Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Blood Sugar Diaries

"How's your blood sugar?"

"What's your blood sugar?"

"Have you checked your blood sugar today?"

"What's your blood sugar generally range?"

I've gotten alot of that lately,& quite frankly,it's driving me up the wall. Quite frankly,there is never a time where the PWD cannot think about their blood sugars and today, I may be 300, tomorrow,30. The health care providers in question aren't asking you your latest a1c...they are asking you,judging you, on your blood sugar at that very minute. An hour from now it may be a whole different story. Not to mention they don't plan to do anything about it. (except label you "noncompliant" & "out of control" anyway) In nursing school, the label non-compliant is tossed around every three sentences anyway...& most of the time,gets applied to the patient with diabetes. It is an actual nursing diagnosis and you HAVE to use it. Words cannot express how much I loathe that term & how it is a cop out for figuring out what us really going on. At some point, I will write a paper on how that term needs to be abolished.
Anyway....back to the blood sugars.Why is that a topic that gets zero privacy & always gets asked?(I get that they need to "know" it but other sensitive topics,like "how many times have you pooped today?" could be construed in much the same light.And docs don't generally ask THAT.) I am really tired of talking about,discussing and dissecting and digressing and dealing with the topic of blood sugars. Yes,I do it everyday...it's my life.And yes,I do consult my Endo/Diabetes Educator on occasion. But everyone else (in the health care field,& the diabetes police) get on my nerves.(not the online community,they "get it" & I dint mind discussing online) I guess that's why I haven't been to a pump group meeting in forever because even there it tends to get a bit grilling. They all have a1c's in the 5's and 6's and are a tad unbelievable. (not that they aren't nice,but they are just in a totally different world) I need to hang out with REAL PWD. People who forget/leave their pumps at home,who have eaten themselves from 40 to 400 and will admit to having done so. People who don't claim to be perfect.(I also need to to figure out a better answer then "kindasortofnormalrange" which tends to produce blank looks & even more grueling of the blood sugars.) I guess I just hate that it's not considered private at all...& while I'm the one who manages it,the peanut gallery can still have their say about how much better I could be doing. (much like backseat drivers telling you how to drive a car)

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said!!! My doctors are always asking what my blood sugar is. So annoying. If they are out of range and I tell the truth they always want to know why. One time it was a very conservative male doctor and I told him I was premenstrual and he got very quiet.

I can't wait until you write a paper to abolish the term "non-compliant."

asskeeper said...

Heidi, you will be hanging out with one of the worlds worst diabetics in a few months. Just remember that. I know your a1c's are kicking my ass. I am to the point where I would tell them to go suck rotten eggs. Heck, I don't even know if a lot of people at school even realize I have type 1. Or they know stay off of it or I may bite.

Scott K. Johnson said...

When you need signatures on your petition to abolish the word "noncompliant", I am totally in!