Diabetes educators from around the US, and even a few from above the boarder in Canada, all congregated on Washington DC to discuss, debate, argue and show off the latest and greatest in diabetes care. Well, it wasn't just the latest and greatest in diabetes care, the old out-dated pumps with crazy tubing were there to. Everyone was showing off their stuff at the trade show, and Team Type 1 were there to promote our sponsors.
We had team members working for Sanofi Aventis, Abbott Diabetes Care, Insulet, and Dex4. Some of our team was even working for more than one. I had the privilege of working for Sanofi Aventis for the most part, talking about how I use Apidra. I did also have a lot of questions about my OmniPod and Navigator while I was there, so I got to promote 3 sponsors all at once. At the end of the show, for the last hour, I got to work at the Dex4 booth, but by this stage everyone that wanted information had gone and the only people stumbling through still were those after free samples.
Below is a photo of me and my team mates hanging out at the Sanofi booth with a couple of reps.
Of course the expo wasn't where all the action was happening for Team Type 1. We got to meet one of our biggest fans, Marcus. We had meet him in Annapolis after RAAM, and he came to see us again. Though he did shatter Matt's ego after destroying him in a 'Pokemon' battle.
Below is a photo of our team in the hotel lobby with the Dex4 crew and Marcus.
On this trip I also got to meet a new member of the TT1 tri team Tom. Despite being a triathlete, he was actually a nice guy. Not that I mean to pick on try athletes or anything.
Of course the other great thing about the AADE was the give aways. There certainly were plenty of them, but some booths were reluctant to give stuff away, especially to other exhibitionists. They claimed they only gave stuff to attendees. I did sometimes manage to get around this problem by claiming to be a patient (which is true of course). Though this didn't get me an ipod shuffle being given away by the Wavesense people. Probably fair enough though. But if it was the choice between a shuffle or the Freestyle Navigator, I'm defiantly pleased we have the Navi.
But from the booths that were willing to give me stuff, I was able to gather quite a stash. I was lucky I had a bike with me, since the bike bag gave me plenty of room to fit all my extra stuff in for the trip home. Below are photos of my new stuff (minus what I had eaten already) after day 1 and 2. Day 3 was the day when I got most of the give aways, unfortunately I couldn't get a photo then.
For those that read my blog about Orlando, you might remember that I was trying to find a picture with my soul mate dressed as either Pocahontas or Ariel. Unfortunately I was unable to find either of them in Disney World, but my soul became complete in DC. Below is a photo of my new true love, Ariel. I would have much preferred another cardboard girl like Hannah (see post from Nebraska tour de cure), but I'm in no position to complain right now.
While in DC, I did get the chance to check out some of the city. It seemed that on every corner was a another statue. I must admit that the big memorials like Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson were pretty impressive. I was also impressed to see other countries remembered at the Korean War memorial. And of course, my homeland even got a mention.
One of my favorite memorials in DC was that for WWII. It was obligatory of me to get a photo with my 'home' state.
I was dissapointed not to have time to check out some of the museums. The Holocaust one was what I really wanted to see, but unforutnately time was a bit tight this time round.
I arrived back in Colordao safe and sound on sat night, though a little exhausted. very exhausted actually. But now all I need is a few days rest and i'll be set for Boulder-Roubaix race on Sat.
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