Diabetic Pet Peeves

bjs54321 · Mar 16, 2006

Pet Peeve #7- Being diabetic is a health condition, NOT A DISABILITY! I can do anything you can do (usually) and somethings even better- I just have to monitor my diabetes.

EXACTLY! It's no handicap. You'd never know it unless I told you. When my co-workers find out (cause I spilled da beans or had to pump up a bolus for that yummy candy) they feel sorry for me....Oh forget your sympathy...I can run circles around your sorry......bootie. Oh and the last time I was sick....over a year ago. How many times have my co-workers called off sick??????Many...They have no chronic challenge(it's a challenge, not an illness...the power of the mind)....And I pick up the slack...huh.

grannynurse FNP student · Mar 16, 2006

This is largely because type 2 diabetics refuse to eat right and exercise (which can cure type 2) and instead have damaged their bodies so much that they become insulin dependent....

You need to bone up on Type 2 diabetes.

Grannynurse:balloons:

grannynurse FNP student · Mar 16, 2006

Pet Peeve #7- Being diabetic is a health condition, NOT A DISABILITY! I can do anything you can do (usually) and somethings even better- I just have to monitor my diabetes.

I wonder how your attitude would change when your employer suddenly decided to make an issue of your chronic disease and fire you. I'm willing to bet you look into the protection offered under the ADA. And diabetes is a disease not a health condition. It is a decided unhealthy state of illness.

Grannynurse:balloons:

bjs54321 · Mar 16, 2006

I have looked into that...I wondered if that could happen. I have never fessed up to my medical condition, unless asked directly or had a physical, until I have the job. I'm not sure if the ADA protects me or not. The scarey thing for my employer is that I work alone for the most part. And, even though I have never been in a situation where I became unconscious or needing emergency medical care....I worry that it will happen. I try my best to keep everything under control. But what if I am alone and have lost control...for whatever reason and I loose consciousness? My patients, My responsiblitities...this would be a crisis. I am the only RN in the building....but my employer knows the situation. And I feel it is the risk they are taking.

If it should ever happen....I would have to re-evaluate my effectiveness as effective and reliable nurse.

Oh and that reminds me, I have to get to my MD to pick up the paperwork okaying my clearance to drive....thanks for the reminder.

BamaBound2bRN · Mar 16, 2006

I wonder how your attitude would change when your employer suddenly decided to make an issue of your chronic disease and fire you. I'm willing to bet you look into the protection offered under the ADA. And diabetes is a disease not a health condition. It is a decided unhealthy state of illness.
Grannynurse:balloons:

I can only speak for myself. To me diabetes is a condition like my hearing (fair) or my vision (wore glasses until lasik). It is a part of who I am, I control it-it does not control me. I check my sugar and take my insulin and exercise and diet accordingly and I could care less about the ADA personally. I believe whole-heartedly in the ADA if it is right for you and your situation, but it has never been a need or crutch for me (and I consider it a crutch personally not to anyone else). My diabetes affected my military career, and for that I am sorry (should be with my men in Iraq), but I have never let it get me down. If an employer wanted to fire me for diabetes or anything else- so be it, and he/she could kiss my a**. I am too valuable to me and my family to let that get me down, and would go elsewhere to work.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Mar 17, 2006

