Five Little Known Factors About Diabetes

Personal experience is often the best teacher
because we get to see first hand how
things are, wouldn't you agree?

When we talked about my future
the word diabetes wasn't in that
description.  That happened to
people who didn't take care of
themselves, didn't eat right, had
bad family history's of the disease,
but it wouldn't hit me.  I ran nearly
every day- worked out, was
active as a cat, had energy out the
wazoo, and was losing weight.
So the idea of having diabetes
never crossed my mind.

Went to the eye doctor of all places,
and my eyes prescription for contacts
changed twice in a three month period.
This doctor was very wise, he said,
"look I'm not tryin' to alarm you but
that's sometimes a symptom of
something else, you should see a
doctor."

Eyes may change.

I was not gaining weight, which is
what I believed in error, that people
who got diabetes, gained weight-
wrong- weight loss is a signal.  Weight
change, that is dramatic and you
can't account for it one way or the
other, and that's a sign.

Weight change, dramatic weight change.

The next thing that happened is more subtle,
it's also harder to talk about.  It's an internal
change - you suddenly find yourself being
very thirsty.  Water, fluids, and anything
you can get your hands on that is wet, is                                                      
what you want, because you have dry
mouth, like you've never had.

Change in drinking habits, always thirsty.

You may notice, I did, that my feet started
to tingle.  My sense is that it's when we
say something is "going to sleep," like when
you have an arm in one position too long
and it starts to tingle- that's the sensation
in your feet.

Tingling sensation in feet and hands.

This last one is certainly not the least,
but you may find yourself becoming
very tired, sleepy tired, in the afternoon.
This wouldn't be your normal, "gosh
I'd like to take a nap," tired, this is
sitting down and then going to sleep-
Bam- just out, like a light, in the middle
of the afternoon.

Sudden drowsiness beyond normal.

When these five signs show up, get
with your doctor, it's important, there
was no real history in my family of
this disease, I was a person who took
care of my body- and yet, here it is,
If it can hit me, it can hit somebody else.
My hope is that by sharing what
happened with me, maybe you'll go see
the doctor sooner...it can help.

Information Keeps Down the Frustration

One of the hardest things to do as a person who
wants to open a business is to know who to
go to?  So here is a list of the people who can
be helpful to you:

LED - website:  Louisiana Economic Development

SBA - website:  Small Business Administration

SBDC-website:  Small Business Development Center

This is linked through amazingddp.net because that
is also a center for information.  You have two quick
ways to get around as a person with an idea to start
a business, one, call 318-465-2762 and ask for me-
I'll help you if I can.  Two, you can click on one 
of the links above and see information.  Again it
might be good to get in touch with me, 
drd1201@gmail.com  as my work in to try and
be a good guide to the information you need,
that keeps down the frustration.   

Sooner or Later..

Make yourself develop the discipline
to read.  Jim Rohn, one of America's

premier keynote speakers, and a man
who motivated millions to succeed;
quipped that, "leaders are readers."

So - one of my buds is a dead set "not
gonna read it," kind of gal...which one
must respect, after all; anybody who is
willing to be that honest, you have to
respect, so what's the solution there?




To me it seems like "lighten up,"
might be in order...AND...if you
care about your folks like I care
about my bud- heck, get them an
audio dose?  Guaranty ya this-
Jim Rohn sounds just as good as
he reads...check it out...

Great Big Joy

"We have to do something about this, it just

Mopsy relaxes on her favorite pillow

isn't fair to her..."
My wife's words hung me on the truth;
"I know it, but what can we do, she can't
stay with Deb and them, and she just
doesn't seem to get along with anybody,
not us, not the other dogs?"
"Well, would you?  If somebody shot you in
the ear with a bee-bee, wouldn't you be pissed?"
She had made her point, but what to do?

My heart has always gone out to my Mopsy-
when my wife first brought this dog home
she was tore to pieces, her skin looked like
it had been kicked or bitten off, she was
a mess- and somebody threw her out at
the plant where my wife worked.  She got
Mopsy into the van and brought her to the
vet, he fixed her up; and we tried to get her
into some friends homes where they had
dogs outside with large dog run pens- on
farms and such, but each time, Mopsy would
go to the corner of the pen, and the other
dogs would eat her food, she wasn't being
treated fairly by them.  We knew- we had
to do something.

