I really hate it when people say I have a worse case of diabetes than other people. For one thing, thinking that, lets the other guy off the hook if they are not managing their diabetes.
That said …
I’ve looked at what was posted at QUALITY: Alternative approaches to diabetes, by Pamela E. Mack and I’ve been keeping up with Alwin at code:theWebSocket
Pam appears to be managing her diabetes by diet, exercise and doing a lot of testing.
Alwin appears to be using oral medications and testing.
Pam was lucky, she expected diabetes and was keeping on top of things, so she probably can control it with diet and exercise. I knew diabetes was coming, but was never given enough tools to prevent it. I think my primary care physician should have sent me to diabetes education and should have had me testing when he first told me he was watching it.
I had already been working on diet and exercise, but not very successfully at it. I’ve also got a lot more than 60 pounds to lose.
According to this post, Alwin got hit in a crisis too. Mine wasn’t as alarming, but a crisis none the less.
For those who haven’t kept up, haven’t explored the site, here’s what when on with me.
My primary care physician was watching my blood sugar for a while while treating lipids. My fasting blood sugar was in the 120’s. I don’t know why he didn’t just treat the diabetes, but he decided to do a glucose tolerance test, which I failed spectatularly.
Within 10 minutes of drinking the glucose, my vision blurred and I got into a really lousy mood. At the time, I thought the reason I was so down was two factors:
The lab where I was getting the test was jerking me around.
and
I was a couple of miles away from where my best friend got killed — and both the fact I was near there, and the fact that he’d gotten killed was unexpected. In fact, between blood draws, I went and visited the site where he died.
The nasty mood never left. In fact, I felt really really lousy, really really angry, and I kept the vision blur.
I had the test done on Friday, and was still feeling awful on Monday morning. It was so bad, that when I got to school, I immediately asked for a sub and started trying to get a hold of the doctor’s office.
About the time they got me a sub, I got a hold of the doctor’s office and the reason the phone line at the doctor’s office was busy, was because they were trying to call me. They had gotten a fax from the lab company telling them to get ahold of me immediately.
My blood sugar was over 500 when I was tested, and was still over 500 when the doctor tested me. He immediately threw glucophlage at me, and scheduled me for diabetic education.
I arranged the first class available, that Thursday and Friday.
FYI: The educational experience was the most painful part of being diabetic!
Anyway, my blood sugar was still over 500 when I got to diabetes education, my first time to get a blood sugar monitor. At one point that weekend, my blood sugar hit over 600, and the CDE urged me to get ahold of my doctor.
He’d just left for a conference, so I ended up at an urgent care center. That doctor also found my blood sugar over 600, and sent me home to take double glucophlage.
I saw my own doctor the next week, but my blood sugar was still in the 400’s. In fact, no matter what I ate, what I did, my blood sugar was staying before 400, even fasting. And he was furious that the doctor had not given me any insulin or any other treatment other than increasing the glucophlage.
I talked to my cousin, a CDE who is a pharmacy PHD, and she suggested adding insulin to pull my blood sugar down fast. When I asked the doctor about that, he gave a huge sigh of relief, wrote me a script for it, and sent me to more diabetes education to learn about insulin.
It took a while, but I finally got my blood sugar down to a reasonable level.
However, I ran into major problems with the long acting insulin — I was one it for 6 months, kept gaining weight, and kept having problems with hypoglycia episodes, especially when trying to exercise.
Nothing like spending an hour on the treadmill than having to drink a sports bottle of gatorade, and then going into roller coaster mode. That will guarantee you gain weight.
To shorten a long story … after about 6 months on shots and changing doctors (not my choice), and coming in every month and complaining … my primary care physician said on the way out the door — why don’t you look into insulin pumps.
Man, best parting shot I’d ever heard. I went to an insulin pump user’s group, did hours of research on the internet — even going so far as to looking up pumps on the FDA’s Maude database. Read back months of conversation of the insulin’s pumpers mailing list. Decided to take the plunge and go with the pump.
Since being on the pump, I haven’t suffered from a real hypoglymic episode. I’ve lost weight — about 35 pounds since last year’s spring break. My lipid levels are finally normal, as is my blood pressure.
I’m probably the healthiest I’ve ever been.
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