Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.
- Hippocrates -
Thirteen years ago I was diagnosed as diabetic and since then have been on various medications via pill and injection with reasonably good results. I eat very well meaning nutritiously, not in excess, in a very balanced way and I exercise a lot; I am in very good physical shape and am not overweight. That's meant I've been able to manage my blood sugar levels to [off and on] acceptable levels and it's never crept too far upwards. It's not been altogether easy, although for me it's been easier than with some other undisciplined people.
In case you don't know, the marker used to determine if a person is diabetic [type 2], is primarily an A1C test which measures sugars in the blood. Mine has measured consistently over 6.5% which means diabetic, it started at 7.9%. Pre-diabetes is 5.7-6.4% and below 5.7% is normal. With the way I've managed it with diet, exercise and medication mine has hovered in the 6.8-7.5% range which, whilst not amazing, is far better than the mid-teen numbers most have.
Over the time I've taken various things and have been on e few consistently; with new research comes new medications I guess and some have worked really well with almost no side-effects and others not so well. It's a moving target. Diabetes progresses with time [age] and so it needs to be consistently medicated until, eventually, one goes onto insulin injections - it's [usually] inevitable.
I have three-monthly blood tests and on the last one my doctor suggested a new medication that was achieving great results. We talked it out, I read the list of three million side-effects, and decided I'd give it a try. It's administered by injection once a week and, if it worked well, would mean I'd be able to hold off going onto insulin which, once begun, I would never be able to come off. That doesn't sound so bad, but being on insulin injections brings a whole new set of issues along with it, even though it would totally solve the issue.
My doctor gave me a trial pack of four injections, a month of medication, and away I went. This medication has one side effect in particular that many actually like however...and many liked it.
Besides doing what its supposed to do for a diabetic person, it actually suppresses hunger...a lot. It makes a person feel full after a much smaller amount of food. I'd say I'm eating about one third the amount of food; naturally one loses weight. Sounds good right? Wrong.
So, what's happened is that doctors started prescribing it for people who didn't have diabetes and simply wanted to lose weight, you know, fat people. It worked too. As word got out more asked their doctors for it, and because doctors get paid by drug companies to prescribe medications, they did so. That's meant that the company that make it ran out and now cannot obtain the ingredients to make more - they planned for the diabetics, not the fat people. That condition has lasted three months now...and diabetics simply cannot get it anywhere.
I took my first four weeks of injections then called my doctor and told him I couldn't get anymore - I was unaware this would be the case at the time. Chemists were saying they had wait-lists of over fifty people each and were only receiving one pack a week, if that. My doctor kindly gave me another sample pack of four weeks and a week later I managed to find a small out-of-the-way chemist who had another pack. Now...I only have one single injection left which I will use next Tuesday and then....I don't know what.
I live in a very affluent country with a solid Medicare program; a lot of medical [and other] research is done here and many inventions you may use every day come out of Australia...like WIFI for instance; it's a progressive country and we have everything we need. But...I can't get a life-saving medication because it's being prescribed to fat people? Shame Australia and shame doctors.
Yesterday I was awaiting a [scheduled] call from my doctor to have a discussion about the scenario and what I might be able to do...it didn't come. Maybe I'm not that important huh? Maybe my contribution to this country has, in fact, been valueless and it's best that I just die. [There's probably a few on Hive that wouldn't mind if I did]...But my country? What the bloody fuck? #WTBF
It makes we wonder what things might be like in your country? Do you have a good medical system? Is there a Medicare situation there, decent and efficient hospitals, ambulance service and medical professionals? I understand that third-world countries probably couldn't tick all of those boxes but am also aware that some more developed countries might not be able to either. Feel free to comment below and let me know what's up.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
The image was taken by me.