Wedneday at FFL (Friends For Life Conference)

Wednesday, we got up & packed the van again to drive back to the Coronado Resort & Convention Center at Disney.  We got there around noon.  The resort was beautiful!

Thursday and Friday were the main teaching days of the conference, but you could register for sessions on Wednesday as well.  Gene and I had both signed up for a 1:00 session, so we had hoped to get there earlier, but it was hard to get going after such a long day the day before.  Gene decided to go to the session (Diatribe- Targeting a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes: How Long Will We Have To Wait?) while I registered at the conference, got the GAC (again more later), met with Medtronic about evaluating their pump (Andrew still prefers Animas), and then unpacked in our room.  At 3:00, we went to the first timers reception.  We not only learned about the conference, but they split us up by region.  We met another family from Alabama and then the former NFL football player Kendall Simmons joined us!  He was so friendly and down to earth, and a great example to the kids!

That evening was the grand opening of the Exhibit Hall.  You could visit every pump company out there.  I also remember FRIO, Spi-belt, Trialnet, & Dex-4.  I even saw one I hadn't considered before.  The kids got books on diabetes, coloring books, t-shirts, toys, meters, etc.  My favorite was the Nova MAX Plus ketone meter.  It checks glucose or ketones & doesn't require any coding to go between them.  I like it much better than the Precision Xtra.  Blood ketones are so much more accurate than urine ketones, but the strips cost so much ($5 each, not covered by our insurance) that we only use them when Andrew is sick.  Free strips are like gold!  They had lots of games & goodies for the kids, so they all had a great time.  The sugar-free sno-cones were Andrew's favorite.  It was the best selection of flavors that he could have that he had ever seen!

Ryan, 13, had a teen ice breaker from 9 - 10 pm.  The teens were going to Hollywood Studios on Friday and had to stay with a partner, so they needed to get started making friends!  Ryan had a great time.  I think it was my first experience staying awake waiting for my teenager to come home.