I have to admit, I was NOT the most compliant patient 10 years ago when I was diagnosed, in fact, those that read my posts know that I did NOTHING, NADA, NO WAY, about my diabetes for 2 years except take pills. After those two years, I think there were 20 - 40 readings on my meter. Why I snapped to attention, I’ll never know, maybe turning 50, did it…BUT, I did. In those 10 years there have been many things I have said NO to as far as treatment is concerned. I said NO to Avandia and Actos, I said a rousing NO to some tests, I said no to driving 250 miles to meet with an endo…now he comes to my hometown. I said no to byetta, then my research showed some optimism and I said yes, and here I am stuck on januvia, which is good, but I know that after this three months is up, I’m going to be looking at a byetta pen. Most of the reasons I say know are not enough information, fear, and just plain wanting to stay status quo.
In my much younger years I was a self abuser, and now being asked to poke myself five times a day with a needle, and then to go to byetta which is another needle, doesn’t make sense, except in the end result.
I know it doesn’t make sense, that’s what I said. No need to point that out to me.
But what I am wondering is are there treatments, tests, etc that you refuse to take or do and what is your reasoning, or am I the only non-compliant patient in the world.?
Januvia scares the crap out of me. because of it i will never try anything but insulin
About 30 years ago I remember being scared s***less when I was told that I was going to check my bg by fingerpoke 4 times a day. I had somehow up till then accepted the insulin shots and urine testing but I completely freaked at the thought of home bg testing.
Of course today I feel naked if I leave the house without a bg meter in my pocket and test more than 4 times a day, not because I was told to, but because it lets me do so much better.
I think that not seeing the advantage or usefulness of a test or treatment makes me scared of it.
Tim.
I refused to take hydrochlorothiazide because it made me feel bad and gave me panic attacks. Eventually my endo dealt with the fact that I was going to accept the consequences of that.
Actually, most of the drug treatments out there scare the crap out of me so i am pretty limited to what i will accept for treatment. I am currently on Met and Ameryl ( the Ameryl i should be off of in the next week) and at this point, if my D deteriorates to the point i need further treatment options, its insulin or bust for me. The two big factors for me are:
– Many of the current drugs out list an increased risk of heart disease as a possible side effect. Since D already increases that risk, and it also runs in my family, i do anything i can to avoid drugs that raise that risk factor.
– Many of the drugs out on the market today we have no idea what the long term risks are. Met has been out a while, and insulin has been around even longer so there is some good amount of data out there documenting the long term success/risks of the drug.
Sorry, just not interested in lizard spit treatments. I fully support other peoples decisions to try them, or not. That’s the amazing thing about this disease. its soooo complicated, we all have to find the treatment that works best for us and there is no golden rule.
I took hydrochlorothiazide for years. It’s a diuretic, there are others out there. The good thing about BP meds is that there’s a whole bunch of them out there. I was taking one that affected my legs and made them tire after short distances – painfully so. I didn’t have any side-effects to the hydrochlorothiaszide though i did find out that one of the side effects is swelling gums. Talk to your doc about some other med that could do what the bad one won’t. I lost a bunch of weight and now I’m off the BP meds entirely.
I said NO to medication when I was first diagnosed, and I was very successful with a low carb diet and exercise. I went from 10.5% to 5.5% A1C… And I have made up my mind to say NO to any medications… and go straight to insulin… when the time is right, if needed. I do not care if I gain a few lbs from it… in my mind, a few lbs is nothing compared to heart valve problems, liver and kidney problems, and having to take all kinds of additional meds to deal with high blood pressure, etc. With a low carb diet, I shouldn’t need tons more insulin, anyway.
Exactly. I exercise enough i doubt i would see any weight gain from insulin and if that is a factor, you can always adjust your workout to account for it giving you at least a little more control or options.
I’ve found that any treatment I didn’t feel I wanted was basically my denial. I’ve been very lucky, I’ve had some kidney issues with spilling protein and some diabetic retinopathy. Over the course of this disease I’ve had some really stupid reasons for not doing certain things. I never knew there was something like a glucometer until I was 28 – I was diagnosed at 13. All I had ever seen were the lancets, not the device that makes getting the sample easier. My education was non-existent. I stumbled around for years on one shot of Lente a day. Then I found an endocrinologist and I couldn’t argue that I couldn’t use my fingers because I typed for a living (see, I told you I was lame). I walked into his office thinking: “I’m going to do no more than two shots a day. Period.” I sat down in his office and he told me I was going to be doing MDI with NPH and Humulin. I pretty much folded in the face of authority. Best thing I’ve done. It took me a long time to get over my issues and accept what this condition meant for me and what I needed to do. Sometimes we look at the progression as failure. It’s just not that kind of disease. You are trying to duplicate the actions of several organs in your body and it takes practice and exploration.
