It was clear the nurses were not familiar with a controlled T2 not on meds.
I initiated a conversation on this very subject during a diabetes follow-up visit with my doctor a few months ago. I have already mentioned this conversation on the forum before, but here goes again. The context is that it was a diabetes follow-up visit, by which time my HbA1c had been stable, at non-diabetic levels, for several months using diet-only, as prescribed by the doctor. These are not exact quotes, but close paraphrases:
Me: "When I managed to get my A1c down to non-diabetic levels with diet only I was amazed, shocked really. Is this diet-only route the treatment that you give to all of your patients?"
Doc: "Yes, unless their A1c is really high, like, 15% or something."
Me: "Am I a rare case or do you often see successful outcomes with diet only?"
Doc: "No, I don't often see success. You are much more motivated than most of these other patients. Most of them are overweight. They are addicted to certain kinds of foods and cannot break the habit."
Me: "I guess my numbers could worsen in the future and then I would need the drugs?"
Doc: "Yes, that's possible. Drugs are good when you need them!"
I have concluded that it has a lot to do with the personality of the doctor, or nurse. As you can see, my doctor is willing to prescribe a treatement (diet only) that he has personally experienced as failing to work, for most of his patients. This doctor almost always "gives the patient a chance" (he told me, usually two or three months) to try the diet-only route before prescribing drugs if necessary
It is easy to imagine a doctor with a different personality deciding that it is just not worth the trouble, and the potential health risk, given that so many people apparently fail to make headway when attempting the diet-only route. I also have to say that, although my doctor firmly prescribed diet-only as the initial treatment, he gave me almost no practical advice as to what I should eat. I had to figure all of it out for myself. So: kudos to him for giving the right advice, but the detailed guidance was non-existent.