Unmasked!

In this era of undercover cops rampaging through the Environmental Camp
I should out myself.
For some years now I've been cruising the ranks of that most august
body, The T2 Sugar Mong club.
Well, it wasn't true. All along I've been one of those nasty
reprehensible T1 mongs. A rum lot if ever there was. Not fit to be seen
in decent society.
In my defence, I was brain washed and conditioned by experts in the
service of the State, a shadowy group knows only by the letters NHS. But
I've managed to break their conditioning.
<hangs head in shame>

Twas Beav that said last year "you don't look like any T2". I had been
feeling ever more shit for some time, gradually withdrawing from the
world, with some annoying symptoms. But I'd decided to try insisting on
some more diagnostic medicine again. I saw a new Consultant recently, it
was immediately obvious he was a lot more switched on and interested and
he started running the numbers.

So folks, if, because of your age and circumstances, someone waves a
hand vaguely in the air and says "Oh Yes T2 diabetic, take these, do
this, now **** off".... ask if they have done the proper antibody tests
etc in order to be absofuckinglutely sure about what's going on.

99% of the time they will probably be right. But if not it will take you
down a long one way street to a fucked up town you don't want to visit.

 

And you're being very respectful if you think they're right 99% of the time.
I know of only 2 people who ever got the GAD (antibody test) and they only
got it done because someone (me) told them such a thing existed. both came
back as T1 and every aspect of their treatment/management changed.

One in particular was a pals new girlfriend who was dx'd as T2 and was
running A1c's in double figures of ~12%-14% (should be around 5%) She was
taking all her meds but never saw a BG reading below 12mmol/l and she wasn't
overweight. Not good for long term survival and a pretty good indication
that the meds weren't doing much, so I told him to ditch the bitch or he'd
be shoving her round in a wheelchair in a few years. Then he brought her
round to my place and she asked me if I'd really told him to ditch her. I
said "I did and I would if you didn't go back to the doc and get the GAD and
then sort herself out and not leave ANYTHING to the medico's".

She's now running A1c's in the 6's and 7's and has since had a healthy full
term sprog. And she's a T1 not a T2. And she's a friend of mine now.

 

Yup I couldn't get it below 10, "somewhat" higher really. Not until I
restricted my diet absolutely and to under 1000kCal a day.

With the HbA1c, Dysphagia, itchy leg scars that wouldn't heal, extreme
tiredness/irritability and memory disruption I knew something was
seriously wrong.

Given how much of it GP's deal with one would expect them to be more
switched on.

 

25 years I've been needling and in all that time I've never come across a GP
who knew more than the first thing about diabetes. They probably do a little
research to get through their exams and then forget about ti.

When Britt told my original doc I'd been admitted to hospital following me
walking in an announcing I was diabetic, he asked her why I hadn't come to
him. She said "He's been here with just about every symptom of diabetes
possible and you've not diagnosed it, so he went to the hozzie himself and
he's now on insulin and doing OK".

The **** then asked her "How long will he be on insulin?"

When I got out of dock, I went round and had a word with him. Not seen him
since.

 

Well at least Lantus gives me some chance of a semi normal life.

It isn't just the GP, I saw a diabetic nurse in the surgery every few
months.

I'm going to be making some trouble for NHS NI.

 

Your follow up post didn't appear on this (virgin) server for some reason,
so I've grabbed it from another.... It said.

Yeah, the one saving grace was that insulin part of the therapy.

I won't see them for anything other than taking blood if the phlebotomist
isn't in. They're too full of their own importance and fucking hate it if
you have any idea's of your own about what's best. Mind ewe, most quacks are
the same, as they just love patients to hand themselves over completely to
them and take every word they say as gospel. To be honest, they all do my
fucking head in with their contradictory advice, some of it so wildly out of
date it's embarrassing.

As well you should.

 

Your follow up post didn't appear on this (virgin) server for some reason,
so I've grabbed it from another.... It said.

Yeah, the one saving grace was that insulin part of the therapy.

I won't see them for anything other than taking blood if the phlebotomist
isn't in. They're too full of their own importance and fucking hate it if
you have any idea's of your own about what's best. Mind ewe, most quacks are
the same, as they just love patients to hand themselves over completely to
them and take every word they say as gospel. To be honest, they all do my
fucking head in with their contradictory advice, some of it so wildly out of
date it's embarrassing.

As well you should.

 

GP - just like your local handyman ... Jack of all trades, master of
none.

--
Veggie Dave
http://www.iq18films.co.uk

"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim
that Jesus was not born of a virgin." Cardinal Bellarmine

 

Each will generally have a specialism. The point is they should refer
one to a specialist at any sign of trouble.

