When I’ve had people say, “Oh, I could never do that”, and I more or less present it like you described, it’s this or death, I’ve actually had many people say they’d rather just die.
Jeez. Yeah, that’s the worst, most insensitive thing you can say. You’ve told me you try to save the snappy comebacks for your husband. I admire you for your tact. I’d be all over people like that. I’m patient only to a point with ignorance and lack of tact.
There’s a lady at my Weight Watchers meetings that asks me questions every week about “the diabeetus.” She’s apparently pre-diabetic and not understanding her doctor’s suggestions. For the first month or so, I was happy to answer about risk factors or insulin or whatever it was she seemed to misunderstand. But it’s become annoying. I watch her scan the room for me and her questions are so inane. I can’t help but feel at a certain point that she’s saying “What else can you suggest I do so I don’t end up like you?” Every time I give her advice about what a Type I or Type II should do in that situation, she stops me and says “Well, I don’t have the diabeetus yet.” I’ve learned from listening to her questions of other people at the meetings that she’s just that type of person - lonely and a little attention-hungry. But I am tired of the way it makes me feel. I think there are people who don’t mean to hurt or insult, but if it’s not good for us and our attitudes about diabetes, maybe we need to give ourselves distance. We grow weary of educating others - especially about the T1/T2 thing. It’s hard enough to live with it. Even as a teacher by trade, I need a day off!
Ooh, I thought of something else. (Sorry, Lee Ann, as you’ve noticed by now, I’m terribly verbose).
In high school biology, we were learning about recombinant DNA technology and how they take human DNA and train bacteria to produce hormones as byproducts. A girl who identified herself as a fundamentalist Christian stood up and declared all the evils of playing God with DNA and how it is unnecessary, and that those people should just accept death, etc. My 14-year-old self was silently fuming. My teacher smiled and turned toward my lab table and said, “Miss Baland, do you have anything you’d like to add to that?” I was, first of all, so impressed that without discussion of it, he’d made that leap in his brain that this would be something I’d know something about. I definitely stood up and talked about how recombinant DNA was the reason I was alive today. I have a habit of enjoying diabetic self-righteousness in moments like that. Science classes always gave me hope for a cure and for education of the general public. The girl was embarrassed and apologetic.
Getting kicked out of my community pool by the board of directors telling me that I am going to infect our community wearing this insulin pump. What is a diabetic suppose to look like???
Hi:
My endo writes my test strips prescription for 120 FreeStyle test strips. (Noteably, FreeStyle test strips don’t come in boxes of 25 that I’m aware of.) Depending on the pharmacy, sometimes a pharmacist rounds the prescription up to 150 strips, giving me three boxes of 50 strips each or 150 strips. And sometimes they annoyingly round the prescription down to 100, giving me two boxes of 50 strips each or 100 strips–thus short changing me 20 strips, which I really need. Most recently while on travel, a Walgreens in IL pharmacist wanted to fill my prescription with merely two boxes of 50 strips each or 100 strips. I whined–saying a shortage in strips (20) would cause me to take my business to CVS–until the pharmacist agreed to three boxes of 50 each. I don’t find this amusing at all, considering the dirty looks I get from other customers while holding up the line arguing why my prescription should be filled with 150 strips instead of 100. I’ve mentioned this before to my endo but she does the math and seems to believe it’s up to the pharmacist to round up or down. Anyone else encounter this problem? Any solution?
Best regards, Lucy
Either explain to your endocrinologist that you need the scrip written in multiples of 50 (which they would write as “5x per day” instead of “4x per day” for 30 days), consider buying through cheaper online sources (mail-order, ebay, wholesale, etc), or find ONE pharmacy you trust and stick with that pharmacy. It’s much easier if you establish a relationship with your local pharmacy staff. I had a pharmacist once extend an expired insulin Rx one month when I was between doctors (and no one would write me a new scrip) because she knew and trusted me from my business there.
Thanks for your reply, MelissaBL: I was just seen by my endo for my 3-month appointment yesterday. She doubled my Metformin from 500 mg 2x per day (breakfast & dinner times) to 1000 mg 2x per day–to try to lower my fasting bs.
To my dismay, she also reinforced that I merely need to test twice a day: morning fasting bs plus before dinner. She seems to base my treatment on my fasting bs and my A1C, the results of which I haven’t yet received from blood drawn in her office. She doesn’t seem too concerned about or interested in my after meal spikes. I’m still getting my test strips refilled under a prescription given to me when I was taking Levemir. So I’ll be lucky if my next test strips prescription gets written for 3x per day for 30 days when the current prescription expires.
I agree it’s easier when one establishes a relationship with one local pharmacy. But, as everyone knows, prescriptions are expensive even when covered partially under insurance. I go to the trouble of using coupons whenever I can, such as Rite Aid’s current one (good until 10/10/09) for getting a free $25 gift card when transferring a prescription to RiteAid. Therefore, I’ll transfer my old Metformin prescription (500 mg 2x day) from CVS to RiteAid today before getting my new one filled (1000 mg 2x day). Also, I’m in the FreeStyle prescription discount program so I don’t think I can get my test strip prescription any cheaper than currently–that is, sometimes in combination with a pharamcy gift card coupon promotion. Again, thanks for your reply.
