This Weeks Video: How to Change an Insulin Pump

Last week, we talked about the basics of using twitter hashtags to help you search for information about diabetes on twitter. Today, as part of our weekly video series, we are going to dive into how patients are using YouTube to help educate and inform other patients about diabetes. Today’s video comes from DiabeticDanica titled, “How to Change an Insulin Pump Infusion Set (Tutorial) .” This video is a great example of patients using social media to share their experiences for others to learn from. Hope you enjoy the video!

Do you have a video like DiabeticDanica’s that you would like to share? Post your video to any video sharing website and send us the link! Then, stay tuned and subscribe to our blog for our weekly installment of, “Weekend Videos.” Your video could be featured on our blog! To see some of the other videos we’ve shared with our members already, click here. If you don’t want to make a video, but still want to contribute a story, we’ll take that too! Just write your story and send it to us. All videos and other entries can be emailed to info@callingalltypes.com

The decision to participate is always yours and your feedback is always wanted. At Calling All Types, we believe finding the right online resources to better manage your diabetes should be a whole lot easier! So sign up and be a part of our growing online health movement. Once you’ve joined, stay connected with us through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube.

Messages from Our Members

A common statement on our blog, if you haven’t noticed is, "Our members continue to tell us..." So what exactly are we talking about? Who are these members and what are they saying? Over the past few months, diabetes patients and caregivers have been sharing their stories and asking questions about living with diabetes. CallingAllTypes is helpful to people in providing online resources to help better manage diabetes. But for some questions, we think it’s better to call in the real diabetes experts – patients and caregivers like you!

Below are some questions and comments we’d love your response to. You can do this by:

• Leaving a comment on our blog;
• Responding to us on Twitter using #OneDrop; OR
• Write on our Facebook Page. Don’t forget to add the Member Number! 

Member One: 

"I am trying to learn better and healthier ways to control blood sugar; I have been diabetic for a little over a year."

Member Two:
"Does diabetes sometimes cause mental confusion and contradictions and sudden changes of mind or positions on matters?"

Member Three:

"Why is the cost of insulin so high? I have insurance, but cannot use it for insulin as I would be in the 'donut hole' in February each year."

The decision to participate is always yours and your feedback is always wanted. At CallingAllTypes, we believe finding the right online resources to better manage your diabetes should be a whole lot easier! So sign up and be a part of our growing online health movement. Once you've joined, stay connected with us through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube.

Let’s Talk Twitter Hashtags

How do you search on Twitter for information about diabetes? What type of information are you looking for? How do you find the most relevant information? Today’s blog is dedicated to the Twitter hashtag (#) – a tool that will help you find what you are looking for using one of the most popular social media sites.

We’ve been hearing from our members that they want to use Twitter more effectively, but they don’t know how. For all our beginners out there, let’s start with the basic definition. The “#” symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. Hashtags help users find interesting or helpful tweets, join conversations around a specific topic, and find people who are interested in similar topics and conversations. 

Let’s look at an example. Today we tweeted, “The smallest #insulin syringe in the world. Watch the video tell us what you think. #diabetes http://youtu.be/c2SB0LrVeQg.” Notice the hashtags in front of the words “insulin” and “diabetes.” Those two words are now links to search results for all tweets containing “#Insulin” and “#Diabetes.” Check it out for yourself by clicking on “Diabetes” or “Insulin” to see their respective hashtag feeds. Stay tuned to our blog as we continue our conversation every week on Twitter and hashtag trends. Each week will take a deeper dive into how to use Twitter to help you manage your diabetes more effectively. For all you expert Twitter users out there, send us some of your favorite hashtags on Twitter and include #onedrop in your tweet. We’ll compile a list and then post a blog article with your favorite hashtags.

The decision to participate is always yours and your feedback is always wanted. At Calling All Types, we believe finding the right online resources to better manage your diabetes should be a whole lot easier! So sign up and be a part of our growing online health movement. Once you’ve joined, stay connected with us through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube.

Meet Jessica: Type 1 Diabetes Patient

“Before we could get pregnant, we had to sit down with a specialist to plan out what we were going to do with my blood sugars. My A1C had to be a six before we could think about getting pregnant... I signed up for CallingAllTypes because it was a good source for all the information I needed.”

Are you thinking of having a child and are concerned about the risks involved with diabetes? Listen to Jessica’s story about what she had to do to manage her diabetes while being pregnant. Our members continue to tell us how valuable online video resources can be, especially when it comes to peer to peer information. With that said, we’re looking for more videos from you that we can share with our members. Do you have a video like Jessica’s that you would like to share? Post your video to any video sharing website and send us the link! Then, stay tuned and subscribe to our blog for our weekly installment of, “Weekend Videos,” which will be posted here every Saturday. Your video could be featured on our blog! To see some of the other videos we’ve shared with our members already, click here. If you don’t want to make a video, but still want to contribute a story, we’ll take that too! Just write your story and send it to us. All videos and other entries can be emailed to info@callingalltypes.com

The decision to participate is always yours and your feedback is always wanted. At Calling All Types, we believe finding the right online resources to better manage your diabetes should be a whole lot easier! So sign up and be a part of our growing online health movement. Once you’ve joined, stay connected with us through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube.

CallingAllTypes Introduces Clinical Study Notifier

Every day, people managing diabetes visit CallingAllTypes.com to let us know what they want to learn more about through our online initiative. From great diabetes blogs such as Arden’s day and Living Vertical, to programs like the Diabetes Social Media Advocacy Group, Calling All Types is committed to keeping people informed, empowered and engaged. As part of our commitment to you, we want to let you know about a powerful new tool available exclusively to our members.

It’s called Clinical Study Notifier^SM – a free online notification service designed to alert you to the latest diabetes clinical studies being conducted in your area directly to your inbox. Not a member? Sign up today.

Here's How it Works

• You’ll receive periodic email notifications as new clinical studies become available in your area.
• If a study interests you, click the link provided to learn more and see if you may be eligible.
• The service is easy and completely free – use it as much and as often as you like.

Again, there’s no cost and no commitment for Clinical Study Notifier. Click here to try it out and don’t forget to tell us what you think.

Thanks Everyone!

CallingAllTypes Team

The decision to participate is always yours and your feedback is always wanted. At CallingAllTypes, we believe finding the right online resources to better manage your diabetes should be a whole lot easier! So sign up and be a part of our growing online health movement. Once you’ve joined, stay connected with us through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and YouTube.