Amy Stockwell Mercer

Glooko, the new digital logbook for diabetes

alsmercer — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:38:25 +0000

Remember the days when you sat in your doctor’s office studying your hand written blood sugar logbooks? Your doctor would make notes on the piece of paper, trying to determine trends based on your personal records. And how accurate were these records? I can’t imagine I was the only one who rounded down when it came to numbers above 250 because who wants to stare at those “bad” numbers day after day? (of course we all should know that there are no “bad” numbers, and that high or low, these numbers are a source of information….however, the realist in me knows this is not always easy to remember when you are staring at a piece of paper that looks like a bad report card.)

Thanks to tools like Glooko, the effort to maintain handwritten records is no longer necessary, and the machine won’t fudge your numbers. Glooko, an electronic logbook, enables users to download blood glucose readings from their meter directly into an iPod Touch or iPhone, look at trends, make notes and email files directly to your healthcare provider. I’ve found it to be really easy to use, it’s compatible on 11 different meters right now, and I like that I can email my records to my doctor ahead of time. In my opinion, it’s another good excuse to spend time playing with your iphone, wink, wink.

Read more of my story at Diabetes Monitor.

A New Approach to Eating, Mindfulness is very “in” and could just help your A1C and your waistline

alsmercer — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:49:37 +0000

How many of us eat dinner in front of the nightly news, or lean over the newspaper while we sip our coffee at breakfast? How many of us walk, talk or drive while eating? The answer is almost everyone. And when we’re finished eating, all too often we realize we ate more than we’d planned. Diabetes or no, overeating is not good for blood sugar control or weight management. But how do we make a change — from mindless eating to mindful eating — when our lives are too busy to stop and smell the risotto?

Read more of my first dLife article: A New Approach to Eating.

Diabetes Books on my Bookshelf, (Diabetes Monitor)

alsmercer — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:47:09 +0000

We all know that books offer an escape from reality. At the end of the day as we slip between the sheets, exhausted, we reach for the book by the side of the bed and escape into another world. Whether you are a lover of fiction, science fiction, self-help, biography, mystery or young adult books, the power of disappearing between the pages is a treat that never grows old. It doesn’t matter if the story comes in the shape of a hardcover, paperback, e-reader or an iPad, all that matters is the author’s ability to transport, to inspire and to educate.

When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1985, I was desperate to find a book about diabetes. I didn’t want a medical book or a book on the history of the disease; I wanted a book about someone like me. I wanted to know that I wasn’t alone and searched for years to find that book. All I found were cookbooks. So, I wrote my own book: The Smart Woman’s Guide to Diabetes, Authentic Advice on Everything from Eating to Dating and Motherhood.

This is the book I wanted to write ever since I was diagnosed 26 years ago. It is a both a guide book and collection of personal stories from other women on a variety of topics. The pages are filled with stories, tips and advice from women who have walked in your shoes.

I’m happy to say that the reading choices for people with diabetes have greatly expanded since I was diagnosed 26 years ago. My shelves are full of informative, inspirational, humorous, and educational books about life with diabetes. I’m not a big fan of top ten lists because someone always gets left out, but I wanted to share some of my favorite diabetes books and came up with a list of six favorites.

Wego Health Writing Challenge…Open a Book

alsmercer — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:36:38 +0000

Open a Book. Choose a book and open it to a random page and point to a phrase. Use that phrase to get you writing today. Free write for 15-20 without stopping.

This is not a random page but one of my favorite books about living with illness. The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso is a memoir of the autoimmune disease that tore through the author’s twenties, a decade of recurrent paralysis, collapsed veins, chest catheters, the deaths of friends and strangers, addiction, depression, and the trite metaphors that accompany prolonged illness.

Here is one of my favorite phrases from the chapter titled “Causation.” She writes,

Was the CIDP a physical manifestation of a spiritual illness?

Did the medication trigger the depression, or did the depression trigger the CIDP?

What about those yogis who can lie down on a bed of nails, then arise, streaming blood, then stop the flow of blood from each wound individually with the power of their minds? Isn’t frailty often a choice?

And if frailty is a choice, then isn’t autoimmune disease a semi-intentional suicide?

That statement stops me in my tracks every time I read it. As a woman with type 1 diabetes, I too have an autoimmune illness, and until I read this book, I’d never really considered the implications of an “autoimmune illness.” I know that our disease are very different, but like Manguso, I wondered what it meant that my own body was waging a war on itself?

When I was little and feeling sick, my dad used to tell me to think about polar bears. The polar bears were supposed to be healthy cells fighting off my sickness-my fever or strep throat or whatever it was at the time. It was the 70′s and my parents were hippies and this was his idea of a healing, positive visualization. But I didn’t like the idea of polar bears in my blood. It made me queasy. I just wanted to have someone give me medicine and make it all better.

I thought of the polar bears again when I was diagnosed with diabetes. I think it was more of a sarcastic teenage thought like, “Yeah, see dad, those polar bears didn’t do any good. Look what happened to me.” I wallowed in the ‘poor me’ phase for a long time. And I definitely didn’t believe that I had any sort of internal choice in the matter. I was stuck with diabetes and there was nothing I could do about it except feel sorry for myself and/or ignore it. Looking back now, I see that ignoring it was a sort of suicide. It wasn’t until I let my diabetes out of hiding that I felt like I had a choice about living well with diabetes.

26 years later, I chose how I manage diabetes. I did not choose to be diagnosed or to be “frail,” but I do choose to live my life well.

Wego Health Writing Challenge, Learned the Hard Way….

alsmercer — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:02:34 +0000

Learned the Hard Way. What’s a lesson you learned the hard way? Write about it for 15 today.

