When I was pregnant with my son, I had gestational diabetes. A few years later I was retested and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. It was no big surprise. Diabetes runs rampant in my family and I was quite overweight at 335 pounds. However, while it’s not a final diagnosis, it’s not something anyone wants to hear and you can’t help but feel a little guilty – while it’s not true, you ask yourself, did my poor choices lead me here? There is a lot of stigma that goes along with type 2 diabetes. What steps have you taken to manage your diabetes? Having gestational diabetes and through proper counseling and support, I knew the right diet for me – what was safe to eat and what would make my blood sugar spike. When I was pregnant, I had made a huge number of changes to what I ate and was very careful about measuring my blood sugar – so none of this was new. I even had green, yellow and red foods listed on a spreadsheet. I was prescribed metformin, like most newly diagnosed patients. Unfortunately, it did a number on my digestive system. I knew where every bathroom was in every store I went to. This was a horrible way to live. Still, for a few years, things were going well, but I was so sick of being a slave to the toilet. My quality of life was miserable. I was referred to a diabetes specialist and switched to a different medication with fewer side effects. But after about three years, the diabetes educator at my practice, who is also my pharmacist, started seeing a worrying trend of higher blood sugars. He suggested another drug, a newer drug that’s easy and convenient to take, and that’s what I’ve been taking for about four years. I no longer need to take anything else for my diabetes as it has kept my sugars under control. How has your life improved since your diagnosis and treatment? In total, since my diagnosis, I have lost 140 pounds. This has had a huge impact on all aspects of my life. I am much more active. I’m playing rugby again at 49 with 20-year-olds, tackling them on the field. I can climb to the top of a mountain. The first time I did this, I took this big breath because I couldn’t believe I was there. I think the most important moment for me was when my son was able to put his arms around me. That made a lot of sense. At work, I don’t have to excuse myself from client meetings in the middle of a sentence to run to the bathroom – that’s big! When I travel for business, I can run from one terminal to another and show up on a plane and not be sweaty. I don’t have problems sleeping anymore. I don’t snore anymore. I had fatty liver disease – that’s gone. In general, I have a lot more energy and confidence. This also helps me in my work: I feel better about myself. What could your benefits program do differently to make your experience smoother? It would be nice to get the medicine I’m on now without jumping through hoops. I had to get certification that I had taken the previous medications. I had to send a history of my A1C levels and show a trend that they were going up. If I had just been able to get the drug and be covered for it, I would have felt like I was more “human” than a lab rat. Yes, the new drug is more expensive than the first two, but I don’t take anything else or go to the doctor for anything else anymore. My overall health has improved to the point where I am no longer a burden on the health care system. So why wouldn’t they cover this? If this medication had been available to me right after my diagnosis, think how much healthier I could have been. Mental health support through diagnosis and treatment should also be available. Some medications change you radically and even a good result can come with challenges. I think having an anonymous support line is very important to help people deal with the mental health spillover from a physical health issue. I think benefit plans should trust the medical profession to recommend the best treatment for a particular person and not make it so difficult to get approved for coverage. Don’t deny people new drugs because of cost. Maybe you have a health spending account that people can choose to spend on a drug that isn’t part of the plan. If the health and well-being of your employees is important to you, you should make room for new drugs once they are proven to work well.
