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D•blog | Welcome to the Diabetes Stories website | riva greenberg

• The diabetes connection in down under Queenstown
  

  Two stories to wrap up New Zealand as our stay here has ended and we're on to Sydney.

  1. The wool story: After days of walking in and out of shops that sell fine Merino wool, a native staple, I was in yet another shop eyeing these beautiful sweaters, gloves and hats with envy for, alas, I am allergic to one thing in the world-- wool. Yet, I could not help admiring these products' beauty. And so I said, plaintively, to the saleswoman, "It's funny, I feel like a diabetic in a candy store, I am surrounded by these beautiful wool products and I am allergic to wool." She looked at me curiously and said, "Really, diabetics are allergic to wool?" Of course that was not at all how I meant it. When I recounted this story to the husband, we laughed and agreed I now had a new myth for the sequel to my soon-to-be-published 50 Diabetes Myths book, "Diabetics can't wear wool." 

  2. The unexpected encounter: Midway during our stay in Queenstown we switched from a business hotel to a Bed and Breakfast. Over breakfast our first day I heard an American accent. Steve from Rochester, Minnesota was sharing how his rental cell phone went off at 5 A. M. that morning and it was a wrong number! That's all the ice breaker I needed to begin the usual, "Where are you from?" "How long will you be in NZ?" As the conversation wound down from sightseeing, politics and the global economic meltdown, I mention that I just finished writing a book on diabetes myths. Steve's wife's face, Julie, lights up. She tells us that she has type 2 diabetes. Well, that is not all that surprising for a middle aged, slightly overweight American woman, but what is surprising, and stirs an engaging conversation, is that she is working with the famed Mayo Clinic as part of a research focus group on behavioral methods for helping patients manage their diabetes. 

  She begins to talk about what I have learned through the more than 100 patients I've interviewed: you need to understand the context of patients' lives to help them change behavior. She recants a wonderful story of one elderly patient who tells his doctor that he wants to be put on Byetta. His doctor who would never have thought this man would chose an injectible drug (and so wouldn't have offered it), asks his patient why he wants Byetta. His patient tells him he is soon going into an assisted living home and he wants to lose a few pounds because he hears there are a lot of available women there! [Byetta helps most patients lose weight as well as control their blood sugar.] We laughed, and we understood what few doctors do: all our choices are embedded in the context of our lives.

  Julie shares about herself that after being in denial for some time after her diagnosis, she took some diabetes classes and lost weight and significantly lowered her A1c. My husband asks what her A1c is and she lights up again and tells us, "5.7!" The husband says, "You must be very proud" whereupon Julie says with both elation and sadness, "Yes, I am and I want to tell people but who would understand?!" My belief that you can experience pride because of how you live with diabetes and it can motivate you to continue to do well is confirmed, and the husband whisks upstairs and returns with two of my books, The ABCs of Loving Yourself with Diabetes, in hand for Julie. We witness a smile quickly spread across her face as she skims through the book and she volunteers that as soon as she's home one of these books will be at the Mayo clinic. It is like an angel named Julie has sat at my breakfast table in Queenstown.

  I keep saying (to anyone who will listen) the universe is continually supporting my work by throwing gems at my feet, but that morning it was Steve who said, "This is so amazing. We weren't intending to stay here but our travel agent "stuck" us here for three days, and look what's happened." 

  I agree Steve. And so we fly out of Queenstown taking with us the beautiful scenery, rich new memories and new bonds that were woven that morning.

• Diabetes news from New Zealand
  

  Well, here I am in Lord of the Rings country -- Queenstown, New Zealand to be exact, where much of the scenic movie was shot. Exceedingly nice to be here if you don't count the 24 hours in the air and five hours on the ground it took to arrive. This is a working vacation: time to play, sightsee, visit friends as the husband and I go from here to Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and San Francisco, and I'll be meeting up with some folks at JDRF and Diabetes Australia and possibly do a presentation at a hospital in Singapore.

  The first picture posted here is from the wharf on our first rainy day. The second, exhibits something that took me by complete surprise on my Qantas flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ. A compartment in the bathroom where you can dispose of your needles. I have never seen this before, and I've been around, on airplanes, I mean. 

  I was intrigued--is it for diabetics? Anyone with a medical condition? Drug addicts?  I asked the stewardess while deplaning. She looked at me quizzically, her facial features almost saying, "What accusation are you making asking what our disposable needle bin is for?" Was it my New York accent? As I read her face, I geared up to offer just how much I enjoyed seeing the bin because I have diabetes, but before I uttered a word, she said, "diabetes," and then I told her I have it. She warmed immediately. I told her I'd never seen such a bin on any other airline whereupon she told me it's standard on all Qantas flights, imagine that! What also happened seeing this bin was an internal shift: I felt free, as though I just stopped holding my breath, not even knowing I had been holding it for the past thirty years. I felt acknowledged and accepted, as if I'd just been picked for the volleyball team and everyone was cheering. I could come out of the closet now, at least  out of this bathroom, without fear of judgment; it was an immediate, rich, sensory feeling.

  I have another tidbit to offer re: flying and adjusting your insulin to cover time zone changes, which I am really typically horrible at.  I read about this tactic before leaving home and it worked in this instance.  Since once I landed in Auckland it would be four hours past my usual once daily morning Lantus injection, which I take around 7:30 AM in NYC, I took 1/4 of the amount I normally do when it hit 7:30 AM NYC time (my watch still being on NYC time during the flight.) Once we landed in Auckland it coincidentally was early morning and then I took my full amount of Lantus getting right on local time for my injections. It worked like a charm! But that's all I can offer because I always struggle with how to dose for different time zones. My usual methodology is just test every few hours and catch up with correction doses until I'm about into the third day of travel.

  As I sign off this morning surrounded outside my hotel window by majestic peaks, luckily today the sun is shining over them--I am in the same room number as my street address. The husband thought this was remarkable ingenuity on the part of the hotel, to match guests to rooms that replicate their address. I, of course, thought that would be nearly impossible. When we asked at reception, the concierge told us it was a very inventive idea but no it was not something they do. So, since it's kismet, I'm taking it as a very good sign for the rest of our travels which I will post as we proceed.

• Your contribution & heading West
  

  I said I would and I did. Today I wrote a check to the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRI) for $500. DRI is the premiere Institute looking for a cure for diabetes, and half of my donation come