Sometimes, it’s very hard for me to let go… and to live and let live. I’ve always had that lawyer kind of personality. I invest myself emotionally in causes, in people, in fairness, and goodness… I get wrapped up in it, and I want to save the world… If you know anything about me, about any of my comments, and discussions, you will see… that I have a deep sense of justice, and fairness, ingrained in me. It’s nothing personal, with anyone… it just is what it is.
Lately, I've been feeling particularly irate at the amount of ignorance that has come my way... not just of people who simply don't know anything about Diabetes, in general, but of people who have been told complete absurdities about Diabetes by their own healthcare professionals! Here are three examples:
"I'm doing 220 carbs a day, smart carbs, not empty McDonald carbs, and have found I do not have spikes any longer. Your body actually needs approx. that amount of good carbs a day to function correctly. If you take in too little, you'll drop or your body will release glucose into the body and cause spikes. According to my dietician."
"hi, i found out i had type 2 diabetes in december 09, was given all the information and was weighed, sent home with a blood meter. since then i was checking my blood sugars twice a day, more out of curiosity to be honest, but then when i seen the reading, was it a good one, a bad one, a high one, a low one, i wasnt sure, the more i read the more i felt confused, i know how hard i have been working to improve my eating habits. So this week seen my nurse for a check up, oh it was a diff one fromthe first visit, first thing she said was to get rid of the meter as it stress you out big time, although i had a load of questions to ask she very clearly answered them for me through our cnversation my blood pressure is also down. but the best bit was, at the dietican today, and lost 13ilbs since december, i was well plesed, so blood meter is long gone and im continuing the way i ahve been going. thank u for reading and listening"
"My grandmother had type 2 diabetes for 30 years, started a very high quality nutritional supplement and after about a year her doctor said she no longer has diabetes."
I just, I am astounded... I do not know what to think about these so called medical professionals. I know people are responsible for their own treatment, but for this ignorance to come out your own health care providers who you are supposed to trust is unspeakable. To go around telling people that their blood glucose levels will actually spike if they go low carb, keeping them enslaved to the ridiculous 220 g of carb a day diet, or to tell people that they don't need to test their blood sugars, to me... is tantamount to malpractice, and a need for being reported to some board, of some kind.
Then there's the other fraction of the equation... Why are people so blindly following their health care professionals, and not doing their own research, and then getting mad at those who actually tell them they are in grave danger? Why do people put their faith so blindly on something, without first looking into it? I just... I cannot believe a person would so casually throw away their glucose meter, or believe they HAVE to blindly eat 220 carbs a day... because of course, since they either take a pill, or inject themselves, they don't think it matters at all. You try to educate these kinds of people, and then they just bite your head off. It's not so much that every diabetic has to eat low carb... but to tell someone that they HAVE to eat a lot of carbs, or they will spike, is nothing short of absurd. Or how about telling someone that their Diabetes is cured, after 30 years with it?!
So I am angry, and I am angry enough to do something about it... But what should I do? How do we become active, as advocates of our health, to prevent health care incompetency? How do we prevent so many people from being completely ignorant as cavemen about their own personal care, and how do we prevent people with limited Diabetic knowledge (like some nurses and dieticians) from trying to usurp the care instructions a doctor has already given? I have read the many, and embarassing/trying/angering stories from others on this topic. This cannot be the job of a single person... we need to rise up together, as a society of people with diabetes, demanding appropriate care, and standards. We need to write letters, write doctors, report inappropriate staff to the appropriate board, or to their superiors... It is NOT okay to let it go! Until we take it on, so many people will lose their lives to this disease, and go on misdiagnosed, and developing so many serious, life threatening and altering complications which they could have worked on, and potentially avoided... Our letters, by the thousands, to places like the AMA, and to the ANA, and yes, perhaps even the ADA... are seriously called for. It's time we stand up for us, and for the truth... One person at a time.
I realize... the problem will not be solved in my lifetime... But if I lived, and did something, and gave anything in my life... until this disease takes my last breath... It will be putting every effort and strength I have into pushing people into knowledge, power, and appropriate care... to eventually find a cure.
