Now we need another study and not a survey. The British have a right to be concerned as do all the people in other countries. Without testing supplies, how are people with diabetes supposed to manage diabetes? The doctor can not see them every day and the office would not be open for the dinner or bed time hours or weekends.
If the authors of the survey are finding that not having access to proper supplies is a source of anxiety and goes against the theory that home tests may cause anxiety or depression, then they need to have a sit-down with the American diabetes online community and learn what causes depression and what causes anger.
Anger can be generated against study authors like this that have preconceived ideas and do nothing to disprove them until they have a faulty survey or study that points to results like this. Then they claim that it disproves a theory. So bloody nice of them to say so. There are many bloggers saying we need more testing supplies in the USA, but the supplies continue to be limited and patients need to chose when to expend them to gain maximum advantage.
Have an emergency when you need to test several times and then what do you do when you have needed to expend several days supplies for an emergency. And when you have errors generated for a test strip, another one or two may not be available. Do we get replacements and are allowed to obtain more by our insurance No way, the insurance companies need the profits and we don't need the test strips is the game they play.
The authors did say, “home testing is a vital part of good diabetes management. It gives patients the opportunity to control their blood sugar levels, and work out which foods and routines affect blood sugar levels. With home testing, the patient is able to make informed decisions regarding lifestyle.” Sound familiar? This is what doctors, educators, and insurance companies have been denying for years in the USA. They don't want patients that are knowledgeable and proactive. They also claim that home testing causes depression. This is why many doctors will not authorize meters or test strips.
To combat this we patients need more proactive patients with diabetes that can combat the misinformation that is fermented by the medical community and the medical insurance industry. Yes, many of the myths were concocted by the medical profession as a way of instilling fear in their non-compliant patients.
When will they learn that a positive attitude and treating patients as people who are intelligent would get them better patients and make life even easier for them. Never happen – they are ingrained during medical school that fear is the preferred method of dealing with patients and gets the best results. It is the great doctors that can realize the fallacy of their training and that patients are people also.
On July 19, 2011, Ron Gregory at the Poor Diabetic dot com had an excellent blog about people with diabetes coming out of the closet and getting a voice. Obtaining testing supplies could be a good place to start voicing concern.
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