I don’t know too many Dr.’s that have that kind of time, do you? And CDE’s? Marginal at best.. Not to mention the costs factors.. CDE’s areound her get $125 per 1/2 hr visit..

We are better off Getting The Books like Think like a Pancrease or Using Insulin and Having the Dr.’s office issue them to all new patients, would accomplish alot more, although not the Ultimate Solution..

adding a Flyer on websites to go to is the other thing to do..

There is no easy & simple soltuiion..
Maybe betting Lilly and Nova on board to pay for the Books?
It is in their Best Financial Interest..

Just like them having constest to promote Pumps..

I never learned about self-testing until the Other Half was diagnosed as “borderline diabetic” and his health insurance company sent him a monitor and supplies and instructions for testing. The initial information both of us received (on his “borderline/prediabetic” diagnosis and my T2 diagnosis) were ADA diet sheets and, in my case, pills. (No monitor, no instructions on monitoring, and the only other complication I had was trying to manage the ADA diet in under 1000 mg sodium/day.) Sadly, I know too many people with T2 diabetes who were never taught about monitoring, never taught what to do with the numbers the devices returned, never taught about the effects of particular types of food on blood glucose levels…

Now, I had the advantage of having had both very good, and very bad, role models for diabetes self care. Without belaboring an oft-told story, I saw two paths I could take: I could live with diabetes, or I could die from it. (I’ll take “live with it” for one-thousand, Alex!) “Living with it” requires information, knowledge, and vigilance — but it sure as hell beats the alternatives of complications and a slow, painful death.

I also had the advantage of a professional background of included 15 years spent doing journal indexing and abstracting across many technical disciplines — so I knew where to look for information, how to find that information, and how to critically evaluate that information. This was invaluable in learning about diabetes and “Syndrome X” (aka “Metabolic Syndrome”), and learning to actively manage my own self-care.

Months passed before I knew what a CDE was — and considering the other health issues that were diagnosed at the same time as my diabetes, I had a more realistic understanding about my own self-care than I felt a CDE could assist me with. (I hear this time and again from other diabetes-community members.)

I must say that things are changing, if perhaps not quickly enough for all PWDs. When my Other Half was definitively diagnosed as having crossed the border to T2 last year, he was referred to a CDE almost immediately. Our medical insurance pays 100% of all our testing supplies, without limit, as well as any diabetes medications we require. OTOH, while I’d like to get my mother involved in self-testing, public documents suggest that Medicaid/Medicare will only cover enough supplies for her to test once every other day (or maybe once a day), which is not enough to establish patterns for norms and needs for improvement. Kerri Sparling writes of her continuing battle to get insurance coverage for a CGM. And fresh-food vendors continue to move out of the low-income markets where diabetes and high blood pressure risks are genetically and culturally highest.

I’m wondering if we might need to work on developing urban outreach programs for lower-income people affected by diabetes, and physician outreach programs to update their understanding of diabetes and diabetes management. I’m wondering how to get past the pussyfooting around the financial and logistical issues such as “do I test, or do I eat?” and “Where in H*** am I supposed to find fresh broccoli around here, much less be able to afford it!”

But two of my husband’s coworkers have been diagnosed with Type 2 and aren’t educating themselves. One can’t be bothered to go across town for his classes because he is annoyed that he has to drive to the clinic on the other end of town. How idiotic is that?