Little Things We’re Grateful For

It’s almost Thanksgiving, the time of year when we, like many others, focus on how grateful we are for the good things in life. Mike and I are incredibly grateful for the life we share and for the family we’ve created together. Diabetes does take a toll on us, but overall we’re doing okay. We’re not complaining. Inspired by Catherine Price’s wish that we all live with ease, we’ve decided to share some of the small things that make living with diabetes just a tiny bit easier. Nobody asked us to write about these products! If you can think of little things that belong on this list, please let us know.

Glucose on the go! I’m a sucker for cute little things, like travel-size shampoo bottles and purse packs of just about anything, so it’s no surprise I think Dex4’s mini-pack of glucose tablets is a great invention. It’s very easy to keep in your jacket pocket, running pack, or a small evening bag.

Butterfly test strips: Abbott’s old Freestyle test strips were fine, but the new-ish butterfly test strips suck up blood better than a vampire. They require only the tiniest drop of blood and they catch it faster than I can believe.

Lancets in happy colors: The box of lancets I’m using now is as colorful as a bag of M&M’s. I can’t say the lancets make me happy about testing my blood sugar, but they make me happier than Abbott’s standard light blue ones.

Opsite Flexifix: We learned about this tape from Kerri Morrone Sparling at Six Until Me. We haven’t tried it yet, but we take Kerri’s word on it, and we’re about to order some.

Thanks to Riva Greenberg for telling us about Accu-Chek MultiClix lancing device. This item is number 2 on my diabetes wish list, right after I wish that diabetes would go away!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our contributors and readers! We are grateful to all of you. Very grateful.