I See Diabetic Athletes...
I rolled out the current version of this blog around two years ago with the tagline, "A Type 1 diabetic endurance athlete, unable to find any good blogs about how diabetics handle endurance sports, decides to write his own. Here it is."
The thing is, two years ago, I was one of the only diabetic endurance athletes to regularly blog. I'm not anymore, and that's a great thing.
Now diabetics can choose from Jamie, Jerry, Erika, Missy and even Sarah (the newest diabetic athlete blog I've found). Now when I read my old tagline, it reads as if I'm disrespecting these writers. Truth is, I don't miss anything any one of them writes and if you're a diabetic athlete, neither should you.
So, I've changed my tagline to be "A Type-1 diabetic marathon runner blogs about running, diabetes and life, in no particular order," not because I've changed, but because the world and the Web has changed, which is a wicked cool thing.
While I'm writing about diabetes which - let's face it, I don't do a lot - here's a few random thoughts:
* Saw the doc about my thyroid. I always complain about my thyroid more than I complain about diabetes, simply because it takes longer to see a change and there's not much you can do except tweak the meds. This time around, I'm "suppressed," which means they'll be dialing down the meds a bit.
* Doc also said that I was in too good of control to get the insurance companies to cover CGM. This rationale is very annoying to diabetics who give a hoot about control. See, there are three kinds of diabetics out there: diabetics in good control, diabetics who work to be in good control, and diabetics who won't try to do the right things to be in good control. Groups B&C are the ones who get the latest technology and medicines covered by insurance. Nevertheless, when a diabetic like myself goes to the doc and has an A1C of 6.5, the doc always says, "That's good, but you can do better. I like my patients to be as low as possible without being in danger." But the trick is that the medicines and technologies that would allow me to do that aren't made available to be by the insurance companies. At least, not without paying through the nose.
* Doc also said that my previous doc (who I adored) had left the practice because she was burned out on "Type 2's who wouldn't take care of themselves." So thank you lazy diabetics for taking the tools that could make me better and for driving a great doctor into lab work.
** Disclaimer: My criticism is not at all Type 2's... It's at "lazy" Type 2's. If you're a lazy Type 2, you know who you are, and if you're not, I'm not criticizing you.
** Disclaimer 2: There ARE lazy Type 1's, too, but my doc didn't say that. I also think that there are more lazy type 2's than lazy 1's simply because a lazy Type 1 is pretty much a Type 1 in the Fast-Pass lane to death whereas a lazy Type 2 is in the regular line.
The thing is, two years ago, I was one of the only diabetic endurance athletes to regularly blog. I'm not anymore, and that's a great thing.
Now diabetics can choose from Jamie, Jerry, Erika, Missy and even Sarah (the newest diabetic athlete blog I've found). Now when I read my old tagline, it reads as if I'm disrespecting these writers. Truth is, I don't miss anything any one of them writes and if you're a diabetic athlete, neither should you.
So, I've changed my tagline to be "A Type-1 diabetic marathon runner blogs about running, diabetes and life, in no particular order," not because I've changed, but because the world and the Web has changed, which is a wicked cool thing.
While I'm writing about diabetes which - let's face it, I don't do a lot - here's a few random thoughts:
* Saw the doc about my thyroid. I always complain about my thyroid more than I complain about diabetes, simply because it takes longer to see a change and there's not much you can do except tweak the meds. This time around, I'm "suppressed," which means they'll be dialing down the meds a bit.
* Doc also said that I was in too good of control to get the insurance companies to cover CGM. This rationale is very annoying to diabetics who give a hoot about control. See, there are three kinds of diabetics out there: diabetics in good control, diabetics who work to be in good control, and diabetics who won't try to do the right things to be in good control. Groups B&C are the ones who get the latest technology and medicines covered by insurance. Nevertheless, when a diabetic like myself goes to the doc and has an A1C of 6.5, the doc always says, "That's good, but you can do better. I like my patients to be as low as possible without being in danger." But the trick is that the medicines and technologies that would allow me to do that aren't made available to be by the insurance companies. At least, not without paying through the nose.
* Doc also said that my previous doc (who I adored) had left the practice because she was burned out on "Type 2's who wouldn't take care of themselves." So thank you lazy diabetics for taking the tools that could make me better and for driving a great doctor into lab work.
** Disclaimer: My criticism is not at all Type 2's... It's at "lazy" Type 2's. If you're a lazy Type 2, you know who you are, and if you're not, I'm not criticizing you.
** Disclaimer 2: There ARE lazy Type 1's, too, but my doc didn't say that. I also think that there are more lazy type 2's than lazy 1's simply because a lazy Type 1 is pretty much a Type 1 in the Fast-Pass lane to death whereas a lazy Type 2 is in the regular line.
Dang, Marcus,
ReplyDeleteYou've called me a blogger, now I feel like I have to write something on my blog.
I suppose I can write something about facing the same double-bind we did while getting pumps now that we're trying to get CGMSs.
I could write about how it's better to pay for tools for me to take care of myself than for laser eye surgery, dialysis, etc.