the way I look at it is that if a T1 doesn’t learn how to adjust things for themselves after a couple of months of starting to pump, or after a year or so after diagnosis, they’ll likely live a shorter and more chaotic life. It blows my mind that there are T1’s that could possibly be content to wait for a doctor to call them back when their bg’s aren’t where they should be. This is a disease that needs 24/7/365 care and adjustments. It’s not something that waits for a doctor call-back.
Insulin at the hospital
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I am lada, for 27 years, still MDI, and on Medicare. My endo now says I only need to come in every 6 months because I am doing so well controlling D. So far no issues with Medicare
Re issue of hospitals, last one did put me in DKA
i’m with others, if they won’t let me control, then I am out of there AMA.
My spouse and kids have been told same.
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You say you are on MDI. I believe the 3-month doctor’s visit is a requirement only for pumpers when Medicare paid for their pump and is paying for their insulin and pump supplies.
Oh, and about the fasting for labs, that is for the lipids. Since I refuse to take a statin, they no longer include the cholesterol test in my annual labs. Hence, no fasting.
But I agree that it is a waste of time and money to see your doctor every 3 months. My CDE and I spend most of the visit discussing our farm animals. 
LOL! 80% of the time I spent at my endo’s office also was spent on non-diabetes subjects. Sadly, he just retired and I’ve no idea if I’ll like the next endo who I have an appt. with in about 10 weeks.
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@Dave So sorry to hear that, when i moved one of the things I knew I would miss the most is my endo! The new one is fine, no problems, but the one I moved from was great, mostly because her and her NP were type 1’s too and extremely knowledgeable and up on all the latest!
Been gone for a wile but I broke down and went on a Vodka drinking binge.
The first one with diabetes.
No food and no insulin for 5 days.
Went to the hospital twice explaining how I screwed up and needed help.
The first night a shot of Ativan, got some sleep and out the door at dawn.
Still having anxiety attacks and no abilty to eat I go back. The usual checks no medication and I was told “This is not a bed a breakfast” and the guy shoved a bag with a sandwich in it at me at the same time.
I called the hospital, complained about the treatment, said the sandwich would be great but I am too sick to eat it. They said come back.
Drank some more vodka, alcohol the only OTC anxiety medication available, I waited for the day shift to go home. I actually called and asked if they did then I went back and was admitted by the night doctor.
The floor upstairs they were nice. I usually use nothing but Lantus but they would give me one or 2 units of humalog every so often. Sliding scale.
Up on the floor they were nice, ER staff alot of good people but that “this is not a bed a breakfast” guy who I think was the Dr could have killed me.
I am grateful to be alive but I think I need to start the complaint process or even the lawsuit process.
I don’t feel angry but its true that guy could have killed me with those actions. My fault in a way letting the alcohol grab hold of me but that wasn’t right. What happens to the next person in my situation ?
That was my first, and hopefully last time I get caught in that anxiety-alcohol feedback loop since my diagnosis. I did not know what to do but apparently if I don’t eat I don’t need insulin. I was checking and in range the whole time. How long that can go on not sure.
That was a wake up to me how the world really is.
I think I was admitted the third time because of the violent vomiting into that bag they give you.
I was lucky that when I got out after 2 nights I found someone sold who me some Xanax and that kept me calm for for a few days and got me back to eating. I just got lucky, a neighbor was talking about marijuana and I joked about how much I hate weed, because I do, but would pay triple for some Xanax and they happened to have some.
Scary times we live in. I got myself really sick with that drinking and it was a fight to get any help at all.
The fact I had diabetes carried no weight with the hospital.
I get it, they patch people up and they drink or in the case of addiction use come back over and over and they get tired of that. Now its too bad get out if you die well that sucks for you.
I guess I am going to call my doctor, who was angry when he heard about the bed and breakfast comment, and start the complaint process. My doctor wants to do it. Again up on the floor they were nothing but helpful.
Very scary ordeal.
The best person to take care of you is YOU! The best medical care you can receive starts with YOU! I think those diabetics who are doing well have learned this already.
Taking care of YOURSELF is the best way to stay out of the hospital.
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I was kicking **s the first year.
Eating right, in the gym in my 40s lifting wieght just like the 20-30 year olds keeping up adding 15 lbs of muscle… I started a gym thread here.
My “excuse” for self destruction was getting tired out, angry that the DMV hit me retroactive and snatched my driving licence 8 years after the offence. Never saw it coming, that past comes back. Fat lawyer bill and its taking forever, ex post facto double jeopardy , sorry kids America and everything it stood for died around 1990. USSA Amerika that’s all that’s left. Watch your Fox and CNN and believe that bull if you want. Been game over for a wile now.
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.
During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
- from bondage to spiritual faith;
- from spiritual faith to great courage;
- from courage to liberty; (1776)
- from liberty to abundance;
- from abundance to complacency;
- from complacency to apathy;
- from apathy to dependence;
- from dependence back into bondage.
From 5-6 we did that in the 80s to the 90s
I am not teaching a class here even if its raining and I am bored. Look it up “The Life Cycle of a Nation” We are at the end folks.
“Taking care of YOURSELF is the best way to stay out of the hospital.”
I know, the state extortionists took my driving and it got hot and the day rides to the supermarket on my bike got fewer and fewer, fell out of the gym habit.
I am single I wanted to go to the local bars…
I am stupid because I know that system has two functions, to get money and destroy lives and I let it push me back to the drink.
