I hear you!
I see this as intellectually lazy and incurious on the part of the clinician. And frustrating for the patient. This doctor behavior does not build confidence or trust for the patient.
Now that my blood glucose is in the normal range, my immune system works well. I did not even catch one cold this winter.
They correlate everything to diabetes. On the other side of the coin, I do it too, sometimes. I think this is the biggest barrier to care/diagnosis for many of us who have multiple chronic illnesses with diabetes. A diagnosis of diabetes is a huge road block for any other diagnosis.
This has been my experience as well. I’ve had 3 doctors tell me in the past 18 months that I’m a complicated case and it’s impossible to tell which of my disorders is contributing to the issue(s) I have.
I agree. There have been multiple studies that say women are more likely to have their pain diminished or ignored by physicians, and you add on the factors of age (I’m 32, but look younger) and diabetes, and it’s a potent combination for doubt and apathy from doctors in my experience. I try to excuse them by saying they’re overworked, but who knows.
I’m lucky that I found a non-judgmental (if apathetic) endocrinologist, and a retina guy who really gets me because I obviously can’t fix my retinas myself, but when it comes to the stomach issues, I just gave up. It’s too invisible of a problem and the stress of defending myself was making the problem worse. I realize it’s not healthy, and my dentist asked me if I had bulimia so clearly its causing secondary problems, but it’s just not worth the hassle when theres no resolution.
@BeckyZ Have you ever tried a large dose of ginger? it really can help nausea. But it usually takes larger doses.
When I was on metformin it was starting to make me throw up about a half hour to an hour after I took it. If I could get ginger down me fast enough I wouldn’t throw up.
First I used real ginger ale, Reeds extra strength which is 20,000 mg a bottle, and I would open more capsules and pore them into it. But I did hate the sugar in it. It seemed defeating the purpose to take metformin and drink soda lol. So then I got sparkling water and would put in 2 heaping spoonfuls powdered ginger into a glass with some stevia. I guess Reeds is in the process of launching a naturally sweetened 0 sugar version again so that would be nice!
It did work quite well, although at my dose it’s “hot” and will clean out your sinus! But then I started getting major constipation from metformin and gave up using it. I used to tell people that came into the store throwing up from a virus that it would work sometimes, although not always, but at least if they threw up it tasted better when they had drunk some ginger ale!
I have tried the ginger hard candies before, but the effect seemed fairly mild, and I also didn’t like the sugar in those. I could try switching from coke zero to diet ginger ale, as I do like the taste of diet Canada dry. Ive never tried Reeds, but I will look into it.
The biggest problem is the unpredictability of it. A lot of the time I am fine…until I’m not. I wish I could find a pattern or what triggers it, but most of my efforts at this point go to managing symptoms. Ironically, the best way to feel better fast is just to throw up, as the nausea almost always disappears after a purge. I just don’t like doing that for obvious reasons.
I used to have that issue and we figured out that reheated chicken was doing it to me. Freshly cooked chicken isn’t a problem nor cold chicken but reheating chicken apparently does something to the protein structure and some people just can’t digest it. It took a long time to track down the reason because there didn’t seem to be a pattern. Maybe you have something similar you eat that sometimes doesn’t cause a problem but others it will.
@BeckyZ Most ginger ale in regular stores doesn’t actually have much ginger or even any ginger in it. Canada Dry got in trouble for even putting made with real ginger on their label at one point, because they had very little ginger in it. They said the reason was because people don’t actually like real ginger flavor. And the hard candies I don’t think have a lot? The crystallized ginger has a much much stronger flavor, which is why I think the hard candies might not have that much real ginger in it.
The crystallized ginger has about 2-5 grams of sugar in each piece, they can vary in size so it’s hard to tell exactly. I do carry them with me as they work for a BG boost.
I fell in love with ginger because I used to have a major vertigo problem because of allergies and TMJ.
I think all hospitals have social media accounts.
If they screw with your blood sugar leave reviews, leave reviews on yelp and all those sites too.
This sucks, I better be careful and stay out of hospitals. I already knew don’t get hurt cause of the war on pain patients.
They were Korean hard candies because koreans swear by ginger curing everything. I brought a bunch back with me, but I ran out quite a while ago and haven’t tried any American ginger candies. I didn’t realize that about Canada dry. My dad also makes a ginger banana bread with real ginger that is very good, very gingery too, maybe I’ll ask him to bake me a loaf, at least then I can justify the sugar lol.
That’s interesting. I never noticed any problems with reheated food, but I do rely on my microwave more often than I probably should, so maybe I’ll pay more attention to the manner of cooking in the future to look for possible triggers.
I was laying in bed, thinking about what Hakima wrote. It troubles me.
Its a form of medical imprisonment. Like, either they are providing care (in which case you should be able to refuse care) or they are not (and you ought to be able to go home and care for yourself, and you don’t owe them any money). But, they can’t have it both ways. “Observation” is a catch 22. They create a scenario where you don’t effectively have any rights. The financial penalty is so high as to result in effective imprisonment (stay imprisoned in the hospital or be imprisoned financially for thousands of dollars). They have created a system around you where you don’t have any choices, and since they created that system, they bear responsibility.
@Firenza That’s interesting. I know I have a corn allergy, But I can eat corn tortillas, corn chips all I want with no issue. But eat 1 corn on the cob and I have a rash down my face and neck. Something in the processing of chips and tortillas takes out what I’m allergic to I guess.
No luck finding out if she got the bill dismissed and I am usually pretty cleaver at Googling.
Thanks for researching this, Terry4. Although I don’t tend to get infections often, not even viral stuff, I used to worry about this a lot. Luckily, my pcp/endo is at my local hospital and he is super knowledgeable, on top of everything, and trusts me to manage my own D. Which means, when I’m in the hospital, I’m still on tight control.
I think a connection with a doctor who will persuade the system to respect your insulin-dosing competence is probably the best way to convince the “hospital system” to let you do what you know how to do best.
My blood sugar is really high !!!
Insulin
If I get complications soon after leaving this place because you people let my sugar go so high, I am going to pay a friend $5000 to go to your house and break your legs.
LOL
I think that it has to do with bacteria, specifically the extra sugar in your blood being a good food source for the bacteria. Chicken pox is a virus, and I don’t know if extra sugar helps feed viruses, but it sure helps feed bacteria.
So you are more likely to get more/worse infections when your BG is higher than when it is lower. The extra bacteria that you are now supporting with your higher BG raises your insulin resistance, which in turn raises your BG because you need more insulin to reduce your BG by the same amount. It can become a vicious circle. Your correction ratio might go from 1:50 to 1:30, for instance. Your carb ratio would almost certainly be effected, too.
So, that TV doctor’s 10 units might go from dropping your BG 500 points (down to 100 from 600) to only dropping it 300 points (from 600 to 300 - yikes!). None of that is good for your general health in a hospital. And if you are there because of an infection, it could be downright disastrous. How effective can antibiotics be when the hospital turns around and gives the bacteria extra food?