My GP isn't to blame. I was referred to the D & E department in Belfast
Royal in short order, being somewhat poorly. I'll want to see their
records and find out if ther antibody test was run or did they look at
me, my age and glucose level and make assumptions.

 

Stoppitt, you're making me paranoid -- that's me that is, except I
don't know what HbA1c is... They called me in a couple of years ago after
my annual bloods -- "Your $VALUE is 6.1, we start treating once you go
over 6.0!" "OK, what have my last few readings been?" "6.0"

So, after a few weeks I had another test -- 6.0 and all's well
with the world.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

They certainly wouldn't have run a GAD test, I can tell you that without
fear of being told I'm wrong. The NHS never do the test as a matter of
course, or as a step in the diagnosis procedure. They need to be asked, and
even then they're reluctant to do it. (Cost?)

If you're not a kid and present with any diabetic symptoms, they always go
for T2 as it rarely needs hospitalization, because the standard treatment
doesn't get the individual into hypo territory. If you don't improve, they
*may* adjust their diagnosis, but not always. They hate to say they were
wrong and much prefer to say that the patient didn't tell all" or is
non-compliant and doesn't take his/her meds.

When I went to the hospital because I *knew* I was diabetic although no
quack had picked up on it, the folk at the hozzie assumed I was T2 because I
was over 20 and gave me a scrip for some oral drugs, but I'd already
acquired a meter and a packet of strips and tested like a demented knob.

Nothing dropped my levels and I got "a bit poorly" over the following 2
weeks before I collapsed at home and was taken into dock. Sugar at 65mmol/l
gave the medico's a hint that T2 probably wasn't correct. I knew just from
reading the list of symptoms a T1 has (and the list a T2 has) that I was a
classic T1 and so it proved. All the symptoms (and a few more) are in the
Novo Nordisk handbook for their pens. Pity the quacks don't read 'em.

Anyway Hog, I hope the insulin works, but (for what it's worth) I wouldn't
immediately accept that the insulin you're prescribed is the right one for
you and your lifestyle. I know mine was so far off the mark I refused to
carry on using it when I left hospital which REALLY pissed off the
consultwat at the time. Bolshie **** didn't like discussing anything, so I
told him that he was a **** if he thought he was the only doctor in the
country who could prescribe insulin..

I did my own research and decided on which insulins (I use two different
types) I'd use, how much and when, then went to my new GP and told him what
I wanted his to write me up for. He asked me a few questions (I lied) and
got the scrip. I've changed all my insulins over the years too and never get
a question anymore and I@m still here

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Ivan D. Reid

If your HbA1C is 6.0, you're good to go.

That is all you need to know, Beav's anti-NHS rants aside.

 

I'll put money on the fact that the 6.0 that Ivan got was most certainly not
Hba1c. It'll have been nothing more than a lab test for a glucose level on
the day. If you think I'm wrong ask Ivan if it was recorded as mmol/l or %.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Beav

Oddly enough, I'm not that bothered (although Ivan may well be).

My NHS doctor gets twice-yearly HbA1cs for me[1], along with kidney /
liver functions, retinal photos and lipids.

Apparently, your experience varies.

We're both going from a single data-point.

Me, I'm happy.

[1] I can read a blood-test form.

 

Well that's the difference isn't it? Regular BG test results *may* be
interpreted as an HbA1c by the person being tested .

It's a lottery nevertheless. In some post codes you can easily get twice
yearly checks (as I do) but in others it's almost impossible. Same as
getting test strips if you're T2. Some people can get them, some can't and
the NHS can't supply every diabetic with everything they need. They still
don't do GAD tests as a matter of course either, even in cases where there's
doubt about the diagnosis (T1 or T2).

And only your opinion counts. Understood..

Are we?

I'm glad to hear it

Bully for you.

 

I shall be living on my restricted diet for life, I've become used to it. So
Levimir or Lantus daily and something fast acting for "ordinary" meals, if
and when, would be my preference.

 

Just as well really, coz injecting insulin to cope with "the wrong" foods,
or too much food is a nasty road to go down.

It's what I do, although I don't use Levimir or Lantus as I discovered that
none of the genetically engineered slow acting "Human" insulins worked as
well as Bovine insulin, so I use that. Twice a day, plus Humlog (very fast
acting and very short duration) for whenever I eat.

 

Suddenly we all understand the cow like features.

 

You can get pork insulin too y'know. Well of course you know

 

You mean the grazing is better?