Diabetes Unconference - Lows and Highs

Some of you may have heard of the Diabetes Unconference held in Las Vegas March 10-13, 2016. I was fortunate to attend again and I had a great time.  I had a chance to see many of my friends who I met on-line.  Some I had met face to face before, but others I was meeting for the first time.  The thing about the Unconference is that it is like a four day support group meeting.  The first part is about getting to know each other. This is really important because in order to really share we need to trust everyone.  I think by the end of the first day we had really achieved that.  And by Sunday everyone was comfortable enough to really share deep feelings.

As part of the ground rules for the Unconference we agreed that everything that was discussed would remain in the room, so you won't be seeing anyone posting pictures from in the conference or quoting anyone.  But I will share some of my personal lows and highs.  First, I'll start with a high.  I was fortunate to attend a presentation by Dr. Stephen Ponder on his new book "Sugar Surfing." I learned some new techniques that could really help me improve my diabetes management and I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks.  There is an active facebook page on Sugar Surfing.  But that was not the best part.  Everyone was asked to report how long they had diabetes and then guess on the total number of years present at the Unconference.  I applied my best guesstimating skills and then used a "trick."  I guessed 2507.389 years.  That 0.389 years may have seemed just funny, but it turns out to have been pivotal (notice Sugar Surfing "pun").  I came in second winning a signed Sugar Surfing book having beaten out the next best by 0.389 years.  I felt a little guilty as the third prize was a very old "classic" glucose tab.