Turkey Eve

‘Twas the afternoon before Thanksgiving, and all through the newsroom, not a producer was stirring… not even a …..

and yeah, well I could never really rhyme, but you get the point.  We’re hours away from the ‘official’ beginning of the holiday season.  That means offices are beginning to clear out, and even though we’re usually a 24 hr operation, our staff is reduced on the holidays.  It’s been a tough year.  The economy sucks, giant companies want bailouts, and personal bailouts aren’t in the mail.  But this is also the time of year to put things into perspective, and realize all the things there are to be thankful for. 

Tonight, Hank Tester reports on a family that has every reason to be angry at their situation, but they’re not.  That’s because they finally have a stable place to call home.  Look for his heartwarmiing story.

Holidays means lots of traveling, and even though people are doing less of that this year, that doesn’t mean there’s going to be less stress.  Next time you hop on an airport parking shuttle, you may be surprised at who you find inside.  Joel Connable will bring us that story tonight.

Plus, the great thing about living in South Florida is a balmy 70 degrees during the holidays.  It’s also one of the worst things.  We’ll show you where you can find ’snow’ to get you in the spirit, without having to book a plane ticket.

See ya at 7pm!

One Day My Pancreas Didn’t Show Up For Work

By Joel Connable

I remember that morning in the winter of 7th grade when I didn’t feel well in homeroom. I thought I was just sick with the Flu, but I felt so bad I had to leave homeroom and go to the bathroom where I got sick. If you get sick in junior high, you would go home; that was just the rule. I went to the nurses office and told her I was sick.

While I was in the nurses office, waiting for my dad to pick me up, I was extremely thirsty. The nurse asked me if I had been drinking a lot at home. I told her I didn’t know. I told her I just like soda and stuff. After I went to the bathroom several times over the half hour that I was in her office, she asked me if I had been getting up in the middle of the night to pee. I told her I usually got up one or two times a night to go to the bathroom. After only seeing those two signs, she recommended that my dad take me to the doctor to get a blood test for Diabetes. Within the next four hours I was a Type I Diabetic and that’s when I realized my pancreas decided not to show up for work.

The toughest thing about being a Diabetic is being a Diabetic. Diabetes isn’t one of those diseases where you just take a pill or go in for treatment every so often and you are fine. Diabetes puts you in charge of your endocrine system. If you don’t know what that is, neither did I. I learned very quickly that it was the part of my body that handled all the things I had never thought about before. As a Diabetic, I had to test my blood sugar several times a day before I ate, by pricking my finger, squeezing blood out and waiting for a little machine to tell me was it high or low. Before being a Diabetic, I just ate and didn’t think about it.

I had to inject myself with Insulin at least twice a day. I had to mix two types of Insulin in a needle and then stick that needle in my arm, leg or stomach, none of which are pleasant. That needle became my best little friend, as I took it everywhere I went. If I played with my friends, I had to have Insulin for when we ate. If I went on vacation, I had to figure out how much Insulin I needed for the trip and when I had to take it based on the time difference. The basic problem with Diabetes is, even with all the testing and shots and eating the right stuff, you are never really in control. Your blood sugar always changes and it was almost impossible for me to manage the “office of Joel” without the skills my pancreas had.

I have gotten better over the years with managing my diabetes. I now have an Insulin Pump, which is connected to me all the time, so no more injections. I still don’t test my blood sugar as often as I should, but my fiancée Andrea doesn’t let me get away with that for long. I sometimes wonder how angry my parents must be at the disease, since I was adopted and Diabetes wasn’t something they had ever dealt with. It invaded our family with no provocation. That’s the other terrible thing about Type I Diabetes. You don’t have to do anything wrong to get it. While many people get Type II Diabetes, or Adult-Onset Diabetes because they eat the wrong things are gain weight, the type of Diabetes I have is genetic.

I don’t ever feel like a Diabetic. I still have the immortal feeling of a child.  But every day when I am testing my blood sugar or when I feel that Insulin Pump bouncing around in my right pocket, I am brought back to reality. Mr. Pancreas: you may have called in sick, but I have hired a temporary worker to replace you and very soon your position will be fazed out all-together when we find a cure.

