July 27, 2015

An Acquaintance Admits He Has Diabetes

On July 24, A.J called me and sounded very urgent when he asked me to come to his house. When I arrive, he and Jerry were talking to the person from this blog. When Jerry let me in, A.J stated to me that I was right and he was glad he had listened to me. A.J told the fellow to tell me what his A1c had been. We nicknamed him Jon and he said that his A1c was 10. The doctor said I was right when I told him that if I were not a person with diabetes, my blood glucose would have been back down at or below 100 mg/dl.

He said he had taken his paperwork to show the doctor and his new doctor agreed that he had diabetes and he needed to start on medication immediately to prevent complications. I asked which one he started on, he said insulin, and when he gave the names of Lantus and Novolog, I knew what he would be asking. Jerry spoke up and said between A.J and you he will be asking many questions. Jon said yes and from what A.J has said, he asked if he could get the address for my blog.

A.J said let's go to my computer and give me your email address. Jon gave him his email address and A.J showed him my blog, copied the URL, and said he would include several other URLs to give him some reading. Jon was told about communication and A.J said he would try to answer his questions at first because my computer was still not back in full operation and I had more to do to get the sound working and download a few of the tools necessary to use some programs. I suggested the he get Jon's phone number and give him our phone numbers.

The Jerry asked him if he had time for the support group. Jon said he knew some of the members like Max and Allen, he listed several other members. Jerry said we will not have another meeting until September, but some of us do get together at a restaurant every Saturday afternoon if we were in town or have the time. Sometimes it can be only two members and other Saturdays can be as many as 20 members. We have no schedule we follow, sometimes we discuss diabetes, and others time a favorite non-diabetes topic. We avoid religion and most politics.

Jon said that to start, he would be doing a lot of reading and asking us for reading resources. Jon thanked us for our interest in diabetes and for making him get the second opinion by scaring the dickens out of him. With that he said he needed to be doing something and would be in contact later.

After Jon left, A.J spoke and said that I had read Jon right the first time and he was happy I had discouraged him from pushing the subject of diabetes then. I answered that I was glad I was right, but if several more weeks had passed, I might have encouraged A.J to resume his pushing. Jerry said that creating doubt was a good thing and that had helped him when he needed it.

With that, I took my leave and said we have work to do to keep Jon learning.

No comments: