Tuesday, June 7, 2016

I Know You Are But What Am I?

I've struggled with understanding my diagnosis for years.  In the past I have wished for a specific label, hoping that it would guide my treatment.  If you have read my postings here you will see that I looked into whether I have MODY.  This was after spending a couple years asking for the proper tests to see if I actually had type 1 diabetes, those tests came back negative.  So I now have come to an acceptance that I have type 2 diabetes which essentially means that I have "diabetes of unknown cause."

The trouble is that this diagnosis is not sufficient to assure that I get proper treatment for my diabetes.  It was six years ago that I started on my (own initiative) managing my diabetes with insulin.  This was only after exhausting my options and concluding that as someone with type 2 I would be denied insulin until I basically ended up in the hospital.  And here it is six years later and I have spent basically the entire time with a treatment regime that is indistinguishable from a type 1 treatment plan.  And for at least the last two years my endo has repeatedly called my (and coded me) as a type 1.  After all these years I have come to accept myself as a type 2, I have resisted accepting a change in diagnosis, it seems to not be supported by specific evidence and I feel like I am abandoning all my brethren who have type 2.