Went to a diabetes education class today - I know you're all feeling the excitement. Woo!
Anyway, I should have been going the last 2 Saturdays too, but I haven't been, the 1st one because the referral wasn't there yet, (and why should I pay for it when my insurance will?) and the second because, um, well, no good reason really. I can make them up the 1st 2 Saturdays in April, though. I probably will. Most likely. Maybe.
THIS one went over all the lovely complications of diabetes. It was so heartwarming, I could barely control the tears of joy that wanted to flow. I mean, really, is there ANYTHING diabetes doesn't screw up? Your spleen, maybe? Gall bladder? Your eyelashes? Do your eyelashes stay the same?
The gal encouraged us to get a blood pressure cuff, and she might as well have put neon lights flashing everywhere stating: CONTROL YOUR SUGARS. Not new information, really, I know I have to control my sugars, but all the icky pictures of icky things happening would have motivated Gandhi to quit fasting and eat some protein. (Although strangely enough, there were a lot of cartoon organs shown during the presentation, I guess they help tone down the DOOM that can become your diabetes diagnosis.)
Most of the education is geared for Type 2, seeing as how most diabetics are Type 2, but you know what? The treatment may be different, the cause may be different, but the complications are the same. So it was good.
Moral of the story: High Blood Sugar = BAD. Just remember that.
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I like the eyelashes line. Yes, I certainly empathize with you. The education part of diabetes is slow, but pretty soon, when people find out you have diabetes, they will ask you all kinds of questions, as if you are a doctor, and ultimately you will offer to check their blood sugar with your monitor. They just like knowing that they don't have this all-consuming disease. Even though knowing all the diabetes info doesn't cure the disease, it sure makes it easier to avoid complications and be in charge of your own health. The fact is that soon you WILL know more than your doctor when it comes to YOUR blood sugars, overall health, and what works best for your diet and blood sugar lows. Believe it or not, one time when I was looking for a new doctor I had an internal medicine doctor ask me how my surgery went when I told him I had an insulin pump. He was pretty embarrassed when I told him that there is no surgery involved when starting insulin pump therapy.
ReplyDeleteOk, the pump thing. Isn't that usually approved for people with hypoglycemic unawareness? (i.e. children, etc) For now, the shots are fine, but I would like to know I have options down the road if I would like. How do I get me one of those?
ReplyDeleteDiabetes educators are the best people to hook up with to find out about insulin pumps. Most of them are trained by the pump companies, and then they are the liason between patient and pump company. I have a Medtronic MiniMed paradigm pump, but there are several companies out there. Medtronic is an okay company to work with, but I had a pretty bad experience with their salesman who told me I would have no out of pocket cost with a new pump, that he was giving me a "deal" and the company would accept the insurance payment as full. No, that didn't happen, and guess what, the salesman was conveniently transferred after the facts came out. As I have said before, insurance and diabetes is a nightmare - you can never really know how much something costs until you are billed for the products, then you get a statement about what your cost is. There really should be an better way. Medtronic is the only company that has the continuous blood glucose monitor that "talks" to the pump. But that isn't covered by insurance companies YET. By the way, if you live in Utah call Mesha at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful: (801)229-2470. She is a great diabetes educator/dietician, and she knows all the hooks ups for pump info. She will also be straight with you about which pump is best for you. Your hospital should have someone like that who could help you also.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Arizona, but thanks. I'm actually kind of surprised it's the educators that do all that, I'd have thought the drig companies would be courting the docs for the pumps just like they do for the drugs.
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