A Burden on the NHS - Type 2's

[mpe]

Here's a little something to think about...

Those of you who were pregnant in the between 1940 and 1970 may know of a drug called Diethylstilbestrol (DES). It is a synthetic form of oestrogen that was given to pregnant women because it was thought to prevent miscarriage. Many women didn't even know they were given it because it was routinely given as part of a prenatal 'vitamin' injection in both the US and UK.

Interestingly DES dosn't actually look much like any oestrogen. But it does resemble bisphenol A (BPA) which has also been identified as a xenoestrogen.

 

[Fruitbat]

Theresa May - Type 1?, at the age of 57?

 

[saloplass]

Having been recently diagnosed as type 2 - and for years being told I was 'borderline' until last year when I was told I was 'pre-diabetes', if only I had been invited for an HbA1c test - which would have made far more sense than a single fasting test which refers to just one day instead of the 8-12 week results from an HbA1c, then someone at our surgery may well have thought I was worth educating about what I should do :!: All I have been told was lose weight, and believe me I have tried. My diabetic nurse told me that as yet an HbA1c is not a definite diagnostic tool. What???? :think:

No - she told me do not waste money on monitors and stuff! No - the surgery would not prescribe these for you, you dont need them!
Bowel disease, heart disease and thyroid disease already go along with my new type 2 diagnosis. Plus urticaria. No eye test was carried out - I got to my second meet with my diabetic nurse and she gave me a phone number to ring about the retinopathy clinic. I reminded her that my mother lost 90% of her sight because of diabetes. The nurse was asked to get me an appointment with a dietician because of my bowel disease and having to cut down on my fruit. Never happened! I had changed GP and had to ask twice for this appointment.

I rang the number for the eye test - they managed to fit me in on a cancellation a couple of weeks later. At this I am told I have had diabetes for a minimum of FIVE years and have damage behind one eye already. I was told I need to test often and to insist I get the equipment. I was given a monitor and I am allowed to test twice a week.

Nobody listen when the message is that we are a drain on the NHS - if we are not educated to a level where we know that complications can set in long before the right bloods are done that is not our fault. Do not feel you are to blame here. Just wonder how many more people do not realise that borderline or pre-diabetic mean you need to act now - long before the diagnosis of diabetes is given.

Quite frankly I am fuming.

 

[janeecee]

Saloplass, I'm so sorry to hear of your experience. Unfortunately diagnosis comes too late. I am pre-d but I've been fobbed off by three doctors at my surgery who tell me I have nothing to worry about, even though I spike into diabetic levels after normal potions of healthy meals. The hba1c would not have necessarily diagnosed you earlier as mine is "normal". They don't necessarily indicate the damaging postprandial highs as your times of lower blood sugar levels, like when you are asleep, will cancel them out.

I'm also dismayed that you were fobbed off with the 'lose weight and eat sensibly' routine for several years. I'm so glad I have a meter that I can test with and so I manage it myself because I'm getting nowhere with the NHS. I've been proactive but I might as well be talking to the wall when I go to the surgery. They can't accept that a slim person without all the other metabolic syndrome traits has a blood sugar problem. The more I learn about the NHS diabetes services the more shocked I am at how people with much higher BG levels and complications etc are fobbed off even when it is evident that they need better care and treatment.


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[whompa73]

I read a few comments recently about how we are being told our condition is an burden on the NHS and our treatment costs too much. This implies, to me anyway, that somehow we dont deserve our treatment.

I see this as part of the publicity in the Media to blame us for our condition. My friends who have cancer dont get told they are a burden or their treatment costs too much. My friend who has dialysis doesnt get told that either.

However, another person I know, who got liver trouble, was blamed for her hedonistic lifestyle when she doesnt even drink :shock:

As far as I am concerned, we deserve treatment, we are entitled to treatment, and we should NOT be made to feel guilty or told repeatedly how much our treatment is costing when we seek vital treatment.

I also, personally, dont consider that money should even be mentioned. I have paid my NI and Taxes for 33 years. If the successive governments have misappropriated the funds that I paid into, in order to receive treatment when needed, then that is neither my fault or my problem.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr extremely f*****g annoyed now!!!!!!! I work a low paid job and have to work overtime at flat rate I also change shift from days to nights between 1to 2 x per week I work 12 hour shifts so thats half five till half five my hours on a three week rota are 60h 60h 48h per week. I work long hard hours and pay my way my tax and national insurance is in the region of 110 quid a week HOW DOSE THAT MAKE ME A BURDEN ????? I may now get a prescription exemption sertificate but its not free I pay 110 per week for it. Could say more about the social inequality of finantial burden placed on people of both sides of the poverty line by people from both sides of the poverty line (eg those who can work but refuse to because they cant be ***** I must say I even have some of these in my own family. I however meen thost who legitimately cant work or those trying there best to get a job but jsut cant because its difficult. I was even told once buy what I consider to be a dollie "I wouldnt get out of bed for what you get paid " he hadnt had a job for over 5 years now thats what I call a drain on society)
It is a re-herring to deflect blame to the victim once again :twisted:

(can you tell I am cross about this?)