"We can't take her to the vet, she's older,
won't nobody want to take her..."  The vet
had a policy that if they couldn't find a home

Mopsy today no pinkish beat skin...

for the animal after a certain
percentage of time, they had to
put the animal down as part of
being able to even keep the facility,
it was one of the roughest parts of
the small rural vets life, and we knew it,
and we really had already
started to become attached to Mopsy.
But Mopsy was anything except attached to us,
if we'd approach her, she'd head down, tail
tuck and growl.  Sure signs in my mind that
somebody had harmed this dog in the past.

I told my wife we really should keep her- and
then we needed to pour love into this poor

Mopsy still loves the wife's garden...

girl, love in every way we could.
Gentle voices, constantly trying to
get her to come to us, bringing her the
best food, water, and after
three months; Mopsy actually
came up to me, hand down,
head down, eyes down, and
she sniffed my hand, and we bonded,
I touched her and gently petted her,
and it was real.

Mopsy has been with us now for thirteen years,
we have no idea how old she really is, but we
know this, we should have taken before and
after pictures, nobody would believe the
difference in her.  It's the power of love, I
always say, oh, not our love toward her, her
love toward us, you see, she had to forgive
whoever had done those horrible things to
her, and then realize, it wasn't us; and that
my friends is what this story is all about- great
big joy!

Rural Social Media is a blog about
perspective, really, that's what it's
all about, you see we have
a mission here; to better the
lives of those around
us.  We live in rural America;
and we believe that living in rural America
is totally different than living
anywhere else.  That's a simplification,
and we don't all have wheat shucks sticking out
of our mouths and wear bib overalls,  but it's
not such a bad thing at all, to wear them, is it?
Somebody around this great nation of ours needs
to man up- I'd just as soon they were wearin' bib
overalls, as cross dressed fancy, how 'bout you?

Great Big Joy comes in lots of flavors- but
it boils down to this, success; and hard work,
work that pays off.  Yes I know what the good
folks at the Metaphysics, "The Secret," side
of the house say, "all you have to do is believe
and it will be so,"  but what I'm gonna share with
you is, when you really believe, your hard work
becomes like play, and you make it so.  Now
that's a bit different statement, but I believe when
you boil it down, success doesn't happen very
often from dumb luck, it just looks that way.

Great Big Joy is a series of ideas and concepts that
we're gonna go through together, about business,
because that's what I get to do, my task in life,
my passion, is to help the community of Springhill,
Louisiana, do better.  Now that probably sounds
pretty crass, but realize that every community in
America has suffered in these last two decades
by the changes that have taken place in our world.
Those sufferings were very real, to farmers who
used to have a cash crop that would be allowed
to come up next year, only now, that's not for
certain anymore, thanks to the good folks at
Monsanto, and their hybrid seed programs!

Great Big Joy comes after going through such,
for the farmer who finds another way, and my
task, my passion, is to help them.  That's the
community side of what I get to do.  Now there
is also the fun side, and that's where we're gonna
stop today, but I want to share a success with
you that I'm enjoying to no end, that's the
businesses that are already doing pretty good-
only we're gonna get to help them go to the
next level.  Imagine what fun that is going to be?
Imagine being able to stand next to someone
that is going to someday be a name that is
spoken very far away, and with respect, no
matter where it is spoken at?  Imagine being
Paul Allen in California when a young man
comes over named Bill Gates and wants
to discuss this new device called a computer?
Imagine being able to help the future
leader of a massive franchise of pet
grooming products, because that's
her dream, and someday everywhere
people say, "Painted puppy- why
sure, we remember that gal...she..."

Do You Really?

Don't you just hate it when late night TV is
all those infomercials?  Nothin' else on, there
you are, awake, flippin' through the channels
because you can't sleep- AND, to top it off,
you get infomercials.  Doesn't it chap you
just a touch?

Well this one won't- love Facebook?  Want
to see your Facebook experience become
"AWESOME!"  No matter what sort of Facebook
person you are?  Check out this lady- she will
amaze you, and her directions work...they work
and every single one that I've tried has worked!

NOW if I can do it, and I don't have any THUMBS(!)
imagine what you can do?

Education, Schools and You

Bill Gates speaks out on education:


http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_how_state_budgets_are_breaking_us_schools.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-03-08

So the question to us is, what are we going to do
about it? Right now in our rural community we're
taking the approach that we can make a difference
but that we're going to go about it by being
extremely headstrong in the wrong directions, if
you consider ill advised directions to be the best
ways to go? The best and brightest are advising our
leaders to attempt to go another way, but so far,
those consensus opinions are not being listened
to, and the ones who are going to pay for that,
I'm afraid, are the ones with no voice in it,
the students.