My diabolical clinic

I'm asking for your help as I need it really bad
the fact you don't ever respond has left me feeling sad
I'm just left here alone and left here to rot
To just ignore me and give me nothing... is that really all you've got?
I'm so fed up and angry with you I should fight to bring you down
only I'm left with false hope that one day you'll help lift my frown

How can you leave me here stranded and full of distress,
all the while knowing my diabetes is such a mess?
I can't believe I am left here without anyone to help me
and am so worn out and filled with rage and so unhappy!
Please God give me the strength to keep fighting and keep strong
give me the courage I need to leave this diabolical clinic and move on!

I don't expect sympathy here folks ok... I just need to get my frustrations out and that is how I feel about my clinic.

Poems often help me get through stuff and I feel this is totally apt for how they have been treating me and how I feel right now.

Rach x

jopar said:

I'm asssuming that your diabetic clinic is the hospital based one!

If so might I suggest that you give the PALS team a phone in the morning, they are normally vey good as helping to reslove these types of problems you seem to be having...

You should be able to find there number on the hopsital web site or if you ring the hospital the switchboard will either transfer you and/or give you they number you need.

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I'm currently attempting to sort it out but the poem was more a rant... it is my kinda therapy

brianb said:

Thats a wonderful poem, well done

I hope things do change for you.

Good luck

Brian

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Cheers - I'm sure they will soon. I just have to keep fighting and stay strong that's all.

I'm just drinking a lovely banana smoothie made by my man to keep me happy and then I'm off early to bed.

Nite folks

meela83 said:

If it makes you feel any better I've had rubbish treatment until very recently! I hadn't seen a consultant or been to a hospital based diabetic clinic for 8 years - my previous GP would get my blood results and then shout at me and say I needed to do better, at no point was I given any advice on how to do better. I have now moved and my new GP was horrified with a HBa1c of 14.6, it had never been this high before but I had just given up on ever having control. Within a week I was at the hospital where the consultant told me my insulin should have been changed years ago and then asked if I could carb count, my response, what is that? So felt rubbish about the whole thing but now feel more positive thanks to the advice on here and a bit more faith in the medical profession. Consultant was very helpful and even talked about referring me to pre-conception clinic when he gets my sugars under control.
Sorry I know that was abit long winded, but just wanted to say they are not all ****! Hope you get things sorted xxxxxx :wink:

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Hi Meela83. Of course that doesn't make me feel better hearing you had poor treatment. I am glad you pushed to get the proper help you needed. Unfortunately until I move from the Isle of Man I have a choice of 1 diabetic clinic only and that is the one I'm at until I give up my job, move away from my family and then I might get a choice but it's awful what you went through. How are your Hb1AC's now? I have still got to learn about carb count... it has never been introduced to me through the clinic. I only first heard about it here and now I'm really interested - that's if that's the DAFNE but if it is something else I really don't know. I got told also by my clinic they weren't giving me my blood test results once because I went too late and that I should get my act together. I was severely ill with flu and still went within the given time limit although it was late but I faint at blood tests at the best of times so didn't really want to force myself out of bed with a flu and head down there three weeks before the appointment to suit them. I felt like a naughty schoolgirl and started missing appointments after that because it was the last straw for me.

IanD said:

Dear Rachel, you are not alone
A diabetic needs to moan
When all the treatment from the clinic
Makes the hopeful one a cynic.

The treatment of my friend is worse
She longs to see a helpful nurse
They measure glucose up to 20
And dish out metformin a-plenty.

No breakfast - still she takes her med
On rice & curry she is fed.
And doesn't know that diabetes
Is like the sword of Damocles.

Her husband, who is 5 ft 4
Is 20 stone or maybe more
He's disabled in mid-life
How can we help the man & wife :?:

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Hi Ian. So how long has your friend been a diabetic and has she asked her GP for a referral to a clinic?

As for her husband - what sort of disability does he have? If he is wheelchair bound then I'm sure there are exercises and clubs for wheelchair users in various parts of the UK. If not or even if there is, then it is advisable he sees an occupational therapist who would be able to determine which exercises he can do given his limits of his disability and help him improve his life.

It is important they both realise they have a life and are worth everything and they push to get the relevant treatment for both the condition of diabetes and your friends husband's disability and weight problem.

Hi manxangel. Nice to have a community member from the same area Although it's not nice to hear you have the same frustrations as me. Although it technically backs up my opinion about how pants the clinic are. I tried calling them today aswell explaining how desperate I am to speak to somebody but again with no avail. I wrote a letter nearly a month ago and I have received no response. I don't believe there is DAFNE available on the Island am I correct? Or have you ever been offered it at all?

Personally I think this community is a lifesaver :wink: without it I would be a depressed diabetic but I'm just occasionally frustrated diabetic now LOL.

