We're Not Alone

I went to a local Health Fest yesterday. It really covered the waterfront. The hundreds of community residents (like me) who were milling around from table to table could pick up information on nutrition; health care programs; medicaid, medicare, and insurance options; and all manner of possible ailments. I saw welcoming faces behind table after table willing and able to discuss all kinds of complicated and delicate matters. Are you at risk for a stroke? What are the early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease? Just how germ-y are your hands? And on and on and on.

Folks were having their blood pressure, pulse, respiration rate, and eye sight checked. They were getting flu shots. They were having mammograms done. They were being tested for HIV. And yes, they were were being tested for diabetes.

Cue The Trumpets!

This is a big week for me and my new book on managing diabetes. Your Life Isn't Over ~ It May Have Just Begun! will be officially launched Tuesday evening (accompanied by diabetic-friendly snacks, of course). I will be selling and signing copies of the book at that time and again at separate events on Friday night and Saturday during the day. To advertise all those events, I'll be featured on the local PBS radio station morning talk show all week, as well as appearing on public access television, too (see above). Marketing is a lot of work, folks. But it's so, so worth it, if it helps others save their own lives.

If you've bought a copy of the book and found it helpful, please consider reviewing it on Amazon.com, so others will know. Thanks. 

Don't Ask/Don't Tell

Silly me. I thought when I wrote the last line of Your Life Isn't Over ~ It May Have Just Begun! and put it on Amazon.com that at least a few of the 21 million diagnosed diabetics in the United States would jump right out there and pick up a copy. Eight years ago, when I was diagnosed, I would have. The options I found helped, but did not give me the kind of tips and hints and inside information I so sorely needed at that juncture in language couched to lessen my anxiety instead of increase it. So the fact that my book is probably one of the best kept secrets in America right now would be frustrating if I hadn't gotten a pretty clear signal early on as to why.