Mealtime Insulin: My Diabetes Diagnosis

Dr. Page-Wilson: Hi there. Len: Hi. Dr. Page-Wilson: I'm Dr. Page Wilson. Len: Len. Dr. Page-Wilson: Great to meet you. Len: Same here Dr. Mezitis: Hello Jeffrey. Jeffrey: Hi. New Speaker: I'm Dr. Mezitis, nice to meet you. Jeffrey: Pleasure to meet you. Christen: I'm Dr. Christen Cooper and I'm pleased to meet you. Rochelle: And my name is Rochelle. Pleasure is mine. Dr. Page-Wilson: Tell me a little bit about when you were first diagnosed with diabetes. Len: Well, I was diagnosed in March of 2003. And initially my eyesight faded. Christen: What is your type 2 diabetes story? Rochelle: I was diagnosed three and a half years ago. I had a severe cut that did not heal in a three-month time. I went to a doctor; they took a blood test. Came back with a glucose score of 275. Jeffrey: They immediately told me, avoid carbs. I had to explain to them, I am a hypoglycemic diabetic. I have more low blood sugar numbers than I will high. And when my sugar does fall, I get extremely hungry. I would stay low for about an hour or two. And then I'm dealing with high. Len: And I went to my optometrist. And he said, "Come every day and I'll check your eyes." And he said, "I can't prescribe glasses for you because your prescription changes every 24 hours." But what he said was, I had so much glucose, he could see it in my eyes. Dr. Page-Wilson: Wow. Len: He could see sugar in my eyes. Rochelle: He then directed me to an endocrinologist, which I began to see. My endocrinologist put me on mealtime insulin. Len: When I finally got to my doctor, he took a blood sample. His meter went to 600, and I was off the meter. So he wanted to put me in the hospital and I refused. So he said, "Come back to me every day." So he gave me a shot of insulin. I came back every day for five days. And I progressively came down to about 350. And then he said, "now we're going to start you on a regimen."