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EPISODE 7: Fifty-seven Years as Type One Diabetic, Don’t be Perfect Just Be Good

This podcast introduces a series of priorities that have paved the way for me to enjoy 57 years as a Type One Diabetic, and still counting. Knocking on wood here, but to this day, I am still lucky to have avoided hospitalizations and emergency room visits for unstable blood sugars during those years. Even more important, I have been fortunate to have minimized and averted many common complications of Type Ones who’ve had the condition as long as I have. Still active, still engaged, and I remain positive about the future. I even have all my original equipment ! In this podcast, I lay out the priorities that have made my lifetime journey enjoyable and rewarding. The biggest surprise so far, “you don’t have to be perfect, just be good” in managing Type One every day! Listen to this podcast and several others to follow, for more details !

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EPISODE 6 PART 5 “Diabetes Can Be Wild: Mingling with the Elephants of Makhanda, South Africa”

Well, at long last, here is the second and final part of my podcasts about how I navigated Type One diabetes on safari in rural southeastern South Affrica --- Mahkanda, to be exact. It recounts my 5 days of encounters with the amazing elephants of Makhanda, how beautiful, respectful and, yes, how playful the elephants were, as my family and I mingled among them. Using some special family footage dating back to the 1960s, I add a bit of nostalgia, as I thought what it was liking splashing, playing and eating by the river back home during one of my own family’s summertime picnics. My safari vacation also includes re-telling some special encounters with the wonderful residents and vendors of Camps Bay, in Capetown, at the end of my family vacation. Finally, looking back one year, I share results about the impact that 10 days in South Africa has had on managing my own Type One. The results may surprise you ! During this podcast, I am sure you’ll discover some amazing footage of the elephants in summertime, and my own family from 60+ years ago ! Truly beautiful creatures and special family times !

Let me know any comments you have about my wild adventure, and of course, and those of your own. Leave them at @BrianBalicki-type1-1953 or “fanlist.com/the juice”.

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EPISODE 6 PART 4 “Diabetes Can Be Wild: Navigating Type One and the Big 5 while on Safari and in Capetown South Africa”

In this podcast, I reflect on 10 days of personal experience as a Type One Diabetic in South Africa. My 10 day family vacation occurred during the Xmas season in South Africa, their Springtime to be exact. The experience was truly an adventure. I was reminded how I navigated my earliest days as a Type One, 56 years earlier. It was an entirely new frontier back then, as it turned out to be recently in South Africa. Fast forward to today, South Africa served as the backdrop for an experience in which I relied on family, along with a network of “frontier” professionals to navigate the daily, sometimes anxious and tense encounters with the Big 5 and other challenges of the South African Bush. Like my support back in 1968, this network was multi-skilled and multi-disciplinary, for sure, but with a key difference. They were not health care professionals. Instead they were highly experienced in veterinary medicine, environmental sciences, natural resource management, South African healthy cuisine, and sincerely nice people from the land down under. All of this combined to help my family and I to NOT just survive, but to MINGLE with the Big 5 in a very profound, personal and dramatic manner. Yes, “Diabetes CAN be Wild” in the South African Bush. Check out the podcast.

Let me know any comments you have about my wild adventure, and of course, and any of your own. Leave them at @BrianBalicki-type1-1953 or “fanlist.com/the juice”. Happy Holidays !

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