The whinge factor.

[urbanracer]

For approximately 3-1/2 years I have been whingeing to my GP, his diabetes nurse and my endo' about being a T1 on Mix25 insulin and my protestations about not following the NICE guidelines have been ignored.

A week ago the endo' finally relented and wrote to my GP asking him to give me a basal insulin. Today is my first day with Abasaglar, still not the NICE recommended treatment for a T1, but a step in the right direction perhaps.

Anyway, so far so good with only a small rise in glucose levels after breakfast and now flat lining instead of experiencing the large dip in levels that I had before. I didn't really expect such a big difference so soon.

I guess the next few weeks will be interesting.

 

[Brunneria]

Am delighted for you and hope it signals a whole new way of management.

3.5 years? Wow. Did they ever give you a reason?

 

[urbanracer]

Am delighted for you and hope it signals a whole new way of management.

3.5 years? Wow. Did they ever give you a reason?

Not really Brunneria. I usually had comments like 'basal / bolus is harder to use and your a1C is very good so why change'.

Couldn't seem to get through to them that the Mix25 insulin can be quite restrictive at times - especially with varied and often unexpected levels of activity at work.

 

[KK123]

Local GPs must hate the fact that we can all now read the NICE guidelines and actually challenge them about it. The more information we have, the better we can look after ourselves. Not everybody is confident enough to speak up at the surgery but the more of us that do the better in my opinion. No matter what they say, they will always automatically default to the cheapest option (fair enough if that's also the most effective treatment) but why did it take nearly 4 years for urbanracer to get what he should have had ages ago? Most of us work and need to be able to be flexible in when we eat our meals.

 

[Jaylee]

I usually had comments like 'basal / bolus is harder to use and your a1C is very good so why change'.

Couldn't seem to get through to them that the Mix25 insulin can be quite restrictive at times - especially with varied and often unexpected levels of activity at work.

Oddly, I was offered MDI in the late 1980s due to my irregular lifestyle.. (I was a student at a dance college in Surry at the time.)
The whole "R&R lifestyle" prompted my GP to offer it up. He had concerns I was loosing control.

 

[paulus1]

its your body your health tell them you want it you way they then would need to give a reason why not.

 

[Grant_Vicat]

Local GPs must hate the fact that we can all now read the NICE guidelines and actually challenge them about it. The more information we have, the better we can look after ourselves. Not everybody is confident enough to speak up at the surgery but the more of us that do the better in my opinion. No matter what they say, they will always automatically default to the cheapest option (fair enough if that's also the most effective treatment) but why did it take nearly 4 years for urbanracer to get what he should have had ages ago? Most of us work and need to be able to be flexible in when we eat our meals.

This excerpt from the book in the picture bears this out. It was around 1999:

A short while before, I had had a totally different reaction from a junior doctor at King's.
“Why are you on such an old fashioned system?”
“Because it works.”
“Don't you realise that we do things differently nowadays? Our patients inject four times a day allowing them to eat what they like when they like.”
“That is what DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating, devised by Professor Stephanie Amiel at King's College Hospital) is about, and in 1998 Stephanie Amiel wrote me a very sympathetic letter, understanding my reasons for not wishing to start DAFNE.”
“What were they?”
“Chiefly that at the age of 41, I am trying not to put on weight, and being on the Lawrence Line Weight diet has kept me in trim up to the present day.”
“But that is not how we do things now.”
“Listen, so far you have not given me any concrete reason for switching, other than fashion.”
The way he addressed me irritated me so much that when I got home I wrote a long complaint to the head consultant.

I am still alive!!