Just Sayin'

A post about a conversation with your doctor

Sugar needed to make a trip to an urgent care a few months ago...it went a little something like this:

"So, she has diabetes?"

"Yes."

"Does she need insulin?"

"Yes.  She was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes shortly after her 2nd birthday."

"So how long has she needed insulin?"

"Well...just like everyone else, she's needed insulin her entire life.  Unfortunately her body stopped producing it somewhere around the age of 2.  Since then, she's needed an external source of insulin, and that's why she wears an insulin pump."

"So how often does she need to wear her pump?"

"All the time."

"Well, she had some glucose in her urine so she's obviously not getting enough insulin or not wearing her pump enough.  You'd better be careful, because keeping her uncontrolled like that can cause a lot of problems later."

"Okay.  Thanks.  Unfortunately diabetes can't be controlled.  The best we can do is to manage it.  Controlling it isn't an option.  For the past 5 or 6 years, her A1c has consistently fallen on the low end of the target range for her age group, so it seems we're doing an okay job of managing it for now."

"Well, all I'm saying is that glucose showed up in her urine today, and that's a problem."

Thanks, Doctor.  You might consider learning a thing or two about the diagnosis before you start lecturing me.

Just sayin'.

Day 3 of National Health Blog Post Month 2012.