The headline is the story but first let me say forgive me for my absence here. For the past two weeks I have been helping a dear friend who was in the hospital. First as a patient advocate. Not in the diabetes sense, merely in the everyone in the hospital needs an advocate. I have told the husband this time and time again, “If I’m ever in the hospital, you better be watching over me like a hawk?” Second, I was helping my friend transition home the first few days after being released from the hospital.

I have learned a lot about how hospitals run and I’m more frightened than ever. While my friend was in a major, well reputed New York City hospital, the fragmentation of care and tactical application of care by the nurses made me feel overwhelmingly sad, then mad. I do believe the care of “tending” to one as a human being is integral to one’s recovery from any ailment.

But, on to other news. This story passed my desk and I think it’s well worth noting: it reminds me what we do does make a difference. The Team Type 1 Foundation who have long built a relationship with the Health Ministry in Rwanda helped Abbott, maker of the Freestyle Libre, donate glucose meters and nearly 12 million test strips to people living with diabetes in Rwanda. Amen.