Hypoglycemia Unawareness- The Reason I Blog

                      I have been thinking a lot recently about why I initially started by blog over a year ago. There is quite a few reasons and one of the biggest is because when I was first diagnosed with Hypoglycemia Unawareness I could not find any accurate information online. All the articles and studies all said the same thing that run your blood sugars high for two week with not lows and you will get your feeling back of lows. I found that for me that was not the case. I know the Dr. then told me that we need to do that longer than two weeks and I would start to feel lows again. Sure enough that was incorrect. Then my Dr. said that an insulin pump would really help and solve most of my issues with lows. In the meantime while waiting for the insulin pump to arrive I was told to eat snacks everyday at certain times which really seemed to help. Then I started on the insulin pump which I really liked but I was still having tons of lows after a couple of months. They told me at that time that I would not need snacks anymore because I have the Insulin pump. So I stopped the snacks and sure enough where I used to have my snacks I had EMS visits. I know then the Dr. said I needed a CGM but back then it was not covered by insurance so I bought one out of pocket which went with my Medtronic 722 pump but I found the CGM was terrible and not accurate and did not thing to catch all my lows. So then I stopped using the Medtronic CGM and started to look for other options. I know I told my Dr.'s that I was getting a diabetic alert dog and they told me I did not need one so I changed Dr.'s after all of the inaccurate information I was given. I think sometimes the Dr.'s can miss the bigger pictures of a patients safety.
          

                      The whole reason for Duchess is the need to prevent me from having so many lows and have less seizures which I have so far. I know I went against medical advice and had to find my own way which I am fine with but at times it is really shocking at some of the information on Hypoglycemia Unawareness. I have been told by most of the people with Hypoglycemia Unawareness that running blood sugars higher for two weeks did not work for them very well either. Most of the patients I have meet over the years have had experiences like mine and decided that that is how their life was going to be and moved on. I guess because mine had spiraled out fo control so quickly I knew I would not keep a job unless I found a solution to my problem and Duchess was it. I know now I have a CGM and use it as well but I know that a CGM will never replace Duchess unless they improve drastically because even today my CGM does not register all the lows I have experienced. Which is interesting. I know that for several years that my condition was very unstable and now it has really started to become more stable again with a lot of work and Duchess by my side. I know I wish they had more information for what you can do when you just can't get the feeling back of lows which quite a few people will not. I know through the years I had never heard my Dr.'s even discuss the possibility of the fact you could lose the ability to feel lows. I am really happy that I am writing about the options that I have found because when I was diagnosed I was extremely scared. So I am hoping that people will find my blog and realize that sometimes you won't get the feeling back but yes you can manage life through several tools. I am hoping I have accomplished this and more. I also found even more reasons to blog as well that were unexpected. I have so enjoyed my time blogging.