I know I haven't blogged for a while, but I have been preoccupied with job hunting, and also building a leanto on the back of the garage, (about which more later).


It seems that GP care varies greatly according to a report in the gradian. 1 in 4 diabetics aren't given the meds that they need? Well I bet that more than 1 in 4 diabetics don't understand their condition, don't bother researching it, and don't bother following medical advice. No, I don't have any actual stats to back that up, my stement is prely anecdotal. When I tell people that I am diabetic, they nearly always know someone else that is diabetic and that has 'problems'. A bit of digging by me and most times you can see that their diabetic friend isn't eating in a diabetic friendly way. It is so easy, just eat a normal '5 a day' healthy diet cutting out most fats and salt. There is no special diabetic diet, my diet is the same one YOU should be eating to be healthy and prolong your life. I have the VERY occasional MacD etc, but I am lucky, I am a NID (non insulin dependant), and so regulating my blood glucose is a bit easier for me, but by far and away most diabetics are NIDs, so it is easier for them too. Someone close was diagnised recently as 'possibly diabetic' and sent for tests. Their reaction? Binging on cream cakes just in case diabetes was later confirmed. O. M. G !! They won't help themselves, so why should Doctors help 'normal sane' people that won't help them selves?

Because they should, that's why, because we trust them to, and because we expect them to. They dispense drugs, sorry medicines, that we can't buy over the counter, and generally should check that there are no compatibility issues. But every packet of drugs that you get on prescription comes with an information sheet that almost no one seems to read. It tells you about the drug, what side effects it has been known to show in some patients and what to avoid. If you read it, you can you know, it is allowed, and then go on the internet (which is in most homes in the UK and is free at every library so EVERYONE has access to it), and search (google) about your condition and your drugs, you can be informed and can know more, and if you have side effects or questions, you can go back to your GP. But people don't.


Just googling diabetes will tell you that, especially if you are diabetic, that aspirin and statins are almost quintessentialy essential for a diabetics and probably most other people too. You had to have been staying with the Clangers on the Moon not to know, it's been in the news for weeks. Okay so you have to get statins from your GP, (try asking, if for some odd reason they haven't been prescribed to you as a diabetic), but aspirin? You can get it so cheaply at supermarkets these days. People who will spend pounds on vitamin tablets they don't need won't spend pence on aspirin that they do! It's crazy.


And how do I know it's all human nature and how even though I do the right thing about diabetes, that is not the only issue? Because I am human. Whilst working on building the lean to in the rain (yes, exactly!) I slipped fell off the scaffold, not far, only about 6 foot, and landed on my back and left arm. Nothing seems to be broken, but I stunned myself and couldn't breathe or move for a short while (that was scary, I thought I had broken my back for a while).
What normal sane man works on a scaffold in the rain?
Me, that's who, but at least my diabetes is under control, and it's probably my own stupidity that'll kill me, not diabetes, and certainly not my GP not giving me the right tablets, because he s doing his job and he is giving me all the right tablets. Good Man!