I think one of the biggest obstacles to "compliance" (geez, I hate that word), is that you can use all the scare tactics in the world, show pictures of gangrenous feet about to be lopped off and post-mortem shots of shriveled kidneys, tell horror stories about blindness and heart attacks and neuropathy, cite statistics about early death, and all the rest, and it JUST DOESN'T GET IN.
Why? Because it's theoretical. It's out there somewhere applying to all those other people.
We need to find ways to show people what is happening to them, inside their own bodies, to mark the wicked progression in ways that make it real that this isn't something out of a textbook or a government pamphlet, but changes that are taking place right now to them.
With gentle but thorough questioning we need to help patients evaluate their energy level, changes in sensation, and even their sexual function. If they can begin to see the micro-alterations occurring to THEM the rest of it may finally seem real.
Then, once they have this personalized awareness, we need to ASK them what they want for their own future. Some patients are willing to combine constant vigilance and vigorous efforts in pursuit of nearly perfect numbers. Others are less so. It isn't for us to decide which route they will take. They are the ones who have to live with the work and the consequences.
Too much of diabetic education and monitoring is adversarial. All that attitude does is build opposition and defensiveness. Patients end up not only insulin-resistant but help-resistant as well. There is an all-too-pervasive lack of respect for diabetic patients that often starts out being patronizing and ends up with both sides exasperated.
Two things are necessary to overcome this exercise in frustration. First, teaching methods that supercede denial and help each patient evaluate the very personal course the disease is taking inside them, and second, the recognition that the battle belongs to the patient, not the doc or the nurse or the educator. Even an effectively informed patient may still make the "wrong" choices. We need to be okay with that, even as we communicate sadness because they matter to us.

Awesome post !!! Thank you for this, I couldn't agree more! I have spent nearly ten years in dialysis, and there, too, have had to deal with "the battle is THEIRS", not mine. I can so relate to what you are saying above.

I have leanred SOME about diabetes, but now I am in Home Health with more time available to do some sound but gentle teaching... and I am hungry for good advice and guidelines in both HOW as well as WHAT to teach. I'm finding that while I know the very limited "basics", I really know very LITTLE.. far too little about this disease.

Oh, I have seen ALL the consequences of the disease... you bet I have!

But I want more education on the disease itself.. the physiology aspects of it, and the whole insulin deal... it gets VERY confusing.

And above all, I want to be informed so I can help guide my patients to make informed decisions for themselves.

Please let's keep this wonderful thread going ! :)

I for one, am ready for "Diabetes 101"... and then keep going to Diabetes 102.. and on.. and then on some more.

THANK YOU!

Midwest4me · Mar 17, 2006

Jnette--are you a nurse WORKING in dialysis or a pt. who undergoes dialysis?

lpnnurse051 · Mar 17, 2006

Thank you so much for starting this message board on diabetes. I am a diabetic and my blood sugars are out of control. This morning it was 113 and this evening 342 and I had not even eaten that much all day.

Can any one point me in the right direction for carb counting? The doctor just adjusted my medication but it is beginning to look like I may have to go on insulin. I am so tired of being so tired all the time.

Diane

HRLRN · Mar 17, 2006

I'm a student nurse (just a few months and the NCLEX away from RN) and I use a pump. The RNs I've encountered are always curious about my pump. I have found it reassuring to find that experienced RNs are still curious and continue to seek to expand their knowledge.

Some folks have posted that we (Type I's) can eat candy, cake, etc. I would just warn that 1) those foods provide useless calories and 2) It becomes harder to keep close control over your BG with insulin when you increase your sugar intake so dramatically. We're better off without the sweets (just like everyone else!).

I have found that my quarterly Dr. (and APRN!!) visits because of the DM keeps me in tune with my overall health better than the average male (who sees a Dr. once in a blue moon or when some problem has gotten to an advanced state).

KREWsLady · Mar 17, 2006

what about using the insulin pump with insulin dependent type 2?

HRLRN · Mar 17, 2006

I imagine its possible for type 2's to use a pump (like in pregnancy when oral meds are contraindicated) but I suspect the insurance companies don't like it. The pump is expensive ($5000) and there are less expensive options. Like everything in health care: it comes down to $$$$$.

HRLRN · Mar 17, 2006

Thank you so much for starting this message board on diabetes. I am a diabetic and my blood sugars are out of control. This morning it was 113 and this evening 342 and I had not even eaten that much all day.
Can any one point me in the right direction for carb counting? The doctor just adjusted my medication but it is beginning to look like I may have to go on insulin. I am so tired of being so tired all the time.
Diane

You may have rebounded from a BG that crashed (you ate little all day). There's probably some website for carb counting. Your local bookstaore proably has something on carb counting. You may want your provider to give you a referral to a dietician. Good Luck!