Meeting with George

George asked Ben to bring him to see me on Sunday. He had many questions on several blogs and said he had followed the links, but still did not understand the meaning or the importance. He had the titles, so I found the first, which was an early blog listing different book titles. I asked what the problem and he said most of the books are several years old and why would I push them. I told George I was not pushing books. I said I found them helpful at the time and felt that if people wanted to buy them, that was up to them.

Since I had the books on a shelf, I reached over, took each one down, and let George look at them. He asked if he could borrow one and since I had two copies, I said yes. Then he asked for another and I asked him if all he was going to was read all vacation. He admitted that he planned to take them home with him, and I admit I thought about it. I asked if his library might have a copy of both and he knew that they did. I said no then and asked why he could not get them from the library. He said he did not like the area where the library was located. I asked if city buses went by the library and he said he had not thought about that and it would work. I then asked if the city had a branch and George lit up with a big smile and said only eight blocks away.

I then asked George why he had not thought about that. He admitted he had not really thought about using the library, but had called to find out if they had certain diabetes books available. Then he relaxed and admitted he didn't mean I was pushing books, but wondered if I actually had them. I surprised him when I asked what was the real reason he was seeing me. He hesitated and I pushed a bit, telling him to spit it out so we could discuss it.

He fumbled for a bit, looking for the right words. Finally he said, you don't hold back much on topics and make some hard to swallow statements. I said this is my writing style and I think Barry and Ben will agree. I don't follow the teaching of the ADA and other organizations and I think you can understand that. I continued that I have my beliefs and at the same time to not say you have to follow them. George said he agreed with that, but some of the words I used really upset him. I had guessed that it probably was being your own lab rat in experiments. I could see George wince so I knew I was right.

I laughed, and said that is my way of telling you to experiment and gain knowledge from the experiments. Since you cannot experiment on anyone else, you only have yourself to experiment on. George then stated that is the reason for saying what works for you may not work for me. I agreed and said another saying is “your mileage may vary.” George admitted this he did not follow. I said when Ben or Barry, or anyone else of our group says that something works for them and tells you what they do, you may not obtain the same results. Therefore, the result (mileage) may not be the same for you. George said the two sayings are all but equal. I grinned and said yes.

I said some people prefer one way of saying something over another and if you go to any of the diabetes forums, you may see both. George said he had and wondered what was meant. Now he said he has a better understanding and the two ways won't have him shaking his head when he sees YMMV. I agreed this should help him and that when he thinks of a bell-curve and several million people representing the curve, this should indicate that you could be very similar to many people, but if you met them, you may wonder how they could be so close to you. Each person varies in their abilities and the way of getting to almost the same result that it makes you wonder.

Next, George asked me to open a couple of blogs and we started with this one. George said even though he has had diabetes for almost a year, if he had not come to see his friends, he probably would not have the management skills he is acquiring. He said this blog hit home for him and even though he does not like being a lab rat, the rest of the points made him take notice and realize what needed to be done. George continued that for the first time since diagnosis, he could say that he was finally accepting his diabetes and being on insulin has been a real challenge. He said the endocrinologist he is seeing now really works with him and he has asked a lot of questions and received answers to all of them. He continued that going from an A1C of 11.3% to 7.4% in seven weeks was a shock to him, but his new doctor said he may be at 6.0% or less, if he continues to learn.

I congratulated George for that and said that all of the support group should know about this. George said that if it was not for his friend Barry, he might not have been able to achieve this. He said that with the help of Barry's friends, he has learned more about diabetes than he planned on learning, but it is all for the best. Then George said he would be asking to remain on the email list. I said this could continue to help him and then he mentioned this blog and asked me about other things that could create variances. I said that there could be other variances, but that I had listed the main points.

George stated he had asked his new doctor about the internet and he had said to be concerned about poor sites and sites promoting cures. So the second time he had opened it up for the doctor and he had read it. His only comment was that I had more variables than he had thought about, but it was good. George said he had one more, but the doctor said not this time and then gave him his home email address on the condition that he not abuse it. George said he had sent him one on Thursday and telling him he had two more URLs to two more of my blogs and this would be it for now as he was leaving Friday for Iowa. He also told the doctor that unless he found something wrong, not to answer the email and this would be the last until he came across something that puzzled him. For medication questions, he would call the office.

I told George that was good and if he could establish a good communication, not to abuse the email privilege. George said that at the first appointment, the doctor had sent our letter to the insurance company for reimbursement of extra test strips and they had agreed for four months and then it would be back to three. He says that he hopes that with the VA approval he will be able to obtain more test strips. I said that should be possible and he would not need the insurance, but could use them for the three if needed. George said that was the plan as Medicare would only cover the three and he would be on that in another month.

At that point, the doorbell sounded and Barry was there to get his friend. We talked for a while and they left with George saying now that he knew where I lived, he may be back. I told him to call first in the event my wife and I were shopping or busy doing other things. George said he would and would get the phone number from Barry.