A cure? Promising findings, but not quite. It's still early in the game - with experiments being done on mouse models. Two drugs used to fight cancer, Gleevec and Sutent have been found to disrupt the autoimmune response in pre-diabetic mice and to sometimes reverse it in mice with type 1 diabetes.

It's a cool finding and hopefully we can fund more research to see if this is a path that can work on people. But it's only the beginning. Hopefully, sensationalist coverage like that done by NBC won't trick people into thinking the cure is already here and that we can stop supporting important diabetes research to turn these preliminary discoveries into clinical treatments.

Here's the link to a full story on the study:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/11/18/cancer-drugs-may-treat-type-1-diabetes.html

Be sure to check out the new social network that launched last Friday at http://www.juvenation.org .It's a cool way for the type 1 community to connect, reflect and share their daily battles with the disease.

This fall Cassie was benched from her field hockey team with tendonitis. We figured it may have been a muscle strain from overstretching or rough play. Turns out that may not have been it at all. It may have been the Cipro she took to fight a nasty cold.

Colds, flus and infection are particularly disruptive to those of us who deal with diabetes. Not only do you get the icky aches, pains and runny noses, but you also are prone to high blood sugars and ketones with the onset of infection. That's why doctors like to be aggressive and dispense antibiotics.

This summer the FDA linked certain antibiotics to tendinitis and are pressing for revised labelling. The key words here are CERTAIN antibiotics NOT ALL antibiotics have been identified as causing tendoinitis as a possible side effect. Fluoroquinolone Antimicrobial Drugs are in the drug family that have been linked. The list includes the following: Cipro and generic ciprofloxacin, Cipro XR and Proquin XR (ciprofloxacin extended release), Factive (gemifloxacin), Levaquin (levofloxacin), Avelox (moxifloxacin), Noroxin (norfloxacin), and Floxin and generic ofloxacin.

I'm an unabashed techno geek, and I was one of the nerdy Apple faithful to stand in line when the iPhone first launched over a year ago. Earlier this year Apple opened up the iPhone market to third party application developers. I'm pleased to find some really cool things that have been developed to help manage diabetes.

The first item is DIABETES LOG that was developed by Distal Thoughts. It helps you track glucose, food and medicine delivery.

Another application you can (and should) get is the RESTAURANT NUTRITION application that was developed by Foundation Healthcare Network. It'll give you carb counts and nutritional info to many national restaurants and fast food chains. This comes in very handy for any parent dealing with diabetes.

The really cool thing about both these powerful tools - it's FREE. So if you have an iPhone make sure to go to the "App Store" on the iTunes store to download these little software nuggets.

Something that we've found invaluable in treating diabetes daily is the huge amount of advice, war stories and support that we've gotten from others who also deal with this terrible disease. But how do we connect in the first place? The ironic thing is that by volunteering our help, advice and insight to others has come back ten-twenty-hundred fold.

Our involvement with JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), Diabetes Angels and one to one outreach with newly diagnosed families in our community has created a network of knowledge and support for us.

So my advice to you out there- help others and it will strengthen your own daily fight with diabetes. And to all of you out there in our network that have helped my family over the years - thanks.

We got a nasty infection this weekend in an old pump site. It developed into a painful lump that needed to be drained by the doctor and now our little girl to go through a round of medication to treat the bugs that caused it.

We poke and prick and inject so often with our daily diabetes regimen that I think we forget how much we put the body at risk to germs. We continually break the body's natural body to infection - the skin - with many many needles.

Kids (and adults) with diabetes have a lowered immune system and are more susceptible to infection. And overprescription of antibiotics has spawned superbugs like MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) that don't respond to treatment with penicillin or other beta-lactam antibiotics. Fortunately there are other families of antibiotics and sulfa drugs that can knock these types of things out - if treated early enough.

So the moral of the story is wash, wash, wash your hands. Use clean, sterile lancets and needles. And be sure to disinfect sites with alcohol wipes whenever you can!

The beginning of the school year has always been a nervous time for us- filled with training new teachers about how to handle low blood sugars or how to administer glucagon in an emergency. This year for (seventh grade) seems to be progressing so much more smoothly. It's not that the teachers are smarter. It's because Cassie is smarter about conveying her needs to them and has become a team member with us in her diabetes care. It's amazing to watch her independence blossom.

Am I weird? I hear many parents without diabetes in their families complain how HARD their night was if their child needed late night attention with a cold or minor malady. We've been checking Cassie at least 2 times over the course of a night that it doesn't seem so uncommon to me. In fact, it surprises me when it seems so extraordinary for "normal" parents to not sleep through the night. If only.