Diabetes Media Superstar

Someone posted on the newsgroup that they were a journalist looking for people's opinions about Exubera. I figured, hey, maybe it is for real, so I answered briefly, mentioning the obvious problems with inhaled insulin.

It turned out to be real, and next thing you know, they want to quote me and a photographer from a Major Magazine is scheduled to come out to my house to take my picture.

Giving it some thought, I realized, what I'd really like to do would be to have them shoot a picture of me doing the classic insulin tummy jab to demonstrate just how simple and painless it is to inject insulin. Given the terror most type 2s bring to the thought of having to inject, one picture of a smiling happy person sticking a syringe into their tummy could do a world of good. Heck, I'd be happy to go on network TV and demonstrate the painless jab.

Of course, I'll be very surprised if the photographer goes for that shot. Needles still make most people think of drug addiction. Still, it might be very necessary, very soon. When a company is about to put a bundle of money into promoting a new insulin product that costs a ton more than even the most expensive analog, without being able to deliver the precision doses that make insulin makes sense, their main marketing thrust has got to be playing on the normal person's terror of needles.

Can't you just see the ad campaign? Close up of a 2 inch spike, faces contorted in pain, horror movie music--then the voice over--free yourself from the torture of injection (well, at least for meals, you still have to shoot your basal if you're like most people on insulin.)

If they're going to be like that I will be happy to bare my pretty reasonable 58 year old tummy in front of an audience of millions and demonstrate how utterly unnecessary inhalable insulin is. Heck, I wish I'd known a couple years ago because I'm so much happier on insulin than on the old "you can't eat anything that tastes good ever again" dietary regimen.