hba1c results

[Clivethedrive]

Since 4th May,

I have seen this 'specialist' twice, clinic once, still waiting for dr and I am actually seeing the dietician every 2 weeks as she is the nicest one there.

Been diabetic for 25yrs but never really cared about it so at least she sits and explains things to me and has actually told me to take hubby in on Tues so she can see what his understanding is, i have been quizzing him non stop and I am actually really surprised, he knows more than specialist lol.

Glad I decided to start looking after myself but never realised how stressful it would be.

I reckon everyone on this site definitely knows more than the specialists and most doctors!

Amen to that ...way to go girl

 

[Marling]

Yes, we know much more, and I have often encountered nurses and doctors who know and say so. They're not normally silly or conceited

 

[RuthW]

I reckon everyone on this site definitely knows more than the specialists and most doctors!

I have been Type 1 for almost fifty years, and so I understand why, at twenty-five years' experience you have come to this point of view, but I have to respectfully disagree.

Any specialist knows more than you, me or anybody else on this site about diabetes at a microbiological level. Ten years ago, when my son was in his FIRST year at medical school, he asked me about my understanding of diabetes, and when I explained it to him, he burst out laughing and said, "Well, that's fine, if that works for you, but it's a lot more complicated than that at a microbiological level." I take that to be true. I do read academic papers about diabetes regularly, but I am aware that I basically follow the introduction and conclusion, but all the microbiological stuff in the middle is mostly going over my head.

Like me, you have passed through the "Dark Ages of Diabetes" where the patient was just a subject for medics to act upon; we were not agents of our own destinies, actors in our own decisions about how to live with diabetes. There was almost nothing in the way of diabetes education. So, in those days, we would get frustrated with the fact that doctors didn't seem to understand anything about LIVING with diabetes, how their advice might negatively impact us in unacceptable ways etc. Those were the days when doctors gave instructions and patients were "non-compliant". In my case for example, I was "non-compliant" because every time I went to the clinic they told me to raise my insulin. I was very hypo adverse, and having frequent hypos, plus I was a working single parent, so I CHOSE eventually to run my blood sugars high - I thought "I can choose between a lousy quality of life, losing my job, being unable to take care of my child (because of frequent hypos) or losing ten years at the end of my life. I choose NOW."

In those days patient advocacy was almost non-existent. In those days all diabetics were assumed (indeed practically commanded) to have a standard 9 to 5 lifestyle, eat the same foods every day at rigid set times, and never, but never exercise (It was my exercise routine - which no doctor in 40+ years ever inquired about - that was causing the instability in my blood sugars). But we had carry round tons of emergency glucose and bags full of "kit" while being told we could live a "normal" life. There was a fair bit of cognitive dissonance floating around.

These days things are better. Treatment regimes have responded to patient advocacy. Doctors are much less likely to give you "a good telling off", and you can insist on a regimen that suits your chosen lifestyle. That's what YOU know about. What specialists know is which regimen is most likely to suit you, which insulin, which doses, when and how they should be delivered IF AND ONLY IF you share enough information with them Bout the way you actually live.

However, if you have been uncooperative with doctors for 25 years (a position I wholly understand and shared in the past), they will not suddenly dump on you all the knowledge you need at once. It is not that they don't know it. It is that they know that people can only assimilate a certain amount of knowledge at once. It has to be staged.

I honestly think that going to see a specialist with the attitude that "he/she doesn't know anything" is probably not very helpful to you. These days I go with the intention of "milking" my consultant for the knowledge and advice I need. That way it is actually a consultation. We consult. We discuss. If I reject advice I say politely why (I have rejected statins and Metformin over the years). It never turns into a fight or a telling off these days. Which is nice after all those years of dreading and resenting clinic visits, and only going because otherwise they wouldn't prescribe for me. (I believe GPs have refused to support that bit of Dark Ages blackmail these days too.)

Good luck with your consultations. And I hope you get the new Reformation-style treatment!

 

[donnellysdogs]

They may know theory.. But living and treating us as individuals is different. This is what the medical profession lack....

 

[RuthW]

Yes, but we can help ourselves by being assertive. I think assertiveness training should be on prescription for anyone with a chronic, lifelong condition who has to deal with doctors again and again.