Hello Folks;

[deco]

I’m Rich Davis. I’m 61 years old and I’ve been a insulin dependent diabetic for 20 years. I live in the San Francisco Bay area, where I work as a technical recruiter in Silicon Valley, and teach meditation.
I have a new blog at Diabetes-Lifetips (http://www.Diabetes-Lifetips.com). It's meant as a resource for people learning to live with adult onset diabetes. I've found that it helps to be in community, sharing ideas and life strategies. I look forward to getting to know some of you and learning new ways to fight this fight.
My last post is about Blood Sugar Self testing in non-insulin dependent diabetics. A couple of studys in the British Medical Journal question its value. I'd appreciate your feedback.
Rich

[kgm0612]

Welcome to the forum, Rich.

Karen

[xMenace]

Welcome.

I was sure your name was going to be Art :(

There was much discussion on that at the time. Try searching the forum.

[davef]

Welcome to the forums Rich, I'm sure your experience with diabetes will be assest to the forum. I have found lots of great information and more importantly great people ready to help and support me.

As xMenace mentioned there was a thread about the Type 2 not needing to test, I'm a Type 2 and personally I think it's madness. Over the past 5.5 months since I was DX'ed I have gained what I believe to be good control (current 14 day average is 5.3 mmol/L (95.4 mg/dL) and I'm 100% certain I would not have the control or good numbers without testing. I do wonder how many people who do these studies actually live as a diabetic - if you want to understand my life as a diabetic, then live as I do, is what I say.

[jacobsam622]

Welcome Jack. I am going to start by raking you over the coals for those comments about testing. First when I test regularly I maintain control of my bg. Second there are many things type 2's can do when they are high like exercise, Drink water, walk down steps take more meds. Anybody taking sulfonylureas class drugs should be testing after every meal and before bed and when they wake up I have had reading in the sixty before. YOU CAN TAKE MY METER WHEN YOU PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS:mad:

[morrisma]

Welcome to the club.

Testing is fundamental. Even if you cannot adjust insulin as a result of a reading, figuring out just how your body reacts to certain foods and exercise can be invaluable.

This, of course, all depends on the patient and how seriously he or she is willing to deal with the disease. Sadly, many diabetics ignore their condition, and testing, for them, is a reminder of things they'd rather forget. On this, and many forums, the members are focused, trying to understand and control their diabetes in order to get and/or stay healthy. For us, it seems ludicrous to skip testing but I think we are a minority.
Mike