Diabetes lifegiving technology

Richard Kahn of the ADA recently gave a speech where he seemed to be against the technology that I depend on every day to keep me alive and well. Amy Tenderich and others have blogged about his comments.

I'm not saying much on the topic because his speech(PDF) makes me so mad. It strikes me that he has a lot of nerve for someone who doesn't seem to have diabetes and therefore doesn't need these devices to maintain his health or quality of life.

Here's where I stand on this.

I wear and use several diabetes devices that have really given me my life back.

The first of these was my blood glucose meter. Before I had one of these I used urine testing. I called this the "closing the stable after the horse had bolted" test. Because all it told me was a value after my blood glucose was high enough to spill into my urine. So the test might say I was 'negative', but my blood glucose could have been 190 mg/dl. And the thing was stinky and a pain to use.

About nine years ago I started using an insulin pump. Before that I was on multiple daily injections. On a good day I only had about 6 injections. On a bad day, 9 shots or more. My blood sugar control was pretty lousy. And before the pump I really couldn't exercise because it's impossible to undo an insulin injection.

In the last year I got a continuous glucose monitor. This has freed me from a lot of worry. No nighttime lows without a warning. Long distance driving? No problem.

Life is a lot easier with all of these. But they do have challenges.

It's extra stuff to carry, to program, and to download information from. The cables alone are a pain. And when the pump and CGMS alarm multiple times in the middle of the night, I want to throw them away.

But you'd have to pry them from my cold dead hands before I'd give them up.


So when I heard about it, I took the current survey that's been organized by Kelly Close of Close Concerns.

Maybe you'd like to do the same.

Labels: diabetes, nablopomo, survey, technology, thanks

posted by Bernard @ 6:33 AM