come up with a few of those 50 ways by commenting here so that we can use them in the mygluco 2008 Back to School w GlucoMON ad campaign? One thing we know for sure beyond real-time text messages on mom’s cell phone and simply making life easier w GlucoMON is that most people stop keeping their daily logbook almost immediately after first use. That’s a great example of what we mean with ’so advanced it’s simple’. So for fun there must be at least 50 ways:

Here’s my lame attempt:
1) stick it down the garbage disposal one page at a time
2) leave it in the corn field and let the combine ‘integrate’ it back to nature
3) wrap it around an M-80 on the 4th of July
4) soak it in the sink and watch your numbers disappear before your very eyes
5) etc…

Let’s hear your ‘way’ no matter how lame and it doesn’t even matter if you know what a GlucoMON is or not. On your worst day when you’re tired of the D word, how would you get rid your logbook?

I had this “convergence” moment tonight.

Here I am at the teen boys campout. A light, cool summer breeze blows across my face as I overlook a truly beautiful view of the sparkling lights of Texas hill country spanning over 25 miles. I’m micro-blogging about the campfire talk via my cell phone while actively engaged in discussion with 25 teen boys with diabetes, plus my 3 outstanding facilitators. The discussion ranges from every conceivable medical issue about diabetes in kids that you might imagine, to driving and diabetes, to girls, and everything else in-between.

I suddenly get an e-mail request from a mom in west Texas who’s family is part of my Diabetes HouseCall practice. In two minutes I’m able to review her son’s blood sugar trends via the GlucoDYNAMIX day over day plot collected by her son’s GlucoMON device, plus her son’s insulin pump settings, and reply via my phone with suggested changes to his management. I don’t miss a beat.

It then hits me: it doesn’t get any better than this!

I was just reading up on Kerri’s recent blog entry and I’m afraid she isn’t that unusual when you look across the broad range of people with diabetes. She’s busy and diabetes tends to take a back seat until something serious comes around.

Here are a few suggestions for Kerri and the millions of people with diabetes like her:

Make sure you never go more than 3 months without getting your A1c.

With our HomeCheck kit you can get the highest quality A1c available in about 3 minutes from home. Just order online and mail it in. Voila - you now have a pretty good idea how things are going (vs last time) and can use that info to nudge yourself in the direction of your friendly neighborhood physician for your regular appointments as needed.

Bernard Farrell did a video review of our HomeCheck and posted it online at his blog here with the video shown below hosted on YouTube:

Find a way to easily track and identify blood sugar trends.

You can use a GlucoMON to automatically handle your logging and generate reports that allow for easy identification of blood glucose trends and to perform pattern analysis.  People who use the GlucoMON say that this only takes them about 1 minute a week with the GlucoMON when it used to take them 1 hour each month before.

And because it’s so easy they are actually managing this information on a weekly basis vs monthly.  Better information leads to better choices. You can read a GlucoMON product review by David Mendosa here and then subscribe or click on the link to his complete review at healthcentral.com

Leverage the power of the diabetes community as you seek reimbursement for new diabetes tools.

If you are going to pursue use of the new continuous glucose monitoring systems, you will most likely need to fight your insurance company to get reimbursed.  Fortunately there is an online resource sponsored by Diabetech called CGMSCENTRAL located at

http://cgmscentral.com  Everyone going after reimbursement one at a time is a very slow process. If there was a way to share information amongst the entire community the process of successfully securing reimbursement will go much faster. To be armed with knowledge is to be armed.

What else do you need to simplify diabetes?

If there are other areas of diabetes care that need simplification you should comment below.  After all, if you want things done you might as well tell someone (Diabetech) who has a track record of delivering a simplified version of diabetes care.

(psssst…. Kerri if you read this give me a call and I can set you up for a trial and see if we can make it easier for you to regain those good habits.)