Tag: Close Concerns

NEWSBREAK: Animas Vibe Receives FDA Approval for Children Ages 2 to 17.

Posted on | by tomkarlya | Leave a Comment on NEWSBREAK: Animas Vibe Receives FDA Approval for Children Ages 2 to 17.

animas vibe deviceI received the following email from Bridget Kimmel, Senior Manager of Communications & Public Affairs for Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Companies Animas Corporation & Life Scan, Inc.  I know people have been speaking about this device and I share with you what was sent to me without edit.

I’m pleased to share that FDA has approved the use of the Animas® Vibe® Insulin Pump and Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System for the management of diabetes in children and adolescents, ages 2 to 17.

The Animas® Vibe® System was the first integrated system with Dexcom G4® PLATINUM CGM technology and is the only such system available in the U.S. for pediatric patients as young as age 2.

As an integrated system, the Animas® Vibe® System allows patients and their caregivers to view glucose data and administer insulin right from the pump, making it easy to fine tune insulin delivery to help manage their diabetes.  We know that effective glucose management early in life supports better health outcomes in adulthood; therefore, the Animas® Vibe® System is a great step forward in helping children and their caregivers in the U.S. take ownership of their diabetes. 

Expanding the global presence of the Animas® Vibe® System, along with providing solutions for children with diabetes and their parents, has been a top priority for Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care Companies (JJDCC).  It’s been our goal as a company to not only develop the best treatment solutions available, but also ensure that every member of the diabetes community, including children, may access these tools.

For more details on the FDA approval, please view the press release we issued today here.

Orders for the Animas® Vibe® System are currently being accepted, with anticipated shipment to patients beginning this month. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me or give me a call at 215-688-6033.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

 

 

Are You a Basal-Tears, or a Bolus-Tears-Kind-of-Person; in Your Diabetes World???

Posted on | by tomkarlya | Leave a Comment on Are You a Basal-Tears, or a Bolus-Tears-Kind-of-Person; in Your Diabetes World???

insulin dripI was engaged in a conversation yesterday with a good friend and we came up with the following question; ‘When it comes to diabetes, are your tears via a basal-tear rate, or a bolus-tear rate?”

When you think about everything that happens in our diabetes world, do you sort of cry a little bit many times or do you work to keep everything in moving forward and once in a while the tears just pour out as if your eyes are just bolusing-tears?  A lot of little cries….or one big cry occurring when needed.

I’m absolutely amazed that no matter how positive-a-life I try to make sure our kids have, out of nowhere it seems…….bang; tears.  So I’m definitively a bolus-tear-kind-of-guy.

I also know that it’s okay.  It’s good to clear it out sometimes.  A release.  I know some people get sad every day, perhaps even cry a tear or two as well.  They are a basal-tears-kind-of-person…..a little, many times.   Clearly no one enjoys any of this, but also make sure you smile through those bolus/basal/tears every now and again as well.

Smile at an accomplishment, a joke, something ‘gone-good’.  When they come, make sure you enjoy those things as well.

My mom tells me that it’s because of my heritage that I read the obituaries every day.  It’s not a morbid thing (ever notice everyone dies in alphabetical order….except in Florida), I just check it as I read the news.   I’m sure a professional would tell me that it ‘means’ something that I do, but to me, it’s just checking out what is happening in the world around me…..another page to the news, as it were; for me.

But here is my observation.  Every single listing had a life.  Whether they were good or bad, happy or sad, rich or poor, in perfect health or suffered forever; there they all and what they leave behind is just that…….left behind.

My point?

On this earth we all have just one shot to redo anything everyday.  Think about that sentence.   I will always choose to live this life and grab every ounce of enjoyment out of it as possible.  For me, and for others.  If we can all try to leave this world just a tad better for others as well as ourselves than how we found it; that’s a life worth living in my mind.

So I may be a bolus-tear-kind-of-guy when needed……but during all other times, I choose to be an ocean-full of grabbing this life for all the wonder, laughter, and good it does have to offer, even with diabetes.  Come swim with me.

I am a DiabetesDad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.

 

NEWSBREAK Report: T1D in Children Rising; and a Woman You NEED to follow “Closely”.

Posted on | by tomkarlya | Leave a Comment on NEWSBREAK Report: T1D in Children Rising; and a Woman You NEED to follow “Closely”.

Going upKelly Close’s DiaTribe published a very interesting finding based on a recent study in Diabetes Care……it states (according to DiaTribe);
“……..more US children and adolescents have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in recent years: the disease’s annual prevalence in a large, insured population increased 53% between 2002 and 2013, from 1.48 to 2.33 cases per 1,000 people. The study used data from insurance companies to survey the rate of diabetes in ~10 million US children and adolescents younger than 18 years old, so it does not tell us how diagnoses of type 1 may be changing in adults. It is not clear why type 1 diagnoses are increasing so rapidly.”

Now if you look at those stats a little more closely, it used to be that 1.48 cases per 1,000 were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D), and the new study shows that it is now 2.33.  Now in dealing with percentages, that means that almost an additional person per 1,000 cases is being diagnosed with T1D.  THAT’s alarming.

You can read Kelly’s full assessment/article by clicking here.

Click the link and read her article; pay close attention to her conclusion.  It will shake your cage and reinforce what many have stated for some time.  And if you do not follow her, you should.  Kelly has an incredible talent to call things as they are, usually with little sweetener (pun intended).

If you do not know Kelly, I can tell you that she is a shoot-from-the-hip kind of writer; and probably one of the most knowledgeable people on what is happening in our diabetes world.   Little, if anything, gets by her and/or her team.  She has taken her battle with diabetes (of over 25 years) and her desire to know every/any-thing she can, and after she ferociously learns for herself, she graciously shares with the world what she finds.

Kelly is also the same person who meets you with a warm smile (one of the biggest smiles I know) when you see her at one of the many conferences dealing with diabetes, taking place annually.  It’s not ‘unusual’ to see her and/or members of her team running from one session to another to capture, for us, what is going on.

Diabetes.  She writes about all aspects of diabetes.  ALL.  You may not agree with everything that is written, and truth be known, you shouldn’t.  I have often felt that if you want to be amused, you read the comics; if you want to learn, read writers who challenge you to think and to learn for yourself.  Writers should open a dialogue; and Kelly is the master.

So if you are always trying to figure out what is real and what is not; what are facts and what is rhetoric; what is the truth and what is mere fabrication….give yourself a New Year’s gift and follow Kelly’s DiaTribe more closely.  In a few months you will feel more educated, and in the know, about what so many merely think they know.

I am a diabetes dad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.