Am I just being cranky?
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| Thu, 10-23-2008 - 1:26pm |
Well ya, I know its cranky but it really bothers me when the experts make false statements.
I just got the latest WW magazine(holiday one) and there is an article on diabetes. Written by a doctor teaching medical classes. Part I think in one of the sidebars was talking about monitors and the change from what it was like a long ago, and what it is like now. It irritated me that he made comment on the current monitors saying something like they are so small(yes) and the test strips ARE attached(or some similar word) to the monitor!! Well yes, some monitors have those little cannisters that attach to the meters but MOST do not. My impression was he was showing how knowledgeable he was but then put in incorrect info.
I see too many doctors and others making statements about diabetes that are not true. Like you can "cure" diabetes!!
Maybe I am sort of touchy because I see to many examples of medical people who act like they know it all but they are far from that!!!
Auntydoxzz .

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Speaking of which, sort of...I notice all these commercials for different meters that make a point of "and NO coding"...but it seems as if NONE of the currently on-the-shelf meters requires coding. Are there any that still do? That is, current, new meters (I know that there are some folks who have had the same meter for years and are fine with it) that are still 'coded'. And, this is silly, but what exactly is 'coding' a meter?
--Deb
I still use my handy dandy flash freestyle meter.
So the code was some sort of lot number or something like that?
Yeah, it bugs me too when I see stuff that says "Do this or that and CURE diabetes!" Then when you look at it, basically they've just gotten under really good control (which is a good thing for sure). The difference between good control and cure is that if you're "cured", you can stop doing whatever and it doesn't come back. For instance, if doing X cured diabetes, I could do X until the "cure" took effect, then I could eat and do whatever I wanted. If you take an antibiotic to cure pneumonia, once the antibiotic does the job, you stop taking it (once the prescribed full course is done that is) AND you no longer have pneumonia. That's a cure. Some diseases can go into "remission" if you do Y or Z (medications, treatments, etc) - no symptoms of whatever even after Y or Z stops BUT the disease is still there, just dormant. That's not a cure, it's still there and may/will come back at some point. And some things, like type 2 diabetes, can be managed such that there are no symptoms and minimal need for medication. But, stopping the management (diet, exercise, rest, etc), the symptoms are right there. Also not a cure.
The other thing about much of the hype is that they often don't differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and the variations that they are now finding (metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, variants between type 1 and type 2, etc).
--Deb
Deb,
Yes, it is a lot number. The newer models have the lot number programed into the strips.
But you bring up and even greater discussion. Diabetes is a chronic disease and there is no cure.
Mary Frances I really agree too.
I think you'd need a pancreas transplant - if I remember correctly, that's where the islets of langerhans live and that is what produces insulin (but I don't even play a doctor on TV so I could be way off lol)
I read somewhere recently that if you can keep really good control for something like 5 years after diagnosis, then small slips here and there over time do less harm than if you don't have good control to start with. Those first several years (I think it was 5, not sure) from diagnosis are key to controlling long term damage with this progressive chronic disease.
Odd as it sounds, I'm really glad I was diagnosed before I really had any symptoms - my endo did a routine serum glucose test because I had passed 45 yrs old and it showed just over the threshold for diagnosis (if memory serves, the threshold is over 126 and I was in the low 130s). So, I am now able to really work at controlling things rather than having it 'hiding' and causing damage. It floors me sometimes when I see the commercials with famous people who say they were diagnosed when their blood glucose was over 500...I cannot even IMAGINE what that must feel like, I've yet to get about about 210 and that felt odd enough and was scary enough to not want to go there again.
--Deb
I think i can count on one hand the number of times i hit 200 or above!!
Yes I got diagnosed when I went to get clearnace for excercising because I knew I was so imobile then that getting another dog was beyond me.
Trish
I think the the AccuCheck meters still code.
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