 

[lukkymik]

Pleeeeease will certain people with T1 on here stop telling us T2s what to eat!!! 1&2 are massively different diseases in many ways and the major one re eating is carb control!!! T2 should be split into at least 20+ sections as there must be at least that many versions of it and every version has its "Foibles" for want of a better word. In 5 houses in my street we have 4 T2s and we all have very different tolorrences to carbs and we range from stick thin to mildly overweight. 2 carb count 2 dont and I live on a carb based diet and my Hba1c has come down from 12.8 to 8.3 in 2 years. Without carbs I just dont operate properly. I tried carb counting for nearly 5 months and have never felt worse or had less control of my BS levels EVER. We then got a new GP who immediately stopped me carb counting and we eventually found the diet that WORKS FOR ME!!! Thats the important statement here. I've also lost 20% of mybodyweight in 3 years but i'm not that active as I have major back and neck disc problems and i'm 29 years post Bone Marrow Transplant for Leukaemia which brings its own fun to the party!!! I'm happy to here what makes people tick and how they cope with their Diabetes but i'm heartily sick of being pontificated to about what I/we should be eating. We are all different and we cope differently and by all means share your thoughts on our problems but Please dont Preach!!!!

Rant over!!!

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[elaine77]

Whatever type of diabetes you have diabetes remains to be the same thing factually and factually it is the fact that, for whatever reason, your body cannot use or process glucose correctly. It is like an allergy or an intolerance and it makes your body ill. Therefore I think that saying it is a good idea to not eat a large amount of carbohydrates on a day-to-day basis CAN be universal to diabetics and is not dangerous or anything of the sort. The type of carbohydrate and the specific amount will obviously differ depending on each individual but I dare anyone to show me an example of a diabetic who got ill because they DID lower their carb consumption - and I mean actually hospital-ill not just feeling ******!


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 23 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.

 

[lukkymik]

Ok Elaine re "not just feeling ******" where would you like me to start??? As you're such an authority on Insulin dependent Type 2 Diabetes can you explain why the medical profession including dieticians recommended that to stop me passing out / being virtually being housebound with no energy whatsoever / incapable of passing urine standing up etc etc I needed to go back to a diet based primarily around meals containing 40-50% starchy products until I was capable of returning to work and then finding a level I could work with. Granted my carb consumption is not quite at 40% anymore but I work full time and as stated earlier my weight and BS levels are fairly constant and my Hba1c has dropped dramatically in.the last 2 years. Unfortunately you and many many other people seem to forget the most important point regarding Diabetes ..... It affects Everyone of us differently. The press are as much to blame as amyone else for stereotyping Diabetics/Diabetes and worse still when someone tries to correct this its ignored as its not really what the public want to hear!!! I have spent years trying to explain to work colleagues the difference between me and a T1 colleague who unfortunately has regular hypos mainly due to other medical problems interfearing. They still struggle to understand why I dont regularly "fall over".....
.. cos you're both insulin dependent.... By inference they think we are both the same!!! Brainwashed!!!

Sorry for the rant but I hope you can understand why I ranted?? With due respect to everyone on here "A little knowledge can be dangerous"

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[equipoise]

Hi lukkymik. Sounds like you've had a really tough time and are heading in the right direction with weight etc. But could you tell us what your target hba1c is? 8.3 is better than 12.8, but it is still not in the safe zone. I can understand the relief at having steady BS levels, but they must be steady at a pretty high level if you are getting hba1c over 8. You're right that everyone's metabolism is a bit different, but the basic logic that carbs increase BS levels still stands. If your system has stabilized, might it be worth looking to gradually reduce carbs a bit more to nudge those levels lower? (NB this is not preaching -- I do NOT low carb!).

 

[elaine77]

I don't low carb either I switched all my carbs to low GI because I'm producing enough insulin at the moment to handle low GI but not high GI and most of the time not medium GI either....

I guess I'm just a black and white person and the facts are that diabetes is an intolerance or an inability to breakdown glucose and so, in my opinion, nothing anyone says its going to convince me that a high carb consumption is ok for a diabetic.. Just like I would never suggest someone who is lactose intolerant is ok to eat a lot of dairy.

I agree diabetes effects everyone differently but the bare physiological facts of the disease are still the same (whether you are type 1 or type 2 or insulin dependent or not) and that is the inability to breakdown or use glucose naturally or properly. If you body cannot cope with something the way it should it makes no sense to keep putting it into your body when you know you're body can't cope with it?

When people have been running high BS for a long period of time and have a carb-heavy diet then of course they will feel ill for a while whilst they change that and bring their BS lower but it doesn't mean you're getting worse it means you're body is adjusting to having correct levels and usually ur actually getting better. Just my opinion but I can honestly say I've never heard of a diabetic who can have a normal or high carb diet and be able to maintain safe BG levels.... If that was the case presumably you wouldn't be diabetic in the first place.....


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 23 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.

 

[trac1uk]

Not every type2 is overweight & so what if they are. There's an awe full lot if people who use the NHS for their own selfish inflictions & they get no comments. Very unfair


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[flash477948]

From what I have read Diabetes costs the NHS £3.5b a year for something that is not normally the fault of the person, yet it costs them £3b to treat alcohol related issues - something that is entirely self inflicted! That figure was from 2009, so is probably even higher now

 

[Kat100]

Weight is only one cause of t2 there are many other factors....we need to be aware of them all....or rather the media and health profession do.....that is for both 1 and 2

Often diagnosis is made when people are really very unwell, maybe the health care profession should be better at spotting the symptoms. Kat

 

[kentish maid]

my step daughter and granddaughter are both very over weight and every time they see their docter they are tested for diabetes neither of them have it much to the docters amazement they get annoyed too.

 

[Kat100]

There really is no answer

 

[slimgirl]

Im not overweight eat a healthy diet dont smoke and im active.diagnosed type 2 in july.the pancreas rules ok!!

 

[Yorksman]

The NHS is staffed by people who pay themselves to keep changing their minds about what is good and what is bad for you. Yesterday, the headlines were 'Butter and Dairy Products Good for You'.

I tend to think most things are OK for you in moderation and the problem is in the poor quality of industrialised foods production and adulteration of contents. I have never been a health food follower but am beginning to see the benefits of more natural foods.