Category Archives: DSMA Blog Carnival

DSMA Blog Carnival. Doing the best I can.

June 21, 2012 – 11:03 pm

This month’s DSMA Blog Carnival subject has to do with those dreaded (sometimes) visits with the medical professionals that we rely on to help us manage our diabetes. Specifically, the questions are:

Do you get nervous or stressed when you have to go to your endo/doc appointment?
Why or why not? Be honest.

The simple answer is that I don’t stress too much about these visits anymore.

Okay, I stress a little before appointments with my physician. That’s probably because she doesn’t see too many diabetics, and she probably doesn’t have too many male clients. I’ve picked up on that, and I still have trouble talking to her, and that’s partly my fault. I’m working on it. She’s a good doc, and I think we’re both trying.

I don’t really stress at all before visits with my endocrinologist. I try to be as honest as I can, and as diligent at following her plan for me. And if I have trouble with her plan, I tell her why. And then we talk about it. That’s how it should be, I think.

Why do I seem relatively calm about these visits? Mostly that’s due to age, and the fact that I’ve been dealing with the ups and downs of this disease for 21 years. And wow, I can’t count how many of these visits I’ve made over the years, to doctors good and bad. You know what? Whether my numbers are good or bad, I feel like I’m already doing the best I can. At this point, I don’t have to apologize for anything.

But here’s the danger with that kind of logic: It only works if I’m really doing the best I can. If we’re going to expect doctors, nurses, CDEs, etc. to give us the respect we deserve, we need to show that we’re making the effort to manage our care the best we can. That does NOT mean we need to have perfect A1c numbers, that we are meeting our weight loss goals, that we are logging every BG number. It means that we need to show that we’re making the effort to reach our goals. We can’t treat our endos and docs like they’re just the customer service folks who write our prescriptions every 90 days.

However… if YOU ARE making the effort, and your numbers aren’t where you want them, and your doctor’s answer to that is to make you feel guilty for not managing your care better? Then you need to run, not walk away. Find someone who will give you solutions, not shame.

Like a lot of things, these visits are a balancing act. When we’re doing the best we can, really doing it, we can sit with our endos/docs as an equal, with less stress, ready to deal with whatever comes up. And when our medical professionals treat us as individuals, not soulless slags with the standard “how are your sugars” scripted question and answer, call and response routine, we can feel a little less stress about our next visit. Best of luck with your next appointment. Do your best… your very best leading up to it. And don’t take any crap from anyone. I always wanted to say that.

This post is my June entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/june-dsma-blog-carnival-2/
 
 
 

By StephenS | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

May DSMA Blog Carnival.

May 24, 2012 – 9:44 pm

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, and judging from the lack of posts on this topic, I’m not alone. You’ve got just about a week to get your entry in for the May Blog Carnival at Diabetes Social Media Advocacy:

Diabetes can sure be expensive. Insurance can help take away some of the financial burden, but sometimes the things we want, or even need, are not covered by insurance. With that in mind, we turn back to our April 18th chat to Fill in the Blanks on the following sentence . . .

I wish my insurance company paid for _________because ______________.

I wish my insurance would pay for more education, more products, and more care for those who cannot afford to pay for their own care.

Let me explain what I mean: First, we know there are many PWDs who either have no access to insurance, or access to high-cost care that is still more than they can afford. We must do what we can for them. It’s not fair that I have access to care that I can still afford (though it’s getting costlier for the same care every year), but others do not. Meanwhile, a quick check of the Carefirst home page (Carefirst is the local Blue Cross carrier in our area) shows that they were involved in providing over $11 million in grants in the last four months for various causes. One of those is an $8.5 million grant over three years to help fund 12 health care centers that provide care to those who don’t have access elsewhere. A check of Aetna’s website (Aetna is my carrier) shows that the company had $1.97 billion in operating earnings last year. Don’t you think that these two companies, plus a few others, can provide a lot for those without care? Just a fraction of that money can make all the difference for someone… or many someones.

