Bits and Pieces 3

 It's another in an occasional series of posts collating and commenting upon some interesting (at least to me) diabetes links:

Animas has submitted for FDA approval for their Animas Vibe for use in the U.S.   The news is summarized here on Diabetes Mine. This product sends data from the Dexcom G4 continuous glucose monitoring sensor directly to the insulin pump, eliminating the need to carry an additonal receiver.  Also notable in the article is that Dexcom has submitted for FDA approval for pediatric use of their G4 product, hopefully greatly reducing the red tape families must currently weed through in order to obtain it for their children under 18.

While our family loves to travel and see new things, the airport experience has often left much to be desired.  If you haven't done so, please take a moment to sign this petition to standardize TSA screenings for diabetic persons using wearable self-monitoring medical equipment.  A look back at a couple of our family's airport experiences can be found here.

It was fascinating to follow Anna Floreen's experiences wearing a Bionic Pancreas.  There are seven pieces up on Glu, the first of which is linked here.  I'm a realist.  I know that the research process moves slowly and that the FDA approval process for even the simplest of things is grueling. Yet reading about someone out in the world wearing equipment which eliminated her need to actively manage her diabetes gave me great hope. One of many take-aways for me was that while this technology will not constitute a cure for diabetes, it will be life changing.  Yes, there will still be physical baggage of sites and technology to carry around.  Yet the mental baggage will be so much reduced it made me wonder what fascinating things I would think about should technology take over so much of the diabetes drudgery.

Some of these developments seem, perhaps, more significant than others.  Yet the bionic pancreas won't be completely anxiety-free if we can't get it through airport security without a fight or a panic attack.