Insulin Impression
Monday, October 14, 2013 at 8:39AM "I don't have the bad kind of diabetes like you do."
"Hopefully I won't have to go on insulin."
"There is no way I could take shots everyday."
I have heard all of those things several times in my life and that last one I said myself a few years before I was diagnosed. Insulin is scary stuff but necessary. Necessary for all of us to live.
Some of us are lucky and our bodies make all the insulin we need. Not to mention the other side of that luck which is that our bodies use that insulin correctly. Some of us have to inject it manually and others can take pills to help our bodies use the insulin we are making.
Any which way you look at it, you need insulin.
Many health care professionals use Insulin as a "motivator" for their type 2 patients. I would call it a scare tactic but tomato toe-mah-toe. "You better get your blood sugar in control or else you are going to end up on insulin!"
That is not cool.
I understand the need to get your bg in control. No doubt. But to use insulin as a scare tactic and to make insulin the enemy is not fair. How does one feel if they need to start using insulin?
Insulin is necessary to live. Just because you need to take it doesn't make you a failure or a screw up. It means you need to inject insulin to keep your bg in control. Some people need different tools for the same job. There is no need to beat yourself up about it.
Using insulin in your diabetes management may mean the differerence between a healthy life and an unhealthly one.
WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MANAGE YOUR DIABETES IS WHAT YOU SHOULD TAKE!
Let's not judge a hormone by the disease. Insulin is not the enemy here. Diabetes is and insulin may be the right tool you need to get your diabetes in control.
Reader Comments (4)
Totally, absolutely agree. Don't blame the hormone. Thanks
Amen, Mr. Ninja! That is the truth right there. My mom now has Type 2 (due to another medical condition that brought it on), and aside from the cost of Lantus, she has no complaints about taking insulin. I guess she had the advantage of raising a daughter who needed injections, but I think she's confused her doctor by being so okay with having to go on long-acting, and then short-acting insulins.
You gotta do what you gotta do, PWDs! Ain't no shame in being healthy!
Thank you for saying this!
I hate when people tell me that someone's diabetes was so bad that they had to start taking insulin "like you do."
A long time ago I also used to think I couldn't give myself shots, but that changed when my dad had to learn how to give himself a shot (of blood thinner) in order to be allowed to leave the hospital, so when I was diagnosed, I remembered that. You need to do what you have to do to live and be healthy.
Nailed it!
Fear is never a motivator! And then once the doctor is actually "forced" to prescribe it, they wonder why their patient isn't compliant. Well dude, you spent years warning them it was the worst thing in the world.
I kinda like my insulin. Grown pretty attached to it.