• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Whats the worst advice you have been given?

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
megga

megga

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
As the title says. I'll kick of
8 years ago when i was first diagnosed, the nurse at my old doctors ( i dont think she was properly trained for the care of diabeties) told me, when i have a hypo "eat a mars bar and drink a bottle of lucozade" and then "Dont you worry pet, i've not lost a patient to diabeties, and i dont intend to start"

Now i laugh at it:D
 
Blimey! Nothing to match that (fortunately!), my care has been pretty good. When I was diagnosed I received some excellent care which really set me up well - might have been partly due to the fact that I was diagnosed in hospital so got to see 'proper' DSNs from the start - I quickly came to realise that there was a huge contrast between what they know about diabetes and my practise nurse. My GP is good too - she listens and understands that I live with this and therefore know myself and my diabetes better than she does, but will help with any gaps in my knowledge by trying to find answers - she's not one of those arrogant types who acts as though all patients are stupid and should just do as they are told (often according to some out-of-date textbook they read years ago).

I suppose the most irritating piece of advice was a stand-in at one of my annual reviews who insisted that there was no lower safe limit for cholesterol, and even though my HDL and total chol were perfectly fine he insisted I should be taking statins. My normal consultant has never pushed me to take them.
 
In retrospect about 4 years ago after having had a blood test following a showing of sugar in my urine " you are only showing slight signs of diabetes so there is nothing to worry about".
So 20 months ago firmly diagnosed Type 2 and have rapidly gone through all oral medication, have been on insulin mix for 3 months and this week go to MDI - thank goodness. Angry with the knowledge I now have due to internet and in particular this site that life could well have been a lot easier if treated then - even though it may well have progressed in a similar timespan. But at what damage to my body?
 
Eat more salt... when what I really needed was to stop taking bendroflumethiazide.
 
I was told by a lady who was employed to do ultra sound scans, that I would be a lot better off using diet and exercise to control my diabetes instead of having injections or a fancy pump. 😡😱

I gently pointed out that as I had type 1 diabetes which is an autoimmune condition and there wasn't a cats chance in hell of doing that.
I was told that only children had type 1 diabetes. 🙄 So I pointed out that as I had never grown up then it stands to reason I have type 1.
Didn't like to upset her any more by telling her that 2013 I would have been on insulin for 48 years.
 
Some years ago in response to my comment (on MDI with an I:C ratio of 1u:10g) that every weekday I had the very tip of a flat teaspoon of sugar on my one morning Weetabix, to handily bump the carb count up to 20g, surgery nurse went ballistic and screeched in my face with her eyes bulging

You know just as well as I do that we (she was T1 since childhood) can never, never, NEVER ever have any sugar at all ! 😱

And when I protested that wasn't true, 'everyone' said so these days, she demanded

Who ARE these people? - give me their names and you can be sure I'll soon put THEM right!

So I reeled off all the people I could think of, diabetes consultants past and present, DSNs ditto, their addresses, the Head Honcho at DUK (and the whole organisation LOL) and I did this all chatty like 'not sure if Rowan Hillson has actually said it, in so many words, but anyway she endorses it' - she shut up. And changed the subject.

I always wondered if she knew who Rowan Hillson was? LOL

Of course you can never avoid sugar anyway no matter how hard you try, although OK you should try and avoid adding it if you don't absolutely have to.

But frankly if my diabetes was so uncontrolled a teensy amount like that was going to make my legs drop off, then they'd have dropped off a very long time ago, wouldn't they?

The other good one, last year in asking the Head of my GP practice who I'd gone to see about summat else (appt with anyone, please thing and I just thought, oh he's the most senior so I'm sure he could do this, as opposed to making another appt to see the D one just for this) to increase my strip repeat scrip from 150 to 200 - he told me I'd had D a long time now and most people can get by only testing a couple of times a week, or once a day ........
 
The diet advice is usually the most misguided. The worst advice I've ever been given is that plenty of orange juice at breakfast is fine as it's fruit and that I must never skip a meal or snack. Oh, and those meals should always be based around a starchy carb and whatever else I have with it should just be for flavouring.

Actually, no, scratch that. The worst advice I was ever given was I shouldn't ever drink because I have diabetes. :D
 
Worst advice: 'ketones won't harm the baby' 😱
Worst diagnosis: doc: 'I'm afraid you might be diabetic'
Me: 'gosh...lucky I've been on insulin the past 18 years then!' (actual diagnosis = underactive thyoid, nice to know they read the medical notes eh?! 🙄)
Worst care: 'We're not putting you on an insulin pump whilst pregnant because if anything goes wrong you'll sue us'
...right, so I guess I'll either have to throw my hands in the air & accept c*** control or continue waking myself up at 3 & 5 every morning to bolus to beat dawn phenomenon, plus struggling with correction injections throughout the day... :confused: something that isn't working but is familiar so you don't think I'll sue if something goes wrong?

I should say I've also had some very good experiences of care too...!
 
Twitchy: "Worst diagnosis: doc: 'I'm afraid you might be diabetic'
Me: 'gosh...lucky I've been on insulin the past 18 years then!'" :D:D:D
 
Think I'd hve been much ruder than that, Twitchy!

At least "No sh-t, Sherlock ...... !"
 
Dietitian - "At least 60% of every meal should consist of carbohydrate"
 
I lost 2 stone in a month due to weeing in the night and not diabetes...... Or when in hospital and I made it very clear I had no idea what I can eat and being given a scone telling me just put a bit of jam on 🙂 you must laugh at these things.
 
Ginnie said:
I lost 2 stone in a month due to weeing in the night and not diabetes...... Or when in hospital and I made it very clear I had no idea what I can eat and being given a scone telling me just put a bit of jam on 🙂 you must laugh at these things.
Click to expand...

When I was in hospital there was no attempt whatsoever to monitor the food I was eating - the only guideline was whether the menu was marked with a 'D' meaning not suitable for diabetics. The only thing with a D was treacle pudding and custard, anything else was fine! 😱 My blood sugar swung between 2 and 30 when I was in there!
 
My main advice was just a bit of jam or dont bother choosing a meal your room is last and theres usually nothing left..... I didnt get under 20 while in hospital and I now know why whqt made it even better the head nurse would spend a good 5 minutes telling me how I wasnt helping by eating the wrong foods...... I.slept alot in hospital 🙂
 
Practice nurse at the GP surgery: walking uphill to the surgery will lower your blood pressure, and your pulse rate.

I kid you not. She actually believed this.
 
Worst bit for me so far is "Don't bother with testing your blood at home, your annual review HbA1c test is the only one that counts and is quite sufficient. This is why we don't give meters to D2's because they become obsessed". Of course I am continuing with my obsessive testing. 🙂
 
I was told there is no limit to how low your cholesterol can go and be safe, despite the fact that cholesterol is essential to life...🙄
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top