If you have Diabetes in your family or, if you are a minority, overweight, thirsty or going to the bathroom frequently, go to your doctor and get tested. The earlier you know the faster you can get control of Diabetes. Go to www.jdrf.org for more information or call the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at (954) 465-4775.  You can also log on to the Diabetes Research Institute’s website at www.diabetesresearch.org or call the DRI at 1-800-321-3437.   You can also check out the online community www.childrenwithdiabetes.com

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Watch Joel Connable’s special report on his personal battle with diabetes tonight at 7pm.  You can also email him at Joel.Connable@nbcuni.com

Not New-New, But New At 7pm

We’ve got a new face on South Florida Nightly News.  Well, he’s not new-new, but he’s new at 7pm.  Joel Connable, our weekend anchor and consumer reporter is now joining Jackie (and Paul and Joe) on the set, Monday through Friday.  Joel’s got his weekends back… and now you’ve got him on your set every weekday.

Tonight Joel is going to share with us his personal battle with a disease he was diagnosed with early on in life.  You may know what I’m talking about, because Joel has become an advocate for Diabetes Awareness, specifically Juvenile Diabetes.

Later this afternoon he’ll be posting his personal account on this blog, ahead of the story airing tonight.

See ya at 7pm!

Do You Feel It?

I’ve gotten emails, facebook wall posts, and text messages from friends all around the country (and many FL transplants) complaining about the cold weather. 

“It’s 16 degrees here. really?!”

“My car is covered in snow!”

“I’ve never been so cold!”

Meanwhile– I’ve been able to just smile and report that our cold front is a pleasant 50 degrees.  Last night it dipped into the 40s, but I’ll take the South Florida winters any day.  Can’t complain, but I would like to be able to wear my open-toed shoes.  Chief Meteorologist Paul Deanno will have your complete forecast.

We’ve got a full plate today… the economic crunch is hitting the ‘high end’ market. Art Basel is a huge draw for art lovers every year in Miami Beach, but who is dropping so much money when things are so tough?  Even the big spenders are cutting back.  Hank Tester will have that report.

Jeff Burnside will also bring us his special report about a scam targeting grandparents.  They think they’re sending money to their beloved grandchildren, but instead it’s landing in the hands of strangers.

And if you’ve ever been tempted to drive through the intersection during a yellow (almost red) light, you’ll want to smile.  Don’t pretend you haven’t done it… but now another South Florida city is joining the surveillance camera ranks to ticket drivers.

See ya at 7pm!

Fifteen

There are plenty of things to talk about that have happened since the last time I visited this blog, but today I only want to talk about one story.

It had been a pretty slow newsroom since the election.  No “big” stories, pretty basic and straightforward.  And as much as we like to say that we ‘want’ something exciting to happen to make the shows feel less stale… this is not what we were asking for.

Amanda Collette was only 15 years old.  A young girl with a sweet face and a bright future.  Wednesday, she was shot and killed in the hallway of her high school by a classmate.  Looking into her eyes, hours after we found a photo of her, I could only see my little sister.  She’s the same age, in the same grade, but in a different high school, in a different county.  I remember that age.  The innocence, and the thinking that you’ve got it all figured out.  What could make someone think that at 15 (or any age), the way to solve a dispute is with a gun?

I’m usually pretty good at distancing myself from the stories that we report, but yesterday, I got choked up.  I saw Amanda’s face, I heard the fear in the voice of students and parents, and I saw the grief in a family that probably didn’t sleep last night.  Gun violence tears lives away too soon, and tears apart the families left behind. 

I’ve tried to think about what could’ve prevented Amanda’s death, and I can’t come up with a solid answer.  Metal detectors?  Stricter gun laws? Her having attended a different school?  It’s very easy to assign blame to any of those reasons, but at the end of the day, something in the mind of her classmate is what triggered the response that would kill her.  You can’t put your children in a bubble, you can’t equip each of them with a personal security guard,  you can’t live your life in fear.  At least you shouldn’t have to.  That’s just not the way it should be.  This entry wasn’t meant to discuss the reasons behind the shooting, but more to take a second to stop and think about all the lives we report on everyday.

So just now, as I struggle to understand and come to terms with the raw emotions being broadcast across all of our local stations, I took a second to send my sister a single text message, “I love you hermanita.”

The response, “I love you too that was really random lol”

Maybe I should do that more often.