How about education about eating right and carb counting? The importance of testing your glucose level? Learning the mathematics of BG and carb counting in relation to insulin bolus? Simple things that you or I know by heart. But those are things that someone without access to care is only guessing about.

Maybe the answer is providing low-cost or no-cost insulin to those who can’t afford it. And among those who can’t afford it, I count those who hoard their insulin, taking less than what is optimal, so they can conserve their precious life-saving resources. And speaking of hoarding… while we’re at it insurance companies, can we stop quibbling over how many test strips are appropriate per day? None of us are using them just for the fun of it.

I don’t have all of the answers… maybe you have some of your own. Feel free to leave them in the comments section. I just know that insurance companies can still make a lot of profit, while helping those less fortunate. That’s the very definition of a win-win proposition. Can we make this happen? What do you think?

This post is my May entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/may-dsma-blog-carnival-2/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Disclaimer
I have no medical training. If you consider anything written here as medical, legal, financial, or any other kind of advice, you’re out of your mind. Please speak to a learned professional before making any changes that might affect your health. Any of the original content found on this site is my property and should not be reproduced, copied, or otherwise used without the author’s expressed written consent.

By StephenS | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

DSMA Blog Carnival. Ideal Diabetes Support Group?

April 19, 2012 – 10:22 am

This blog is so new I probably shouldn’t be doing this, but I’ll give it a try anyway. The April DSMA Blog Carnival topic is:

Describe your ideal diabetes “support group”? What would you discuss?

Both of these questions are hopefully answered below.

My ideal support group… well, first of all, it would exist (more on that later). Assuming it does exist, I would want my ideal support group to have 4 qualities:

1. Inclusion. No haters in this group. I know that people don’t always look at the world in the same way, but support means accepting someone on their terms, not mine. Same for conversation. Everyone needs to feel free to be themselves.

2. A sense of humor. Diabetes is a daily struggle for all of us. Not taking ourselves too seriously allows us to focus on what is really important (and who is really important), when it really matters.

3. Flexibility. Let’s face it: things change, people change, diabetes changes all of us. Having the same agenda or focus at every get-together is the kind of rigidity that turns me off. Being flexible means keeping things new and fresh rather than old and stale. Flexibility means acceptance to change, and even embracing change that helps a group’s evolution toward a more perfect union.

4. Goals. Read: Advocacy. The primary goal of any support group should be support of group members, right? If that’s your only goal, okay. But you’re not part of my ideal support group anymore. Because there are always people who need more support than ourselves (well, almost always). My ideal group sets goals that will help make the world a better place for PWDs. That’s not reaching too far, is it? Okay, goals need to be attainable. But I would really like my group’s support to be larger than just the group.

That’s my ideal support group, and at least a basis for discussion. But I have to admit that I’m just guessing here. I’ve never attended a support group meeting since my diagnosis. In fact, in 21 years with diabetes, I think I’ve met maybe 15 other diabetics in a a live setting. And about 10 of those were at a local event for adults with type 1 a couple of months ago. I only found out about that because I had volunteered with the local JDRF chapter the week before.

To be honest, I share much of the blame. I haven’t been a particularly social creature in the past (I’m getting better, I think). Also, I was diagnosed and spent the first few years with diabetes in one city, then moved to another city where I knew virtually no one. I haven’t signed up for a lot of JDRF or ADA walks or rides. And, for various reasons, I’ve pretty much shared my D-story with people on a need-to-know basis.

I haven’t attended events, lectures, presentations, or conferences, mostly because, until recently, I didn’t even know these things existed. As it is, these things rarely happen in my part of world anyway. Wait a minute… Hey! I think I have our first discussion topic! Our first goal! Who’s with me? Let’s goooooo!!!!!

Author’s note: Looking for my first support group meeting… more to come.

This post is my April entry in the DSMA Blog Carnival. If you’d like to participate too, you can get all of the information at http://diabetessocmed.com/2012/april-dsma-blog-carnival-2/

By StephenS | Tagged , , , , | Comments (6)