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Not only doctors giving duff information

B

busygardener

Member
Hi all. A while since I posted but have been getting over my cancer treatment. Everything fine now and feeling very well. BG back under control.
On a slightly different tack - I went to collect a prescription today and was asked to speak to the pharmacist to have my annual medication review. During the course of the discussion he asked me how many times a day I was testing so I said it was several times a day. He looked astonished and said as a T2 I only needed to test once a day or even once a week! It was my turn to look astonished and I explained how it helped my glucose control and meant I knew how various foods/activities affected me and meant I would not be needing loads of medication in the future or have long term complications. Not sure I convinced him but it seems that it's not only doctors and nurses spreading false information and failing to keep up with research and results of low carb eating.
 
Don't know if part of it has to do with cost as I get tester strips on prescription. I know I'm lucky but originally I was diagnosed T1 and put on insulin so I got tester strips straight away. Eventually (2 years later) they decided I was T2 after all but my tester strips were kept on the prescription. Or then again maybe it's just ignorance.
 
busygardener said:
Don't know if part of it has to do with cost as I get tester strips on prescription. I know I'm lucky but originally I was diagnosed T1 and put on insulin so I got tester strips straight away. Eventually (2 years later) they decided I was T2 after all but my tester strips were kept on the prescription. Or then again maybe it's just ignorance.
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Probably they haven't yet noticed!
 
I was very lucky got testing strips etc on prescription right away, I had to get upset to get however. A dsn got me mine on pres ription.
Should test when we feel a need to.
finally was told by a specialist Gp not to test, my level was 25 so very high and I felt very unwell. He told me I was being anxious and not to test. Not very helpful.
Won't be seeing that Gp again.
Terrible pharmacists are doing this
 
Extraordinary. I just shake my head in stunned disbelief. It's all about management once you've had diabetes, no matter where you are now on the blood sugar spectrum.

I do get to see different GP's at my practice. I try to see the move diabetes savvy ones but sometimes that isn't possible. I was told not to test by one such GP because it would just increase my stress levels. (I'm not injecting insulin but am extremely low c-peptide.) My reply was what would truly increase my stress levels would to suddenly find my blood sugars over 13 with high ketones because I didn't test and correct. His reply was simply a stunned silence. However, I did find when I ordered my next lot of testing strips, he had doubled my quantity even though I hadn't requested more.
 
So, what is the alternative? What are the other ways we can monitor our progress? Bath scales? BMI? A1c?
None of these will tell us that the wholegrain bread recommended by a DN is stopping us losing ectopic fat and may have summat to do with the gut issues or fatigue etc we are still feeling. BMI is a useless marker imo. And if trends continue HbA1c's will be annual for everyone unless one is in dire straights.

My cheap little monitor taught me that legumes of any kind raise my bg to unacceptable levels, that broccoli has no discernible affect and that I am not one of those people who are super sensitive to protein.

I'm funding it myself ergo I do not need permission or even opinion (from a HCP) on whether it is a good idea or not.
 
ert said:
Extraordinary. I just shake my head in stunned disbelief. It's all about management once you've had diabetes, no matter where you are now on the blood sugar spectrum.

I do get to see different GP's at my practice. I try to see the move diabetes savvy ones but sometimes that isn't possible. I was told not to test by one such GP because it would just increase my stress levels. (I'm not injecting insulin but am extremely low c-peptide.) My reply was what would truly increase my stress levels would to suddenly find my blood sugars over 13 with high ketones because I didn't test and correct. His reply was simply a stunned silence. However, I did find when I ordered my next lot of testing strips, he had doubled my quantity even though I hadn't requested more.
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I am stunned that a type 1, like yourself, would be told not to test. Thats just.............nope, I have no words which would not get moderated.
 
lucylocket61 said:
I am stunned that a type 1, like yourself, would be told not to test. Thats just.............nope, I have no words which would not get moderated.
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I'm in a honeymoon period and not on insulin. They must have clear prescription guidelines for insulin and testing strips. There is a couple of GP's who understand the ramifications of having very low c-peptide, but for most, it's something left to the specialist to interpret. However, it's clear in the letters from the specialist that he wants me testing blood sugars and blood ketones and that I will need to start insulin if my blood sugars start rising to 13 with high ketones to avoid DKA, which indicates I've deteriorated further.
 
Concordjan said:
At my last review with dn I mentioned that I still get high morning readings. Her response was “Well don’t test then”.
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That’s shocking! I’ve been looking at what might be a cause of high morning readings, and decided I should consider my (probably dodgy) habit of picking at food in the late evening. And whether or not I’m physically active in the evenings. I’m only prediabetic, but keen to do whatever it might take to reverse the diabetic trend. I would have expected some advice a bit more like that from your DN!
 
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