Lessons for People New to Type 2 Diabetes, Part 3

When friends say they will help pull information together for something, I did not realize how thorough they would be. I was intending to make this blog about food plans, but they changed my mind. They feel that testing should be first and before that, care of testing supplies and washing and care of hands prior to testing. On this, I will agree.

Hand care is often overlooked for people new to diabetes. Some of this is because many doctors will not tell newly diagnosed patients about testing and therefore say nothing about hand care. Why do doctors go this far to do harm to patients. It has been said and I have read some articles that the doctors honestly say they say nothing about testing because they are concerned about the patients being frightened by the results and that they will not understand what the readings mean. Some even say they don't have the programs to read the meters and just feel that there is no need. This sounds like they were educated by Dr. RobertRatner, chief scientific and medical officer for the ADA that says, “Many people with type 2 diabetes who are on medications don't need to do home glucose monitoring at all." This means that their patients are operating in the blind and have no means to manage their diabetes.

This is one reason that I encourage patients that tell me this to find a doctor that will see to it they have testing supplies and attempt to teach them a few reasons for testing. This brings up another topic that I admit should not happen, but I see this all too often. The patient says they are testing for the doctor at the doctor's request. When you ask if the doctor looks at their meter, pulls the readings from the meter, or reads the log they maintain, I get blank looks and maybe a question about firewood needs. Blood glucose logs, food logs, and health logs mean nothing to them.  Yes, I become very frustrated, but I try to educate them if they will listen, many won't.

I know the people in our community diabetes support groups read the instructions that come with their testing supplies and medications. This is a topic that a few of them are getting tired of hearing, but every time someone gets caught not paying attention, they hear about it from every member. Should we be this aggressive? We think so and are conscious of the money we may save our friend. When we see people testing in full sun and not protecting their test strips, we have to wonder if they really care about their health. For many of the common errors please read thisabout user errors in blood glucose testing.

Another blog that anyone interested in managing diabetes may find helpful is this on what ignorance does for you. And then this blog could give you some pointers to learn about obtaining testing supplies and what to expect when you are newly diagnosed. Always consider checking out the colored links is each of the blogs for more information that may lead to better understanding of why I and my support group friends feel these blogs are important.

I will attempt to provide links that will help and I do review to make sure they are applicable for newly diagnosed people with type 2 diabetes. To be honest, I knew I had written quite a few blogs, but did not realize that so many were applicable for the newly diagnosed. Since they are helping me, I send them a copy of the completed blog and they are reviewing them. They are suggesting more links, but finally admitted that too many are not productive.