Its no accident we have 70,000 drug overdoses and 10s of thousands of suicides each year.
Most people think these things are caused by only mental illness and addiction. Study it further and with most of these people there is a third component. Entanglement in the extortion , I mean legal system. It destroys hope and wears people down till they pick up again. Its designed to do that.
I don’t write this cause I read some ‘conspiracy’ website. Nope, attended then work and volunteer at a drug and alcohol treatment center for many years. From the front lines I know.
I kinda knew better then to drink but ya I wanted relief.
We just had a client with diabetes, I was in a hypo and said to someone dude got my low sugar going on, the yellow spot and she heard and said diabetes me too.
Feel like I am violating HIPPA, lol . No names, I am just a random screen name on the great big WWW but I respect that HIPPA. Feels wrong.
I can tell you all one thing, if you are open about the diabetes and mention in alot in public you will soon find there are A LOT of us.
Still stuck on the life cycle of a nation thing, we are done, love thy neighbor has been replaced with call the city and rat them out if you hear the sound of hammers and saws and see them putting in a skylight without a permit.
Neither left or right politics is changing that.
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@Cinderfella has it right, you are the best person to take care of yourself.
The way to do it is not by fighting against the system, you must make it work for you. If you fight every real or perceived injustice you will most likely lose because, guess what, they are the system and they make the rules. The greater satisfaction is beating them at their own game.
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Truthfully when you are sick and tired of being very sick and very tired you will take care of yourself. I knew this for many years and refused to take it seriously for over 20 years. Taking care of yourself is much better than not.
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@IgotT1
That one sentence really didn’t have much to do with what you went through. I think you are focusing on the wrong thing. You need to help yourself and not be self destructive.
Today Gym membership renewal and food shopping.
Your comment also tells me its possible to refuse to take it seriously for 20 years and still be alive.
You did but I can tell I can’t.
A year of gym gains gone in weeks. Muscle memory is true but this is going to take work.
Pushing weights is easy compared to the get food and actually eat it part.
I don’t have unlimited resources and 10s of thousands of armed men to do my bidding like the system does.
I could never play the game they do.
Don’t kid yourself I was very lucky. I understand how lucky I am to even be alive. Is it possible? Yes. What are the outcome odds however. Very slim.
I took my insulin every time, did not drink and had a supportive spouse. Yeah I made it but most people don’t my advice be healthy take care your self. Put the vodka away, and never blame others for for bad choices you make.
You do not have to be a gym rat to live, but you must care about yourself.
Be happy, feel better, live long and enjoy life.
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You are playing it now whether you like it or not, the problem is that you are playing the game poorly.
The rules of this game were not created to tick you off personally, they are the same for the majority of us. It is a one size fit all approach that does not perfectly fit anyone. This is why we must strive to play the system instead of fighting it. No one wins unless they play by the rules.
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I’m not on Medicare, but I don’t mind going to the endocrinologists office every 3 months at all. What I hate is also having to sit in an hour long educational session every 3 months with a nurse employed by my husband’s company in order to keep in the chronic condition program which gives better coverage for basic care requirements. That’s every 90 days too. It’s completely overkill (for me) and designed for newly diagnosed T2s, not 29 year veterans. 
Those vile things posing as humans don’t follow the rules.
“No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.”
Read more:
Hey, @IgotT1. Its good to hear from you again. I was wondering where you went. I was a little worried. Your a cool guy, so I’m gonna cut the bull ■■■■, and ask you straight - what is all this about?
I call situations involving hospitalization “critical failures.” Critical failures occur for a wide variety of reasons. I could be wrong, but this doesn’t feel like the cause was drinking. No matter how much you drink, you still wake up in the morning pretty sober and can take an injection of long acting insulin to keep you alive.
What was this all about? Did you get manic for a couple weeks, or what? This is an honest question and I hope you don’t take it the wrong way.
The critical failure with me and drinking is my appetite shuts down and food becomes gag reflex revolting.
Pre diabetes I could just walk it off, literally just walk for miles, walk through the anxiety attacks of withdrawal and get back on track. When I felt like eating again I did.
Now blood sugar insulin management in the mix. Can’t do it.
Broke my own rule and paid the price. Big one this time.
My rule is drink for fun only. Drinking for stress relief or depression and its a bad gamble of getting into that no way out spiral.
They don’t teach harm reduction in addiction treatment but that rule kept me out of trouble for years. Did not read it online I just learned.
Drinking for fun once in a wile and using it to feel from bad to good are two completely different activities with the latter usually having a bad outcome.
I still feel sick from it and been out of the cycle for 3 weeks now.
8-10 drinks a day I was up to, that’s breakfast for alot of people who drink. Took me down to critical failure. yep.
Never ever drink at stress, boredom or depression. I better remember that.
@IgotT1, That’s good practice.
What you are describing does not sound like ‘panic attacks.’ Panic attacks last ten minutes, not days.
I’m gonna throw this out there - 8 to 10 drinks over the course of a day is not nothing, but its also not a ton. Its hard for me to understand how this resulted in this level of critical failure unless there is a more serious, underlying issue.
Did you loose weight during this time period? When you say that you “walk a lot,” does that mean that you walked a couple hours or a couple miles or that you walked for eight hours, like all night long, day after day?
Who was around to check in on you during this period?
I just wonder if the underlying problem was the drinking (of course this plays some role) or if the fundamental problem is the stress and depression that perhaps helped trigger the drinking. If that’s it, then that has to be addressed.