Diabetes Awareness Month, No Shave November, Least Favorite Local Athlete Commercials (2 athletes make it twice)

No Shave November

We are in the month of November and nothing says November like not shaving.  I happened to shave both my face and head on November because I was Freddie Mercury for Halloween (In the second picture I'm the one on the right in case you couldn't tell).

I dyed my hair and facial hair black and with my skin being so pale, it was best for me to shave my head and face.  Unfortunately this was on the first day of a tradition I have done for years which is to participate in "No Shave November."  I am a day behind but each day I will be taking a picture of myself, then placing all of the pictures in a video to show you all the progress of my hopefully beautiful beard.  My head hair is slow growing nowadays so I do not anticipate very much hair by the end of the month.  I know what you're thinking: "Yes! More David selfies."  You are welcome.  

Diabetes Awareness Month

November, on a more serious note, is also Diabetes Awareness Month.  Of course this is something near and dear to my heart as if you don't know by now, I have Type 1 Diabetes which is a very different disease than Type 2.  My girlfriend, Amy, brought to my attention two pictures that perfectly explain to people how different they are:

I heard this in one of the billions of Spiderman movies once or maybe even in the cartoon back in the day, "With great power comes great responsibility."  Well, my power is being diabetic.  I have this disease for a reason.  I believe in God, and God gave me this for a reason.  It taught me to be disciplined and patient.  It taught me that some things are just out of your control, but you can still contain.  I am also given this disease because I have a voice.  This will be my 142nd entry on this blog site and I have over 17,000 views so someone out there must be reading.  My responsibility is to reach out to you guys and let you know some facts about this disease.  I will start with some my sister posted yesterday:

Diabetes follows Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and yes breast cancer is an awful disease, and it kills an alarming number of people a year.  Type 1 Diabetes is a different kind of killer.  I look normal.  If I didn't tell you I had diabetes and you didn't see my pump connected to my body, you wouldn't know.  Every day though, this disease attacks me.  There have been no off days since I was first diagnosed at the age of 12.  It's there on the best and worst days of your life.  It makes its presence felt too.  If you are stressed, your blood sugar rises.  If you take certain medicines, your blood sugar rises.  Sometimes it rises for reasons you don't even know.  So what, you are thinking?  What's the big deal about high blood sugars?  Here are the effects:

High Blood Sugars

• You can get DKA, which is described below from the Diabetes.org website:

What if it Goes Untreated?

Hyperglycemia can be a serious problem if you don't treat it, so it's important to treat as soon as you detect it. If you fail to treat hyperglycemia, a condition called ketoacidosis (diabetic coma) could occur. Ketoacidosis develops when your body doesn't have enough insulin. Without insulin, your body can't use glucose for fuel, so your body breaks down fats to use for energy.

When your body breaks down fats, waste products called ketones are produced. Your body cannot tolerate large amounts of ketones and will try to get rid of them through the urine. Unfortunately, the body cannot release all the ketones and they build up in your blood, which can lead to ketoacidosis.

Ketoacidosis is life-threatening and needs immediate treatment. Symptoms include:

• Shortness of breath
• Breath that smells fruity
• Nausea and vomiting
• Very dry mouth

Talk to your doctor about how to handle this condition.

- See more at: http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/blood-glucose-control/hyperglycemia.html#sthash.Cs2G96DJ.dpuf

• You can develop neuropathy, which is something that has happened to me.  You begin to get numbness in your hands and mostly feet.  They begin to tingle and also very sensitive to heat or cold.  In severe cases, it can attack your organs.
• It can cause a coma.
• Kidneys can shut down or begin to not work properly.

These are just a few of the many effects high blood sugars can cause, especially over time.  Doctors moderate your blood sugar levels through a blood test called a hemoglobin A1C which shows basically an average number your blood sugar was over a 3 month span.  Speaking of blood sugar levels, a normal person's blood is between 60 and 120.  I diabetic person's levels would come in higher than that.  High blood sugars have a long term effect on you and in Lehman's terms, eventually kill you.  Low blood sugars also can have a very negative effect on you short term.  If you over correct with insulin, your body could get sweaty and shaky.  I know I sweat like a monster when I'm low.  My eyes also have trouble seeing things in real time.  I have also passed out twice from low blood sugars.  Many people go into seizures from extremely low blood sugar levels.  

This is why it is so difficult for us diabetics.  There are consequences if you go too high or low, but we are human.  There are good days and bad days.  Sometimes we don't feel like doing it that day, or sometimes we forget to program in a meal or we don't feel good, but we suffer consequences for those days.  Diabetes is a serious and fatal disease that needs just as much awareness as any cancer or AIDS or any other disease.

My favorite charity for Type 1 Diabetes is JDRF and here is their website: http://jdrf.org/.  You can show your support by making a video on their site which I will be participating in and also changing your profile pic on any social media site to this below:

Read more about my struggles with diabetes at the below links:

• http://davidbrooks1985.blogspot.com/2014/09/20-things-only-juvenile-diabetics-will.html
• http://davidbrooks1985.blogspot.com/2014/05/diabetes-my-battles-please-donate-to.html
• http://davidbrooks1985.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-have-peripheral-neuropathy-and.html
• http://davidbrooks1985.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-first-week-with-diabetes-and-price.html
• http://davidbrooks1985.blogspot.com/2011/11/patrice-oneal-his-battle-with-diabetes.html

Least Favorite Local Athlete Commercials

Now that all the serious stuff is out of the way, here are my top 5 least favorite local athlete commercials...this list was compiled after talking with a coworker about how horrible the local Elk and Elk commercials were and it spawned into talking about Carson Palmer's John Morrell commercial which, in turned, made me come up with this list, but first here are father and son, Elk and Elk and their famous comb-overs:

5. Carson Palmer//John Morrell-Carson may have left us in Cincinnati for greener pastures in his eyes, but Carson left us this gem of a commercial that will live in this city forever.  Check out the referees.

4. Pete Rose// Kool-Aid- There terribleness of this commercial was saved by the Kool-Aid man (I have a soft spot in my heart for him) when he bursts through the wall.  Pete is ridiculous in it though.

3. Bronson Arroyo//Champion Ford- Bronson makes cheesy comments but even worse, he cusses in the commercial.  Did this actually air?

2. Pete Rose//Muenchens- Pete and his trophy wife try to help sell some furniture.  His acting and hat....both bad.

1. Bronson Arroyo and Chris Welsh//J.T.M.-The lyrics are bad; the acting is worse.  I actually like both Arroyo and Welsh but when you are first of all promoting J.T.M. which is awful with a bad song, and an awkward mustached sad man, you get to be my least favorite commercial.