The You Can Do This Project will once again be present in the exhibit hall at the Friends For Life conference in Orlando, FL!

This table is made possible by the volunteered help of one of our Advisory Team members, Sara (Kim will not be at this year’s conference, as she’ll be 8 months pregnant at that time), and others whose time and efforts will make this possible. Our table cost has been covered by a generous donor who asked to remain anonymous, and we are truly grateful!

We are excited at the chance to introduce You Can Do This as a resource to the families, teens, kids, and adults living with diabetes who will be attending this year’s conference. If that’s you, please make sure to stop by and say “hi”!

Earlier this week, we added a new item to our Zazzle store: a bumper sticker. And look! Someone is rocking it already!

We appreciate your support, whether that’s through word-of-mouth, blog posts, links in your blogroll, our button on your website, Tweets and Facebook posts, making a video of your own, or any other form. You’re what makes our community strong and supportive!

This is the third episode of “We Can Do This” – a series of group videos where people with diabetes come together around a common topic and share their diagnosis stories, lessons learned, and advice for others. Launched in 2012, the first video showcased five people who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as adults, while the second featured three people who live with diabetes-related anxiety.

Something that many people living with diabetes (of any type) face is the persistence of stereotypes and stigmas. You may have faced some of these inaccurate, and sometimes offensive, comments yourself – that people with diabetes “can’t eat candy”; that all you have to do is just take your medication and it all just works out; that type 1 only happens to kids (and they somehow magically will outgrow it); that type 2 diabetes is somehow “earned” due to obesity or laziness.

The truth is that type 2 diabetes exists on a large spectrum, and there is still much to learn about why and how it occurs, and in whom. Not every person diagnosed with type 2 diabetes fits the stereotypes, and we’d like to introduce you to a few: Phyllisa, Rachel, Joe, and Sue.

If you took a good look at some of our pictures from the Friends For Life conference (or if you were there in person!) back in July, you may have noticed the vendor next to our booth.

image credit: Chris

 

That booth was for Level Life Glucose Gels, and the proximity meant that we got the chance to get to know Ethan Lewis, CEO and founder of Level Foods, during the conference! Ethan really liked what we were doing and was enthusiastic about finding a way to work with the You Can Do This Project, and we’re very happy to announce that they’ll be supporting our growing community:

Beginning today, everyone who submits a new video to the You Can Do This Project will receive a free Level Life Starter Kit!

 

And you know what’s even cooler? It’s not just for the month of November. Level has offered to continue this promotion for as long as we want it. Wow!

We are grateful to the folks at Level Foods for supporting the You Can Do This community!

Here are a few more details on this promotion:

  • Each person who submits an approved video (meaning, the video meets the criteria outlined on our “How To Participate” page) will receive a kit. If you create a group video, each person in that video is eligible for a free Level Life Starter Kit, too!
  • Each person who qualifies and wants the free Level Life Starter Kit must provide us with their first and last name, email address, mailing address, and phone number. (FedEx requires phone numbers.) We will pass that information onto the folks at Level Foods, and they will ship you the kit. You’ll find a new field, just for this purpose, when you submit your video on the “How To Participate” page.
  • Each kit contains glucose gels, a “Keep Moving Forward” guidebook, and a coupon for future Level purchases.

Now’s the time – make your video and show others living with diabetes that they are not alone in their struggles!

Video: Cherise

Contributor: Cherise; @SweeterCherise/@DiabetesSocMed

Connection: Adult with LADA/type 1 diabetes

Quote: “No matter what anyone says; no matter what a number may read: you are better than diabetes. Do not let diabetes steal your joy.”

Video: Emily

Contributor: Emily; http://aimingforaverage-a1c.blogspot.com/

Connection: Adult with type 1 diabetes

Quote: “A lot of people sympathize with me when they hear that I have to inject myself with a huge needle every three days when I change my infusion site. I guess it’s easy for non-diabetics to sympathize with the physical pain, because that’s something they can understand or have experienced themselves, but what they can’t understand is the other kinds of pain that come with this disease: the loneliness of feeling like you’re the only one having to deal with it, the anger and self-pity that comes when you’re wondering, ‘Why me?’, and the frustration and disappointment when your A1C comes back too high.”

Recap: TCOYD Des Moines

The You Can Do This Project was at the Taking Control Of Your Diabetes conference in Des Moines, IA two weeks ago, with Kim, Rachel, Sara, Jess, and Courtney staffing our table in the conference’s health fair. Rachel is providing a recap of the events with her post below, and you’ll also see some of the advice we gathered in the video (thank you to Sara for editing!) below. Take it away, Rachel!
 
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