We share the same illness and sympathy. Communication among patients, which comes from their personal experience, is more likely to evoke the same feeling and has better feasibility. Nowadays, many diabetic patients set up their own “sugar club” to communicate regularly and share their experiences with each other for mutual benefit. However, there are also some patients who blindly follow other patients and take inappropriate treatment plans, delaying the disease and even causing lifelong regrets. Therefore, the author believes that diabetes needs to be controlled and treated in many ways, and that individualized treatment plans should be adopted according to the individual, and not to follow others blindly. Lulu Chen, Department of Endocrinology, Wuhan Union Medical College Hospital
Diabetes health education, diet control, reasonable exercise, medication and blood glucose monitoring are the five driving forces of diabetes, one of which is indispensable. The author talks about how to share and exchange experiences among diabetic friends in these five areas.
First of all, medication is fundamental. If you have the symptoms of diabetes “three more or less” or find that your blood sugar is elevated, you should go to a regular hospital to find a specialist to further diagnose your condition, determine the severity of your condition, clarify your diabetes typing, and develop the best treatment plan. And regularly go to the hospital to review the blood sugar, by the doctor guidance and adjustment of treatment plan. The author once met such a patient, an elderly woman in her 70s, who had been on insulin therapy for several years since her diabetes was diagnosed, and her blood sugar was still under control. By chance, she heard from several diabetic friends that she was taking a certain herbal medicine and it was working very well. So she stopped taking insulin on her own and took Chinese medicine instead. Suddenly, one day, he fell into a coma and was sent to the hospital to measure his blood glucose, which was beyond the measurement range of the electronic blood glucose meter, and his venous blood showed that his blood glucose was as high as 38.67 mmol/L. He was diagnosed with hyperosmolar non-ketotic diabetic coma, and although his life was saved with all efforts, he was unconscious, unresponsive and unable to take care of himself. Diabetes mellitus is treated differently depending on the type of diabetes mellitus; the same type 2 diabetes mellitus is treated differently depending on the severity of the disease and the physical condition of each individual. Therefore, the treatment plan should be strictly controlled by the doctor.
If it is said that the “medication” carriage must be different from person to person, with specificity, and should not be followed blindly, then the experience exchange and sharing of the remaining four carriages is particularly important and should be strongly advocated. Health education is a precursor and is recognized as the key to success or failure in treatment. Sun Tzu’s Art of War says, “If you know yourself and your enemy, you will never lose a hundred battles.” For a disease, only by understanding its pathogenesis can you overcome it. Many hospitals are now offering health education seminars on diabetes. After all, patients who know how to actively acquire knowledge about diabetes are only a small part of the population, and the communication between patients after dinner becomes an important way to learn about diabetes. One patient’s knowledge of diabetes may make a group of friends around him the biggest beneficiary. Diet control is the foundation, diet should be regular, with perseverance scientific moderation. Those friends who have always had better control of their blood sugar often have a set of their own experience in diet. A diabetic friend in the countryside, listening to the old local herbalist said pumpkin, bitter melon, etc. have a role in lowering blood sugar. After personal practice, it is true. She told her friends around her about this discovery, and they all followed suit, and their blood sugar was reduced to varying degrees compared to before. Exercise therapy is a guarantee that exercise can promote the penetration of glucose into muscle cells and promote the use of sugar by muscles, thus lowering blood sugar, reducing urine sugar and reducing the need for oral medication or insulin. How to exercise without exertion or hypoglycemia can also play a role in lowering sugar, I believe that patients have a more profound experience, personal experience is more feasible. A friend who has been suffering from diabetes for nearly twenty years has almost no complications, which is amazing. Asked why, thanks to his physical exercise for more than ten years as a day. Every day after dinner in the park for two hours of senior dance, after retirement, but also adhere to every morning in the park skating, playing Tai Chi. Appropriate exercise and persistence have created this miracle. Blood sugar monitoring is the key, but this aspect is often neglected by the patients. Doctors order regular follow-ups to check blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin and complications, but patients think they are not yet symptomatic, so compliance with doctors’ orders is poor, and when symptoms appear, the disease often develops into an irreversible stage. The personal testimonies and painful lessons learned from patients are far more effective than the doctor’s advice.
In addition, people who are diagnosed with diabetes for the first time often have a heavy psychological burden, feel deprived of their right to live and freedom, lose confidence in life, and see no hope in life. They feel depressed, spend the whole day in sadness, and take a negative attitude towards treatment. There are also patients who are in denial and skeptical about the disease, refusing treatment and caring about everything. At this moment, compared with the psychological guidance and health education from doctors, the comfort and experience exchange among patients seems more direct and effective. The success stories of some old sugar patients can rekindle the hope of life of new sugar patients. The author once read such an example, France 31-year-old Delphine has been suffering from type 1 diabetes for 15 years, because type 1 diabetes patients can not produce their own insulin, must use drugs to maintain life, in the past 15 years, she has experienced 20440 injections, 30660 blood glucose monitoring, but she did not despair, she has participated in diving, half marathon, road cycling and other sports, and in early 2009, she and her husband began to work together to restore hope. and embarked on a year-long trip around the world with her husband in early 2009. Delphine says, “We have our own lives and dreams just like normal people, and despite the pain of the disease, we cannot give up our love of life, and I see diabetes as a travel companion with which to face challenges.” It is believed that these successful examples will make patients and friends get rid of their fears, get out of the psychological shadow, actively cooperate with the treatment and live like normal people.
In summary, I believe that the valuable experience accumulated by diabetic friends, their personal experience and the lessons that emerged during the treatment process, are taken out to share together, learn from each other and take warning, so that the patient friends will no longer be afraid of the disease, actively cooperate with the treatment and improve the quality of life, we should strongly advocate. However, the diagnosis of the disease, the specific treatment plan and the dosage of medication should be strictly in accordance with medical advice, scientific use of drugs, do not want to imitate others, resulting in irreversible consequences.