I’ve had big feet my entire life. I always hated them, especially when I was young and towering over all my petite little 6th grade friends. I used to lie on my bed with my legs dangled over my head and stare at my giant feet, cursing them, praying for them to shrink. In ballet class I tripped over my long toes while my friends spun across the room.

I recently discovered that writing in a voice that is not my own is like trying to wear shoes that are too sizes too small. I learned that the hard way. I thought shoving my 10.5 foot into 8.5 size shoes would make me more successful….8.5 seemed so much more popular and had a bigger audience and I was sure that it wouldn’t hurt to cramp my toes for a little while, maybe I could even make my feet fit if I tried hard enough.

I tried hard. I wrote 3 assignments in a voice that was more scientific and less personal than I was used to. I researched like crazy to learn all I could about one specific topic that was beyond my capabilities, and in the end, not good enough for the editor. The editor wanted exclamation points and “gee wizes” and I couldn’t write that way without sounding like my toes were pinched. The story came out sounding like someone else, not me.

After a few weeks of stress and a couple sleepless nights, I learned that I like my big feet just fine. I may have a smaller selection of shoes (readers) to shop from (write for), but when I find the right fit, it feels really, really good.

Wego Health, Pinboard Day

alsmercer — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:29:18 +0000

Pinboard. Create a pinterest board for your health focus. Pin 3 things. What did you pin? Share the images in a post and explain why you chose them.

Here are a few images from my “Living Well With Diabetes” board on Pinterest:

First, thanks Kim Vlasnik, because there is something beautiful about illness.

Next, this is meant to remind me not to beat myself up over a bad number. Take a deep breath and keep going.

Finally, this image reminds me that a life in balance = happiness. I am a much better mom, wife, friend, daughter, runner, writer and diabetic when my life is in balance.

Wego Health Day, Writing with Style…

alsmercer — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:25:14 +0000

Writing with Style. What’s your writing style? Do words just flow from your mind to your fingertips? Do you like handwriting first? Do you plan your posts? Title first or last? Where do you write best?

I write while I’m running. It’s been that way since I was a little girl and walked home from school. The bus dropped me at the bottom of our mile long dirt road and I took my time, kicking the dirt under my feet and plugging my nose and I wandered past the dairy cows. I told stories to myself of girls with names like Jessica or Samantha who wore their long blonde hair in braids down their backs. These girls had their very own horses and were the most popular girls in their schools. They were not lonely like me.

These stories kept me going day after day and sometimes, if it wasn’t cold and snowy, I’d linger on our front porch before I went inside because the story wasn’t ready to end. Knowing that the stories were waiting for me got me through my school days. It was the quiet of the Vermont woods that stoked those stories. The steady beat of my feet on the road and wind on my face-these noises were the orchestra to my imagination and it continues on today.

I run every morning in the still dark and quiet streets of my southern home. The plot lines have changed and I’m no longer telling stories of Jessica and horses, but the stories come just the same. Whether they are practical stories filled with interviews and tips from experts on living well with diabetes, or stories of smart and inspirational women with diabetes, or stories of my own, there are always stories to fill my head. Some mornings I go straight from my run to my computer where I sit and write, I’ve got to get it all down before it melts away. Other mornings there is nothing and I concentrate on the steady beat of my feet on the pavement and that’s okay because I’m no longer lonely.

Wego Health, My Dream Day

alsmercer — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 19:56:25 +0000

My Dream Day. Describe your ideal day. How would you spend your time? Who would you spend it with? Have you had this day? If not – how could you make it happen?

I would spend my dream day alone. I would wake up with a view of the water and go for an early morning run on the beach. I’d watch the sun rise over the water and return to stand on the deck with a strong cup of coffee. I’d read the paper with the squaking of the birds on the beach as my only companion. Leaving the windows open, I’d go back inside and sit down at my desk to write. I would write uninterrupted for hours, until I got hungry. Lunch would be a big steak salad with edamame, blue cheese, cold cucumbers and sweet potato fries….a bit of dark chocolate. Then I’d walk on the beach to digest and return to my desk to write until dark. The story would have enough room and time to breathe and to grow, and I’d return to my family feeling, for once, like I’d finished something I started.

Wego Health Day, What I Can’t Live Without

alsmercer — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:14:42 +0000

10 Things I Couldn’t Live Without.

A good book
Strong coffee
A bite of dark chocolate
A pair of running shoes
Fresh air
Cuddles from my boys
The sight of my husband’s car in the driveway at the end of every day
A call from my mom every morning
Insulin, glucose tabs, test strips, and my meter
Peanut Butter!

Wego Health Day 10 (out of 30), a Letter to my Teenage Self

alsmercer — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:53:05 +0000

Dear 16-year-old-me. Write a letter to yourself at age 16. What would you tell yourself? What would you make your younger self aware of?

Dear Amy,

It’s going to get better. You’ve had diabetes for 2 years now and the things that matter so much right now (fitting in, being popular, pretty, skinny, smart, having a boyfriend and enough money to keep up with your friends and most of all, not having to deal with high and low blood sugars, counting carbs, doing shots and testing your blood sugar) will matter less when you are an adult. You will get married, have children and get paid to write! You will come out of the dark hole of diabetes denial and slowly, slowly, accept this illness. After many years of feeling powerless to and victimized by diabetes, you will begin to see how it has made you strong.

Hang in there Amy. There won’t be a cure in 10 years like you were promised, but there will be a huge support group of people who will inspire you to live well with diabetes. I promise that you won’t always feel alone and in fact, your loneliness will lead to a book (The Smart Woman’s Guide to Diabetes) that will help other women feel less alone.