Today’s guest post called, Commercial Truck Driving and Diabetes: Everything You Need To Know comes from Elisabeth Weaver of The Diabetes Council. Now before I go on, I’d like to encourage you to listen to this podcast even if you don’t have diabetes. One thing I learned from the article is that being a trucker with diabetes seems like it’d be about as much fun as having your head gnawed by a Grizzly bear. So maybe hearing it will make you think twice before you have yet another breakfast consisting of Ding Dongs and Mountain Dew. Just saying. Clearly it’s better not to get diabetes in the first place. So back to Elisabeth and the article. According to her bio, she’s a certified diabetes educator, she loves to write, and she considers writing to be a perfect part-time job. She is dedicated to helping people with diabetes. Elisabeth has a loving husband, a son (17 years) and a daughter (19 years) and she lives in Pender County NC near the intracoastal waterway. This all got started because Elisabeth emailed me to ask if I would help promote the article by tweeting it to my Twitter followers and putting a link to it on the Trucker Dump blog. Well, I enjoyed this article so much that I thought it deserved more than that. Now this is where I usually lose potential guest bloggers. I wrote Elisabeth back and told her I’d be happy to give her a whole guest blog post if she would consider recording an audio version for the podcast. Normally this is where I can actually hear them scream bloody murder as they run into the forest. But surprisingly, she was up for it; providing that I’d allow her coworker Holly Kim to record it for her. Fine by me. Anything that relieves you listeners of my whiny voice for a while is awesome! Well, I have to tell you, Elisabeth crammed this article chock full of useful information about truckers (or potential truckers) who are dealing with diabetes out here on the road. I can’t help but think this article will be even more useful as time rolls on and the DOT and the FMCSA overlords tighten their noose on the health requirements for truck drivers. And as far as the audio presentation goes, Holly knocked it out of the friggin’ park with her reading and the sound quality. I didn’t even have to edit anything! So either Holly is a flawless reader with a wonderfully clear speaking voice (in which I hate her friggin’ guts out of pure envy) or she’s an editing guru. Dunno. Perhaps it helps that she used to work at a radio station and owns a fancy-pants microphone… not that I’m jealous about that either. So anyway, I’ve said this before, but let me say it again in case you’re new to the podcast/blog. My goal for guest posts is to find articles covering subjects I know nothing about, which (I know this will come to a shock to you) isn’t that hard to do. This article and subject matter fits that criteria perfectly. From the looks of all the truckers I see with purple legs, I’d say this content is extremely important and needs to get out there. And it also fits because I have no desire to research diabetes. Because I’m lazy and stuff, you know. I’ve included a link to the original Diabetes Council article below. You’ll also find all the links mentioned within the article further down in the podcast notes. [box]If you have experience with diabetes as a trucker, please consider leaving your thoughts in the comments section over at The Diabetes Council website. Commercial Truck Driving and Diabetes: Everything You Need To Know by Elisabeth Weaver (Almekinder). Feature photo by Alden Chadwick via Flickr Creative Commons[/box]

Links in the podcast version:

I got to meet Buck Ballard from The Trucking Podcast in person! And of course, the Internet rule says that it didn’t happen if there aren’t pictures. The folks over at RoadPro are giving away prizes every day of September for National Truck Driver Appreciation Week. Click here to enter the contest! I’m looking for an Owner/Operator who would be willing to test a product called Wheel-Check for me and do a short audio review (3 minutes or less). Drop me an email at TruckerDump@gmail.com and I’ll have them shipped to you ASAP. Warren wrote in telling me he couldn’t download the songs that I use for the intro/outro of the podcast. I fixed it so now you can download both songs by Walking On Einstein for free! Bummer. I lost a paycheck from writing for TruckerMagazine.com. Listen to find out why. If you love your Apple products/services and want to discuss them with like-minded people, join me in the iTruckers Slack group. Just download the free Slack app and email iTruckers@iCloud.com for an invitation to join. The Trucker Dump podcast got mentioned over at Truckersnews.com in an article called, Podcasts May Be The Perfect On-The-Road Entertainment. Thanks for the inclusion! Trucker Dump podcast is now available on Google Play, if that’s how you roll. OverdriveOnline.com reported a story called, Love’s fuel-hauling fleet awards drivers with $3.4 million in safety bonuses, which is about a cool safety program from Gemini Motor Transport. If case you haven’t heard, I wrote an ebook called, Trucking Life: An Entertaining, Yet Informative Guide To Becoming And Being A Truck Driver. It even includes a link to a free 9.25-hour audiobook version! Available anywhere you buy ebooks. Steven sent in an audio review of Trucking Life. You might remember him as my co-host from TD111: Improving Our Reputation As Truckers. Thanks Steven! Links mentioned in the main post: Elisabeth Weaver (Almekinder) from The Diabetes Council wrote today’s article, called Commercial Truck Driving and Diabetes: Everything You Need To Know and her coworker Holly Kim reads it for us. Driver’s license Laws by state from the American Diabetes Association website. Read or download the 12-page Federal Diabetes Exemption Program packet (PDF) from the FMCSA website. Check out the FMCSA website to find a certified DOT doctor near you on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. A whole Pinterest page devoted to exercise routines for truck drivers. Map of clinic locations from Team CME. Links mentioned in the feedback section: Long duck writes in again. In case you’re wondering what kind of name Long Duck is, he’s named after the guy from Sixteen Candles. Long story. He seems a bit confused today, but he has a comment after hearing the conversation I had with my nephew in TD110: Jabbering With Jared. He also talks about parking lot poop (yes really) and the “tools” (weapons) he keeps in his truck. He finishes up with his comment about TD112: Truckers Can’t Read. David writes in after listening to either TD97: A Trucker’s Worst Nemesis: Complacency or TD104: Complacency Strikes with a great story of his own complacency. And he somehow manages to expertly tie it in with Looney Tunes cartoons and an Eagles song. Nicely done, David! Well, it looks like Bryce succumbed to my constant badgering about wanting audio comments from listeners. After hearing it, I’m convinced he’s a glutton for punishment, possibly caused by huffing too many diesel exhaust fumes. 😉 Thanks, Bryce. Keep on huffin’! New listener Andrew writes after listening to TD99: Four Ways To Be An Awesome Trucker to tease me about wearing sweat pants and the frequency of the podcast. He also listened to TD33: Automatic Or Manual Truck Transmission and relays his experience. Here’s another reminder that I’m still looking for questions and comments about exercising on the road for an upcoming podcast on the subject. Send your thoughts to TruckerDump@gmail.com. I’m also looking for more stories about YOUR evil overlord. If your spouse has done something that MY Evil Overlord would approve of, please send it in, preferably in audio form. 2-3 minutes max and send it to TruckerDump@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing the adventures of your evil overlord!