something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality. 2. the state or condition of being deceived; misapprehension.3. an instance of being deceived (sic. among many, many other definitions).
Last weekend I attended an event at a huge health facility. At ~high noon~ everything was completely stopped, the floor cleared and there was a demonstration in the center ring. 3, 4 different activities which were claimed to be demonstrations of deep mystical skill(s) were shown… Very standard silliness… total illusion and was unfortunately, complete fraud! But since then I’ve been thinking…
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What in diabetes do YOU consider “illusion”?
Something you consider “smoke and mirrors”… a trick? Something that you don’t believe is truly real but maybe want to believe in anyway? Certain diabetes ~misdirections~ perhaps?
Anybody have “illusions” re: their diabetes, or diabetes in general?
Other than the usual snake-oil scams (acai juice and the like), I think the biggest illusion is the A1C. Sure, it’s important, but it’s a 3-month rolling average of your blood sugars and doesn’t go to say how many highs or lows (or HOW high or low) you experience, nor is there any real consistency from one test/lab to the next.
I don’t dismiss its importance, but to make a blanket statement like “Under ## good; above ## bad”, (where I’ve seen ## to represent 6.0, 6.5, or 7.0) is oversimplification.
For T1 diabetes, the biggest illusion I feel I face every day is the idea that I have total control over this diabetes thing. With T1, there are so many things that impact my BG (weather, hormones, the position of the sun, activity level, etc), it’s an illusion that correct basals and boluses and counting my carbs will keep me in range. And this is something that so many endos just don’t seem to understand, which drives me batty. Diabetes is a time-intensive disease to manage (as we all know here) and unless you quit your full-time job and just do D management, you’ll never get it all right. That is something I’m trying to accept.
I also find the whole A1C thing a bit of an illusion. It’s good for diagnostic purposes (IMO) but once you’re on insulin, I just don’t see much value in it. For me, I pay more attention to my daily logs. Those tell the REAL story of how I’m doing.
I am not sure I buy there’s “illusions” involved. Input/output usually works. It’s challenging but if you can turn it into a game, you can feel like you “win”.
I find the whole diet thing an illusion, boundaries keep shifting, you should aim for this number or that. Every low carb diet I have read up has different foods you should or shouldn’t eat. It is like treading through a minefield.
One Touch - DoubleSure Technology where they say they check each sample twice to make sure there results are correct. This is smoke and mirrors since the meters still are not accurate.
The illusion to me is that I keep thinking I can go to a doctor and they will fix me. Now I have started going with the theory that you can’t fix what is broke.
First is that T2’s caused their D. T2’s do not cause their disease. Some poorly contol their D and do little to help themselves but they don’t cause it. Most T2’s would benefit from more education and support.
Second is that oral meds until things go to hell in a hand basket is the best aproach. Some folks and maybe most folks would be much better off if started on insulin sooner.
Ancient thread, but definately true assessment IMV, but for all of them. March 16-17, 2010 FDA Gaitherburg (sp,) MD. meeting was very clear on the subject...
