Diabetes Decisions

[wacojoe]

My personal bout with the disease —

I’ve been diagnosed with type2 diabetes for 20 years. The doctors have given me all the warnings and lists of things to do and not do many times. I understood them. I pretty much ignored them, and except for changing to sugar substitutes in soft drinks have gone about my business with studied and resolute indifference to the disease.

A big part of my stubbornness has been my distaste with sticking myself to test blood for glucose levels. I hate that, and it’s a major PITA. Maybe, I also did not want to know what the levels were because I am a carboholic. Everything I like seems to be a carbohydrate in some form or the other. Despite my disregard for the rules, when tested a key test, an A1C test, always showed me within acceptable levels below or at 7.0.

Lately, I have been feeling fatigued with any level of exertion even after recent heart procedures, which I had hoped would change that. Fatigue is one symptom of diabetes. After another talk with my endocrinologist, he suggested I try a new type of glucose monitor, FreeStyle Libre, which attaches to the patient’s arm and continuously takes subcutaneous samples of glucose readings, stores them and transmits them to my iPhone for data collection in the cloud that both I and my doctor can access permanently. The finger prick method only gives a snapshot reading once or twice or whenever I am willing to stick myself in comparison. The FreeStyle Libre reading produces a graph reading throughout the day. That graph is startlingly and unforgiving to someone who has not cared.

For those unfamiliar with glucose in humans, the goal is to keep readings between ~100 and 140. Under ~70 can be dangerously low and over ~240 dangerously high and either can make you feel fatigued or “slow.” I never suspected I would be on the low side, but have found I am often down into the 50’s. Several times I have bounced over 240, and when I have it was unfortunately after eating stuff I really like and a lot of it. The meter is being helpful but disturbing at the same time. Most alarmingly for me, Tex-Mex sends the reading over 240! Maybe I eat too much, or it’s the beans & rice & tortillas. I don’t know, but this is bad...really bad! I’m afraid to try beans & cornbread or chicken & dumplings. Oddly, fried pies and Hershey’s little chocolate thingies don’t seem to do that much. Can’t explain that.

I have only been using it two weeks, so I have much more to learn. I thought my experience may be helpful for other diabetics on the board, and might also prompt confessions or insights from others here too.

A word about expense of the FreeStyle Libre — it cost me $65 for 2 patches which last 14 days each and were not covered by my Medicare nor supplement coverage. The doctor warned me of this, and said certain conditions did warrant coverage however, but did not further explain. Apparently my condition was not of the type that put the device into coverage, and my choice is considered elective by Medicare and most insurance. I’ll probably use it for a few months long enough to get the lay of the land and go back to my backslider approach.