We have the internet now. We can do much of our own research and get some unvarnished truth about medications and treatments from our peers. Honestly, you only damage yourself by obstinate refusal to take meds or have tests done. You have to think about it a bit. To what end does your refusal bring about something positive for you? I used to avoid the doctor because if there WAS something wrong, I didn’t necessarily want to know about it. (If I ignore it, it will go away.) What caused me to examine that behavior, was my brother’s ignoring of his lung cancer and having him collapse, get the diagnosis and die two months later.
You really should rethink this non-compliant posture. It’s a horribly slow and icky way to die and it’s massively expensive. Do you relish the idea of someday having to have kidney dialysis or losing your sight? There are real consequences to this disease if you don’t care for it properly. Before I had my first retinal bleed, I didn’t think it would happen to me. You need to understand that this is cumulative damage. It isn’t going to go away. Acceptance helps to make the positive changes necessary to live successfully with diabetes.
Pete, the question was rhetorical. There are things like the others responded to, that I won’t do, UNTIL I know the consequences of not doing it, or of doing it. I will not have a walking stress test done, why? because I can’t walk on a tread mill, I thought that was pretty obvious when I went into the doc’s with my beautiful cane. I won’t take Avandia or Actos, because as far as I am concerned their benefits DO NOT out weight the danger they provide.
I want information, and I ask a lot of my medical team in the form of information. We talk, we think, I consider and then we make an informed decision about everything concerning my D…that’s my team, they are minus a leader, but still do a great job.
So you aren’t actually a non-compliant patient. That one went right over my head. There’s very little I wouldn’t do in the treatment of my diabetes. I have declined to have surgery on my carpal tunnel because the success rate is approximately 50%. As a T2, you have a number of options not available to your garden variety T1. I’m blessed with a fairly robust constitution and an aggressive and greatly misdirected autoimmune system. That’s not to say I haven’t been scared to the point of seizure by a treatment I’ve had to undergo. Our path is paved with some truly cringe-worthy treatments.
I fought the idea of going from 400 units of Humalog daily to 30 units 3 times a day. I wasn’t getting great control that way, but I’d been doing more and more to get control and the idea of someone cutting all my insulin and giving me a pill scared the hell out of me. Now, I’m glad I did it, but at the time I think I was the worst patient ever. It was a case of trusting my doctor to do what was right for me instead of doing it myself and luckily it worked out. It doesn’t always.
I’m scared of ANY treatments or new drugs…pumping insulin and all that accompanies it is sooo much & trusting someone else is overwhelming to me at present…maybe I’ll get past my present feelings
I refused statins when my PCP & endo insisted that all diabetics should be on them just because. My lipid profile was/is fine. My docs still bring this up. Sure my chart is stamped “non-compliant” in big, red letters. I also decline flu vaccines.
We should get T-shirts with “Non-Compliant” proudly emblazoned on the front. I’d love to wear that to my next doctor’s appointment.
Love the gaudy, fun design idea. I want one! From past experience with T-shirts, quite a few have to be ordered to make them affordable because the art set-up fee is usually expensive. There may be a way to do it inexpensively with a heat transfer method.
Not in this backward world of medicine that I live in…rural area, few docs…even fewer hospitals with the “new” things that aren’t new to anyone else.
I think my doctor is too busy being awed at the fact that I’m a diabetic in good control, and how odd is that (like Big Foot), and that my A1C is actually in the normal ranges, and not just “good enough for a Diabetic” … to worry about lecturing me about anything else. lol But yes, I would be non-compliant too… Sign me up. 
I don’t think its always a matter of being “non-compliant”, but rather disagreeing with the course of treatment. As a T2, yes we have more options but we also have ascendancy to get pushed to pills, in some cases at ridiculous levels, because doctors don’t want to risk the lows that come along with insulin treatment. I’m fortunate that while my doc is a total pill pusher, as long as i own the responsibility of my treatment, he works with me.
I have never gotten a flu vaccine. for me, i am always concerned putting something foreign in my body and building up a resistance to it so i have to be in pretty bad shape to even go to an antibiotic.