True, but you’d be surprised what a box of strips (just as a supplement to your current supply) can run on eBay. I’m suggesting that you find a cheap online source to order an extra box of 50 every two months to get you through that disparity between what you need and what you receive on your Rx. The Freestyle Promise program is fabulous for your regular refills, but don’t be afraid to branch out and buy OTC (and as cheaply as possible) to supplement.
I can see that your endo is thinking that the first element to good control for a type 2 is a low fasting blood sugar, but the post-meal spikes are the numbers that have the greatest effect on your A1c. I had had type 1 diabetes for over 15 years before a doc finally said that point-blank to me and it was like turning on a light. I got the spikes under control and my A1c has fallen like an avalanche. If your next A1c is any higher than low 6s, I would ignore your doc’s advice and continue to test after meals when you feel you need to.
huh, I didn’t know that about the spike. That is like turning on a light… thanks melissa 
That’s why so many of us here on TuD now recommend either taking your insulin earlier before meals (and never after) or reducing overall carb intake per meal. Those post-meal spikes are what kill our averages.
Testing 2 hours after a meal for a T1 may give you a good idea about whether you have properly matched your dietary carbs with a bolus, but as you note, you may go very high at an hour if your timing is off and you eat a large amount of carbs. Certainly changing your timing and reducing carbs can help. This makes testing very important for an insulin dependent diabetic.
For a T2, things are usually a bit different. You generally can only observe at 2 hours and see whether you overate carbs. If you did, then you can learn from that and reduce your carbs (eat to your meter), but there is nothing you can do to "correct. "After you’ve been a T2 for some time, you basically know what effect a particular meal will have. Gaining this long-term knowledge that reduces the utility of further testing as part of learning to “eat to the meter”. My endo does not think I need to test 3 times a day as a long-term T2, but he humors me and writes my prescription anyway.
ps. I have also over time, performed tests at various times like 1 hour and at 3 hours to identify whether my blood sugar response is spiking, blunted or delayed.
Just thought I’d mention that Metformin is on Walmart’s $4/$10 prescription plan.
I know this is an old post, but I had to laugh at “the diabeetus” reference! My grandmother used to say it that way…drove me nuts!
Loke other’s here thr most irritating comment I’ve ever gotten is, “i
Is it the bad kind” or “You can’t eat that” and that was by my OWN family!!! Guess after years they still don’t get it!
I was playing Basketball and someone told me that they didn’t want me on their team because I was diabetic and they thought it would hold me back. I just smiled… “watch this diabetic kick your @$$!”
I’m late onset Type 1 and the only person in my entire extended family to have diabetes of any kind. I was diagnosed about seven years ago at age 42.
For the past two months, I’ve been having thyroid problems and finally got to see an endo on Monday. After learning that I have a form of subacute thyroiditis that should clear up on its own, I sent an e-mail to my parents to give them an update. My mom’s reply: “We’re certainly learning a lot about diabetes that we never knew. I, for one, didn’t realize all the medical side effects (if that’s what you’d call them) that occur.”
Glad I can help educate you about diabetes, Mom.
Sheesh.
My grandmother, to this day, tells me that she wants me to go shopping with her because she wants to make sure she buys stuff I can eat. I keep telling her I can eat whatever she wants to make… with the exception of beef. And that doesn’t have anything to do with my diabetes!
Another thing people are always asking me is, “Do you need to eat?” Only when I’m hungry (or bored).
I just love the people who say “oh, I could NEVER handle being a diabetic”…like we have a choice! I wonder if they would just curl up and die upon being diagnosed?
I usually respond by telling them that they probably can handle whatever is put in front of them, but I do still hope they never have to deal with diabetes themselves.
Ruth
I’ve heard it, but it makes me testy. FWIW, I’m 5’10" and 150 lbs. When I was diagnosed at age 30 with Type I, I was a sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery. Suffice it to say, I don’t fit the stereotype I used to have for what a diabetic is supposed to look like.
Most often, I just smile sweetly (pun intended). But, I’m thinking something to myself that is too nasty to mention, like “You are dumber than you look, you microencephalitic knuckle dragging inbred from the shallow end of the gene pool moron!” or some such. If I am especially provoked and tending towards NOT keeping my mouth shut, then I’ll ask the clod “Just what is a diabetic supposed to look like? Perhaps I should try harder?”
Oh I remember getting all the time when I was a kid! Other kids would look at me and say “I just couldn’t do it.”
Well, unless you prefer death…
Oddly, I read this thread just this morning thinking, “I 'just can’t imagine someone saying that!” Then a handyman was at my house and was pretty chatty and somehow I mentioned having diabetes and he said…you guessed it…“you don’t look like you have diabetes” Well I was in a good mood because he had just fixed my furnace so I laughed and said, “there is really no way to tell someone has diabetes”, and then went on to briefly explain about management to stay healthy and avoid complications. He was quite interested, telling me he had an uncle who was recently diagnosed with Type 2 and they didn’t know what it all meant. So I used it as an opportunity to educate a bit more and gave him several TuDiabetes cards and he was very grateful. Good experience!