I have been diagnosed with Diebetes Type 2 for more than 3 years. Ihave been more diligent with my medication, exercise, and diet in the past year and I’ve seen much improvement in my blood glucose level going down. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to bring it down to acceptable levels on just Metphormin, so my doctor just recently added Glyburide to my prescriptions. That addition did the trick.
I am now running a normal level of blood glucose, though there are times when my blood glucose gets very low. (My lowest mearsurement was 52!). I was happy to finally be running low blood glucose, and frightened. If it weren’t for books I’ve read on the subject of Diabetes, I would still be frightened.
If you have recently been diagnosed with Type 2, I urge you to go to your nearest bookstore and get at least one book on Diabetes for you to read and reference. The first book I got was “Diabetes for Dummies”. That book alone is a wonderful reference on the subject. I still read that book because there is so much in that book that pertains to what I’m experiencing.
The best thing about that book is that it explains, in layman’s terms, everything about Diabetes. I was able to read about the medications I’m taking. What they do. How they work. And then some.
Remember, knowledge is power!
You are so right Bob. I didn’t realize that this is not a one-size-fits-all disease. I also didn’t realize that my docs were not going to know all the answers. The truth is they get about two weeks education on diabetes if that, and then they are off to learn about another disease. My doc told me that the best thing I could do for myself was to read, devour, learn everything I could about my body, it’s reactions, and diabetes that I could. I share the info with her, she shares what she has learned and we attack this disease for my better health. We have to be our own best advocates, it is imperative to our health that we know as much as we can. I found my best help was in reading, in sites like this, in my pharmacist’s knowledge of drug interactions, and then listening to my body very carefully.
I am grateful that my clinic has had a grant from the IHS for studying diabetes and preventing it in the Native culture. I am not Native, however, because I am a patient of the clinic, I get to benefit from all the information, materials and research that they get with the grant. Just recently, they have opened up the gym area to non-Natives for us to use and get better control of our exercise habits. This is a great benefit to many.
Keep learning and sharing with us. Together we can consider the idea of us being in control.
I bought 5 books…This website has been a huge help.
Hi Bob
I too am a reader. I went to the library and have read virtually every book they have on diabetes which has been published in the last 5 years. I have bought a few books which I wanted to keep and use as reference. I give one caution about using the library. I picked up a book which was published 10 years ago which means the info was approx 12 years old and there were some very outdated thoughts in the book.
My best to you in your journey
md
