DIABETES IS A DIY AFFAIR IN SOUTH SOMERSET

Diabetes
1

Diagnosed T2 sept 4 2010 with a gluco level of[ 25 ]the doctor did not seemed bothered at all ,[YOU WONT DIE HE SAID YOUR ON THE PILLS !

I knew nothing about diabetes but i was soon to find out first thing was the doctors will not give anyone a perscription for test strips to check your gluco level ,they say it does not need monitoring by the patient !

because the nhs checks it EVERY 12 WEEKS which is great if you dont fall asleep twice a week during the day ,not knowing if your hypo or hyper

the doctor said you will go to DESMONDS clinc then i found out it was over subscibed by 6 weeks ,trying to get the PALS to sort it was a joke as there is a conflict of interest [they work in the pct ] on phoning the appointments office my self i find out it now turns out i cant get into DESMONDS UNTIL AFTER JANUARY,I GAVE UP. UP,

Then i found out that i needed to see a podiatrist ,so back to the doctor ,yes he said you can self apply pointing me to a leaflet in the corner so i filled it in only to find out no one contacted me [i had waited 3 weeks ] on phoning them i found out that althoug they have an anwer phone it does not take messages and it was bearly audible on the third attempt 3 days later i got to speake to a woman who told me she could not give me an appointment as the woman who did that was off on sick leave and she did not know when she would be comming back ,so i left that one .

With all of the government cuts the latest trend is DIY this means someone who was paid to be a pordiatrist now gets someone to organise a diy course in a village hall on how to look after your feet !

Desmonds is another diy course for diabetics .

Trying to get a diabetic diatitican was a joke ,it turns out she was on a contract and only came around a month .

there was lot more but thats was a sample ,

to find out my gluco level i went to the asda pharmacy who checked my gluco level they also checked my cholesterol level which was handy because the doctor had put me on statins ,i later found out it was routine for T2,s as every body thinks they are overweight ,me i weighed 164LBS

so i stopped taking them after i looked them up.

one of the sings of diabetes is weight loss but my doctor had not weighed me for 2 years !

My take is this if you get diabetes get on the computer and do your own reasearch ,buy your own gluco meter [yes i know the strips cost hard money ] but the doctor is not going to let you have them ,you need to monitor your condition ,get to know your highs and lows .

With the governments cut backs and doctors holding the purse strings things can only get worse :

2

I'm so sorry to hear all your problems with your diabetes. I have had Type 11 since 1995 and have to say that I have had wonderful treatment, both with the doctor and with the hospital, but I don't live in Somerset!. I get two boxes of test strips every time I order them which could be every couple of months or even less.I don't know how I would cope if I couldn't check my levels every day. I have no trouble at all getting to see the doctor or nurse, I have regular checkups and, if there is a problem with an infection in any part of my body, because I have diabetes, I am seen very quickly. I have only seen a dietician a couple of times and didn't find them all that helpful as they were only telling me things that I had already looked up on the internet. I haven't been on any courses, mainly because they thought I wouldn't get that much help from them because I knew a lot already. I think that has to be the key these days, do as much as you can on the internet and with books because even if doctors are very good, they only have a certain amount of time to see patients so can't possible cover everything.

Diabetics are all put on statins and some, like me, are put on blood pressure tablets, even though mine wasn't high but it was just to prevent it getting any higher. I had to come off them for a while because it was making my blood pressure go too low so I was changed to a different sort and it seems to be OK at the moment. Statins, Simvastatin in particular, can cause a lot of problems. I was on it, as was my husband (he hasn't got diabetes) two of my friends were also on it and we all had muscle problems, a well known side effect. I am on Pravastatin now and so far haven't had any of the problems I had with Simvastatin.

You said that one of the signs of diabetes is weight loss. I have to say that I didn't lose any weight at all and I certainly wasn't overweight, only weighing nine stone.

I was horrified that your doctor wasn't concerned at a sugar level of 25 - that's very high! Prolonged high sugar levels will damage all sorts of things in your body so for him to act the way he did is absolutely disgusting. I think you should try and see another doctor because that one is definitely not a helpful one. Is there a diabetic nurse attached to the practice, perhaps you could bypass the doctor as I find that specialist nurses usually know a lot more than the GP.

I hope you get better treatment and, if your doctor is still being like you described, perhaps reporting him might be the way to go. I hope this helps.

3

OOBUC i dont live in somerset either, but in Hants. Last year i moved to my current surgery and had the customary initial meet with GP. Although he accepted that my control was good and my Hba1C was 6 he then proceeded to cut-out my test strips. When i go back in a week or so for an interim assessment i shall be demanding they are re-instated. As i understand it the Formulatory says give test strips to those who can show they are doing something positive with the information. If no joy i shall be writing to the PCT.

The patient is expected ( rightly ) to take control of their condition with the exeption of Major lifestyle changes the only other way you have is to test.

4

Hello, I hope I can shed some light onto some of the queries here as I am a practice nurse justr completing my diabetes speciast training. Istly I will point out that blood glucose monitoring at home is only required if you are on certain medication - metformin whicjh is the first medication most people are put on, cant give you a hypo so there is no need to regaularily test your pown blood sugars and yes, the cost of these is the main reason why only certain patients who are at risk of hypos get testing strips on the NHS. There is no need to test as the surgery will test your HBA1C twice a year (they wil I promise cos they get lots of money for doing so !) and this recording will show how your average blood suagrs have been over the last 3 months (Glucose attaches itsself to red bloood cells which live for 3 months- thats how they do it - clever hey !). Obesity and any excess fat especially abdominal fat , casues the insulin you are making to be unable to work properly in the muscles (u get tired easily) and other organs so losing excess fat around these organs helps the insulin u r producing to work which means it doesnt sit around in the blood causing all sorts of problems!. Statins are given to anyone over the age of 40 years as deposits of glucose fur up the blood vessels makign you 75 % more at risk from heart attacks, strokes and other vessel related problems, so if you have fat build up in the vessels too , it puts them at even more risk - this is why they want your cholesterol to be as low as possible . Your levels will have beenn taken though so ask for what the level is (they get lots of money for the annual blood tests too !). DESMOND is great but not urgent- u can lower your fat levels ans eat healthily whilst you wait for the appointment. Diabetes is your condition- you have to manage it but health care workers will /and should be there to assaist you. Diabetes Uk website provides lots of tips. Hope that helsp - i spent 6 months of brain power trying to work all this out so give yourself some time to take it all in !!

5

Dear Coggy congratulations on your qualifications, The issue with test strips is one dear to my heart. The way that i know what foods do what to me was by testing regularly and often. You cannot do this if you rely only on the Hba1c which as you say is simply and average and dosnt help with learning about what is happening before and after any given food. Food being the primary driver of insulin production. As for Cholesterol it is the building block for a whole raft of things your body uses including the brain. It finds its way to the site of Cellular inflamataion and attempts to be a sticking plaster ie plaque.

I have had this condition since 2000, Initially i followed the book religiously and the numbers still climbed as did the weight and reliance on more meds. Since 2007 when i became much better informed my numbers are stable my meds have decreased, I have no complications and my weight hasnt gone back on. In general health terms i am a reasonably healthy T2 diabetic. My control method is criticised by Health Profession as unhealthy but my records show since 2007 a general improvement.