I love to talk about Diabetes. I try hard to make sure everyone I come across is made aware on something new about Diabetes they did not know or had misinformation on. I wrote a personal expository essay on how exhausting Diabetes is. I hope you all like it.
I could have wrote for ages, but I need this to be short and sweet to meet the requirements of my instructor. I started with 16 pages, and slowly cut it down over the past month to 3 pages! I hope it does what I intended it to do. I do not have my final grade back yet so not sure if it accomplished what I wanted. I did meet with my teacher about this paper in the drafting stages and she did say she was very interested and never read a paper like this before.
Life with Diabetes
is Exhausting
Many
people consider medication and medical technology as cures, not a treatment.
Type One Diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks the cells in
the pancreas, which produces insulin, a hormone that helps a body change sugars
into fuel. Without its own insulin production, a person with Type One Diabetes
needs insulin, through an insulin pump, which is not a cure for Type One
Diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that demands more of our money and energy.
Life with diabetes is not made peaceful
or normal with insulin treatment. Living with Type One Diabetes, I require
insulin 24 hours a day seven days a week until the day I die. I preprogram my
pump to provide a fixed rate delivered every hour. This method, basal insulin
is persistent delivery all day and remarkably similar to how a normal working
pancreas functions. When my blood glucose is high, or I eat, I would need a
bolus. To determine how much my body needs for insulin, I need to check my
blood glucose several times a day. I check my blood glucose upon waking up,
before every meal, two hours after every meal, every two hours if I have not
eaten recently, before starting the car to drive, and if I think my blood
glucose may be high or low. Without testing, I do not know what my blood
glucose level is. This can be extremely dangerous, and life threatening as I
can have too much or too little insulin. In addition to blood testing, every
three months, I need to have a blood test called an A1C, a 90-day average of
blood glucose, and I have to see my endocrinologist, my diabetes nurse
educator, and my nutritionist. The team downloads my insulin pump and meter readings
to review and makes suggestions for adjustments in my insulin dose ratios. This
can become difficult because of your body’s needs for insulin changes with
daily life, aging, weight gain/loss, stress, and illness.
Insulin and supplies are
expensive. I cannot reuse insulin or its supplies. The brand of insulin I use,
Apidra, averages $150 a vial. I use four vials a month. My insulin pump costs
$6,000-7,000 depending on where purchased. Then the infusion sets (like an IV, but
instead of in your vein, it is in your fat) are $120 for a box of 10. The
reservoirs (what holds the insulin) for my pump are $10 for a box of 10. I use
15 infusion sets and reservoirs per month. Blood glucose meters range from $20
to $100 per meter. Testing strips average $1 per test strip and I use 400 test
strips per month. My continuous glucose monitor costs $1,200 to get the system,
and the cost for four sensors is $400. One sensor lasts seven days. Insurance
for me covers these costs at 80%, but I still spend $200-400 a month.
Diabetes research funding is
limited. New technologies are continually released in the diabetes field. There
are many pharmaceutical and durable medical supply companies involved with
diabetes. These companies are constantly researching how to make a stronger
item, like blood glucose monitors and insulin pumps. In my days of using an
insulin pump, on average every year at least, another product comes out, or a
business releases an updated version of their product. Instead of making better
products, which have little new differences, I feel more money should be put
into research for a cure.
With a cure for diabetes, many
jobs will be lost. Diabetes is an epidemic, and because of that there are a lot
of jobs in the diabetes market. Doctors, nurses, insurance companies,
pharmaceutical companies, and pharmacies, to name a few, are affected if there
is a cure. Curing diabetes will cut jobs and money brought into these areas as
people with diabetes will no longer need their services.
Life with diabetes is particularly
tiresome. It is remarkably easy for me to get overwhelmed and just want to give
up. Even though diabetes is part of my life and I may seem like it does not interfere,
it is a lot of work to keep myself healthy. Besides worrying about testing,
insulin dosing, and doctor appointments, I also have to worry about where the
money will come from to buy the supplies I need. Instead of improving medical
technology, attention should be on finding a cure for diabetes.
