Using insulin isn’t a failure and self-care with emotional support by Wendy
Proper use of insulin helps patients with type 2 diabetes to lower blood glucose levels better. Some patients have been able to reduce the doses of insulin or even stop the insulin once the blood glucose levels are within individual target range as everyone is different.
Wendy openly shared her interesting journey of diabetes and initial struggle of learning to use different types of insulin. Like many patients with type 2 diabetes who have resisted using insulin because they see it as a failure! Some hear horrible stories of what happened to others who did use insulin, which was used too late, therefore most of the complications were present already from persistently high blood glucose levels, even before the introduction of insulin to their treatment without knowing them. She thought insulin was the end of the road for her treatment so she had a breakdown and cried over several consultations with her doctors.
However, Wendy was determined not to let diabetes control her life so she persisted and tried her very best with daily reporting to me via email or text messages for a few weeks. At the same time she was going through a tough time with her family members. She’s finally learnt self-care and started taking time to take care of herself and really looked into her dietary choices. We’ve looked at possible factors affecting her blood glucose levels negatively and unwanted continuous weight loss (yes, Wendy has been told by many people that she’s lucky she can lose weight easily). We’ve discussed what to do and what NOT to do to help her put a bit of weight on as she does not need to lose any weight.
It’s been a difficult journey and I’ve been lucky to work closely with both her endocrinologist and general practitioner to help her regain her healthy weight while lowering the elevated blood glucose levels. Wendy has also allowed me the privilege to put mindfulness and compassion in my clinical practice and give her the emotional support to help her through the dark periods as Wendy called them. Today we have Wendy’s smile again!
♥ University Lecturer & Meditation Practitioner
♥ Credentialled Diabetes Educator
♥ WEIGHT & PAIN Management Consultant
♥ Consultant Clinical Pharmacist
