A few weeks ago, I woke up at 3 a.m. with excruciating chest, arm, neck, and back pain.  It was the kind of pain that resembled everything I’d ever read or heard about the pain which precedes a heart attack. I don’t know what the typical response is for a man who senses that he’s experiencing a cardiac emergency, but...

Bridget McNulty is a South African writer and journalist, and a Type 1 diabetic. Her first novel, Strange Nervous Laughter, was published in South Africa in 2007 and released in the USA in May 2009. She has written articles for a number of South African magazines, including ELLE, Real Simple, the Oprah magazine, Psychologies and Woman...

Dr. Barry Koffler is an orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia (and he is also our uncle).  He has been practicing medicine for over thirty years, and does volunteer medical work in Central America.  A few weeks ago, horrified by the devastation in Haiti, he left everything and went to help.  It wasn’t easy to get there, but  he...

I give Oprah two thumbs up for the intervention she attempted a few days ago on her Oprah Winfrey Show, “Diabetes: America’s Silent Killer.” She reached her arms out as if embracing the 80 million Americans who have diabetes and pre-diabetes, and declared it’s time for a wake-up call. I hope it will be for the...

I woke up drenched in sweat, the sheets cold and clammy beneath me. I grabbed my phone and stumbled down the stairs, gripping the walls for support. Subconscious reflex led me to unlock the front door after I made it down the stairs. Getting from there to the kitchen felt like a walk across the Serengeti. I grabbed the juice from the...

Avatars have been around for years, but I just made one for the first time, in Wii. I selected an oval face, medium brown eyes, straight dark hair, and a tall and lean female body. I put glasses, just like mine, on her face. I named her “Jane.” Although many gamers make an avatar that’s a fantasy version of their selves,...

Ask the average healthcare worker about the biggest problem in diabetes care today and he or she will probably tell you that it’s getting patients to “control” their blood sugar levels. The concept of control is rampant in healthcare. With puffed chests and reassuring certainty, the medical establishment regularly touts,...

A $6,000 insulin pump with an on-board computer chip is not alluring. Neither is the white mesh adhesive patch on my naked abdomen or the length of nylon tubing that connects the patch to the pump. There is only illness, and there is no way to make that sexy. After several years as a medical device wearer, I know. Negligees and nudity...

When my mother was diagnosed with diabetes in her early 70s, long before her memory started to deteriorate, she immediately went out and bought two AccuCheck machines in case one broke. She kept them side by side on the dining room table, next to a squadron of test strip vials. The thought of being unable to monitor her blood sugar...

Last year while pregnant with my third child, I felt unusually tired. I reasoned that taking care of my two sons and growing a third was more than my body could handle. But then I noticed something else—my exhaustion peaked just after meal times. If I ate pizza, pasta, or a bagel, not only did I feel drowsy, but I felt like I had weights...