Wednesday, March 22, 2006

ADA Expos

I've been to one ADA expo. (2004) Didn't make it to last years.
As I recall,
-Chris Smith
wooed everyone with his extra low carb-fat-sodium-everything chocolate-strawberry dessert.
Surprisingly, it was edible. Surprisingly, it was even good. But I still wasn't going to pay $20 for his book.
- Fortuantly, I missed all the type 2 speeches. (they looked incredibly boring) It wasn't planned- I was two hours trying to find the place. Don't get me wrong- it was an incredible bonding experience( I agree with ya, Kerri) but I wasn't going to sit through varying levels of Diabetes 101 (Can I eat sugar? Do I have to take a shot?) if I could possibly NOT. That would be torture.
- Christopher Saudek,MD
was also a speaker. The Future of Diabetes (Type 1 cure) kinda speech. It was interesting, but he talked for over an hour(the convention was closing up shop, by the time he finished)
- The ADA was giving out free books. (any book from their catalog) I chose A Field Guide to Type 1 diabetes, got it a couple months later.
- The Ask the Endo and Ask the CDE booths were especially popular. (there were others- Ask the Podiatrist, Ask the Pharmacist, Ask the Dietician, Ask the Shrink) I got in line. 20 minutes on the CDE one, 45 on the endo. The endo sent his kid to get lunch, he was too busy to get it. There's dedication. I asked the endo if I would go into DKA less quickly then other people, given
I've got this kidney thing(DKA= acidosis. Kidney Thing= Alkolosis) that nicely balances things out. He said nope, I'd probably just get a "mixed-state" acidosis-alkolosis combo. Didn't recommend testing out that theory. As of last August I've learned, that it doesn't slow down DKA one iota, so there are absolutely no benifits to having weird, exotic diseases that clash with diabetes.
I wish they'd have the Expo when the cherry blossoms are in bloom-
I could get more bang for the buck. (DC experience)
I've never been to the Cherry Blossom Festival- I would love to go, this year. (even if I do have to make two trips (in April) to Washington DC)

1 comment:

Scott K. Johnson said...

That's the one thing I hate about general diabetes conferences/meetings.

We are outnumbered 9 to 1 in terms of type 2's vs. type 1's.

So you end up in a room of generally old folks complaining about there "high blood sugars", which in their case they are freaked out about hitting 220 once!

It's very frustrating.