A Laxey lass xx

hanadr said:

Hi Rach
2 suggestions
1) Give a copy of your propl to the doctor in charge of your case
2) take a copy and a drawing pin with you when next you go and pin a copy somewhere prominent on the noice board.
I once got very upset at my worklace( on another person's behalf) and put a poem on the noticeboard.
The boss's recation was that bullying isn't permitted and the poem stayed. The behaviour that sparked it was never repeated.

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LOL I think that's brilliant what you did at your workplace!!! You have planted the seed of thought in my head now. I think though that I'll try health services first though - because I'm desperate to change my insulin... or find a programme that will enable me to handle my BG's on this insulin better and so they might provide me with the solution I need.

IanD said:

The BIG problem is taking heed of advice given. She wasn't given a meter, though she knows about them as her m-i-l uses one. I've advised her to cut down on rice - but she likes it. She will have to change her likes & dislikes & her habits.

Husband did get down to 11 stone (with Weight-Watchers) from obese about 12 years ago, put it all back on, had serious heart surgery, & said he had been advised to get his strength back & not diet :!:

Everyone saw it coming - now he has been put on de-watering tablets which mean its not safe for him to go out - or do his work as a driver. Sitting down, eating unsuitable food & drinking alcohol is NOT the way forward. Disability is purely a matter of obesity. He is now seeing a dietitian :!:

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Hi Ian, I really don't know what to suggest then. I mean NHS law states diabetics have to be advised of glucose meters but don't necessarily have to provide them (ridiculous I know) although they will provide the test strips on prescription for both Type 1 and Type 2 as far as I'm aware. Meter prices vary in price (with the average I think around a tenner). If your friend is Type 2 don't let her think she will get away without testing as it is important for both types to test and there is no such thing as mild diabetes. Your friend and her husband though do have to have a bit of self motivation though also. I'm sure you want to help them but they must be willing themselves, although it's difficult I'm sure.

iHs said:

Rach79

While you are eating low GI food like porridge, basmati rice, pasta etc all it will do is raise your blood sugar levels up and keep them up for longer than eating normal carb like bread, potatoes and such. Consultants advise folks to eat low GI food because they know that fast acting insulin should lower bg levels fairly quickly but some fast acting insulins are able to do this much more quickly than others. Unfortunately Novorapid because of its slightly slower action is not able to do the job as quickly as Apidra or Humalog.

If you are going to wait until July, then start the new year off right and just alter your diet. Normal food tends to make bg go up but usually fast acting insulin will send it back down within 2.5hrs because of the way this type of food is digested I guess.

It does take time using a meter, injecting bolus insulin - Novorapid, eating food, to work out where you are going wrong. We all learn through trial and error. Start by eating small amounts of carb and then see how high or low you are 2hrs after you eat. You can then work out whether to inject more Novo to get bg to lower or eat less carb. If you are bordering somewhere between 6 - 8 2hrs after you eat, then you will be going in the right direction. You may have to eat a small snack or you will be able to leave yourself go for another 2hrs. Again you can work out what to do yourself.

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Hi there. I wasn't advised about diet by a consultant or anyone (I haven't seen the dietician in around 2 years and he wasn't that good when I saw him anyhow). There was a dietician there a few years ago who was brilliant but unfortunately she retired (and she used to keep everything shipshape too). All I have had is the standard eye / weight tests etc. but no talks about how I'm coping, what I'm eating and when I last tried to talk about it the doctor was like a zombie complaining how tired he was. When I tried to voice my opinions about how I felt, the nurse wanted to chat to her mate and so left me to do just that. At some stage I was just advised a different insulin but no leaflets or detailed information about how it works - apart from supposedly stopping night hypos which hasn't worked and throwing some random number of units that I should take which should possibly do the trick. Of course I wrote a complaint because on top of that I thought the doctor was going to fall asleep on me and kept getting information wrong as they always do with regards to what insulin I'm on amongst other things.
I've tried, low carb, upping and lowering insulin countless times and read all the information about my insulin on the internet or got it through this forum. Although I didn't know the Novarapid wasn't the fastest insulin as one of my problems was getting my BG's down after meals and I announced once I wanted flexibility so they shoved me on the Novarapid and off I went and the last I heard from them was when they had reports of me nearly dying in an ambulance. The low GI diet has been my own personal choice - as I make the choices and fight like hell until I'm worn out to get them.. that's my life at the mo but thanks for pointing out about the other insulins as I might write to healh services explaining that I've been informed about them and asking who could provide the information about what type is best for me. If not I'll be writing to the local papers to tell them what a shambles the whole health system is on the rock here. I hate it so much .... ok another rant but I need to get this all out somehow so here is the best place I guess
Rach