Don’t Be So Disciplined!

Apr 4, 2017
4,733 views

I don’t know how many times I have the opportunity to teach patients and health care providers that it’s not all about food. I was recently reminded of that when I overheard a dietitian, a CDE, go over a 4-week CGM report with a patient, male, 53 years of age, type 2 diabetes, non-obese, actually not even overweight.

They discussed the pre- and post-prandials and what the food intake was. I kept hearing the dietitian repeat, “It’s all about food.” I thought to myself, we should not be giving that message. Yes, there was a quick review of the list of meds early in the discussion, but I did not hear anything about the timing of the meds, the possible change in the meds or dosage of meds, nor was there mention of activity (exercise), nor sleep, and the list goes on. The discussion was all about food.

Lessons Learned:

When discussing diabetes management with patients, even though the first question from the patient may be, “What can I eat,” we need to make sure to teach that diabetes management is not all about food. Teach how it’s a balance of food, activity, the type of diabetes one has, which helps with deciding if medication will be needed, and if not now, possibly later. If type 1, definitely insulin now, and if you suspect LADA, talk about that as well as other aspects such as sleep, stress, etc. There are ways to discuss these without overwhelming someone.
No matter what your discipline, it’s not just about the discipline we work or specialize in. For example, a pharmacist will hopefully not just talk about the medications, but the actions, effects and side effects, how they work with food, timing, etc.
Diabetes takes comprehensive care and management. It’s not just about one’s discipline or specialty. Work with a multidisciplinary team that knows, understands, and verbalizes this to the patients.

Anonymous

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